At one time people marvelled at the notion of having music accompaniment in a lift while you travelled to the next floor. I recall the first time I encountered this example of muzac. It seemed so pointless.
It remains one of life's minor puzzles - why should we need a bland sound track to ride a lift?
Is it to soothe the anxious as they catch a ride in a small box suspended over a long drop? Did marketing people decide that a lift was a tiny new niche in which to lull customers into feeling that for a few fleeting seconds they have their own soundtrack?
I must admit I went through a phase ofthinking that if I ever won Lotto I would hire a troupe of musicians to follow me about, playing appropriate theme music asthey do in the movies. If danger loomed, I would be alerted to it by a menacing riff from behind me. If I was about to meet a special friend, then this would be announced with a lilting waltz. I realised that although I would better prepared for life's surprises by the shadowing soundtrack, it would drive everyone I know absolutely batty. I moved on to simply humming theme music that fitted with events around me.
This is only slightly more socially acceptable than singing along to something with headphones on - and we all know how bad that can be!
Now sounds are around us everywhere: in shops, the mall, restaurants, hotel foyers, leaking out of people's headphones on the bus or train, often punctured with a chorus of cellphone ringtones. The classic Victoria Ave sound is the passing car with boom box reverberating of the buildings. I always try to peek inside the cars to see if driver and passengers have blood coming out of their ears.
In terms of media, including the internet, the deluge of white noise makes it too hard to distinguish the critical from the mundane.
This plays well to the world of politics as it means most people don't read the background pieces that examine the implications of policy or the how decisions are made.
Often it is a deliberately played strategy of the spin doctors to put out announcements of unpopular policy decisions in the midst of distracting news stories as they are aware they are more likely to remain hidden from scrutiny.
Around Christmas is always a popular time to announce something that will prove unpopular with voters as most of us are too busy with festive preparations to notice. MPs getting a pay rise is a recurring example.
The answer may lie in finding more silence. Just as in music, it is the spaces between the notes that get our attention, listening for what is not being said or what is missing among the blather can be rewarding.
Terry Sarten is a writer, musician and social worker currently in voluntary exile in Sydney. Feedback: tgs@inspire.net, nz or www.telsarten.com
