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Article: `Surreal History' Of Mood Music Is an Easy Read
- Article from:
- Chicago Sun-Times
- Article date:
- March 27, 1994
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 1994 Chicago Sun-Times. (Hide copyright information)
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In Joseph Lanza's new book Elevator Music: A Surreal History of
Muzak, Easy-Listening, and Other Moodsong (St. Martin's Press), he
makes a case for Orpheus, house band for Jason and the Argonauts, as
the first Muzakian: "His melodies blocked out the intoxicating chorus
of Sirens intent on pulling the minds of listeners into a calamitous
unknown."
Lanza also notes that Muzak was anticipated both in fiction
(Aldous Huxley's "synthetic music" filled space with "agreeable
languor") and art movements like Germany's Gebrauchmusik (utility
music) and France's musique d'ameublement (furniture music).
Clearly a fan - Lanza writes that "Muzak and mood music are, in
many respects, aesthetically ...