That Seattle Muzak Sound

Decoder Ring

Slate Podcasts

Documentary, History, Society & Culture

4.6 • 2K Ratings

🗓️ 29 June 2021

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

If you love the show and want to support us, consider joining Slate Plus. With Slate Plus you can binge the whole season of Decoder Ring right now, plus ad free podcasts, bonus episodes, and much more. On this episode, we explore the misunderstood history of Muzak, formerly the world’s foremost producers of elevator music. Out of the technological innovations of World War I, Muzak emerged as one of the most significant musical institutions of the 20th century, only to become a punching bag as the 1960’s began to turn public perceptions of popular music on its head. By the 80’s and 90’s, Muzak was still the butt of jokes, and was trying to figure out a new direction as they happened to employ many players in Seattle's burgeoning grunge scene. This is the story of how different ideas about pop music butted heads throughout the 20th century, including inside Muzak’s offices. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	In the early 1990s, Sarah DeBell was a musician living in New York City, waiting tables to make
0:11.5	ends meet.
0:12.5	They were playing Nirvana Never Mind over the house speakers.
0:22.9	It was just like, what is this?
0:26.9	It was just heavy and driving and powerful and pop.
0:30.4	I just loved the music.
0:32.6	Nirvana, lead by its angel-faced lead singer, Kurt Cobain, released its second album, Never
0:38.4	Mind, in September of 1991.
0:41.4	Months later, it would replace Michael Jackson's dangerous on the top of the billboard charts.
0:46.8	The type of music Nirvana made, Grunge Music, had arrived.
0:51.4	Nirvana was from Seattle, which was also home to the Grunge band's Pearl Jam Soundgarden
1:08.2	Mud Honey and Allyson Chains.
1:10.7	These groups were united by a sound, a city, and an anti-corporate sensibility, which didn't
1:16.1	stop companies from immediately seizing on Grunge as a great way to sell things.
1:21.0	I always love the music, because the music itself was authentic.
1:25.8	But then you see it on TV commercials.
1:29.1	They'd have these models with flannel shirts tied around their waist and Doc Martin's.
1:34.3	All of a sudden, I'm thirsty, so I go to their refrigerator.
1:40.3	I just know how it's going to taste.
1:43.7	It was just like me rolling my eyes and saying, oh, here we go again.
1:48.5	Sarah, who had moved to Seattle herself by this point, decided she wanted to lampoon
1:53.4	the co-optation and commercialization of Grunge.
	...

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