A broken soundtrack

I was of course delighted when I was sent on a business trip to Silesia and found I was able to book my seat online. However, it turns out that this service isn’t always fit for purpose, since a window seat might turn out to be next to a wall and the carriages don’t always travel in the declared direction; but in principle, let’s agree that this is a great idea. If you want to do some work in transit, you can select a seat with a table; while those who need to constantly stretch out their legs and worry about being obstructed by other travellers can choose an aisle seat. When I made my way to my seat, which was also supposed to be one shrouded in blessed silence, I realised that I didn’t feel blessed at all – and that this was largely my fault. As I began to open the paper wrapping of a pastry (I can’t spend any more than five minutes travelling by any means of transport without feeling hungry), I began to wonder whether the terrible rustling noise wasn’t breaking the rules of the train operator. And why did I actually need to be in that seat in the first place? I hadn’t brought my laptop and had no need to concentrate and, as usual, I was blocking out all the external noise with my earphones. Obviously, I can recall a few awful journeys that were disturbed by the noise of people snoring, TikTok videos, other people’s music, squealing pets, intimate telephone conversations and someone clipping their nails (true story). Despite all this, the solution of giving myself some peace from all such hazards suddenly seemed to me to have been rather elitist. I like taking public transport, but at the first opportunity I had opted to snub the masses and isolate myself from the noise of the hoi-polloi. Or maybe the problem is that it’s just really hard to find a quiet place these days?

Quiet periods are becoming more of a feature in shops to help neuro-atypical people who experience noise overload to do their shopping in conditions that don’t overload their senses, I wonder if it wouldn’t be better for us all if this was the default option? In particular, the muzak in discount groceries is enough to completely zombify us before we even reach the bread counter. The noise they call stock music, which is purchased for a small fee and mainly warbles on about love, betrayal and hope, is meant to form an almost imperceptible background to our decisions over whether to buy Greek yoghurt or Icelandic skyr, royal toilet paper or premium. Of course, there are studies that show we purchase more when music is piped above our heads, but isn’t this maybe due to the fact that it encourages us to frantically shove everything into our shopping baskets in a panic so that we can escape the store as quickly as possible?

When it comes to offices, another trend has emerged, which is to provide buildings with their own soundtrack. A few popular retail brands and restaurants have adopted a similar approach and we can even find ourselves humming their jingles to ourselves when we wake up in the middle of the night. Audio-branding is meant to create a strong association between the tune and a particular company and thus make us feel that it is a familiar part of our lives. Melodies cleverly uploaded into our brains through adverts are designed to make us feel secure and comfortable. But offices seem to have gone one step further. In one complex now being built in Warsaw, music that has been specifically composed for the building is to be played. It is meant to be the first project of its kind in Poland, but we have been hearing inviting but rather forgettable music in office lobbies for a long time, while in working areas minimalistic compositions are played to slow down our heart rates to help us to concentrate. Louder and more intense music can generally be found in the common areas where we eat, gossip and hang out. The composers of such tracks openly admit to the tricks that are employed to influence people’s behaviour and moods.

For some reason, the algorithms used in internet marketing have recently been bombarding me with adverts for modern earplugs that look like small wireless headphones. The choice is between models that completely block out noise (to use when we sleep) or only partially (for when we want to work on the train but still hear any possible evacuation announcements). Even though I’ve never felt the need to buy such hi-tech earplugs, I wonder why they might be so popular. Maybe some peace and quiet is just harder to find these days. As we all know, the price of a product in scarce supply but in great demand can only grow.