Safeway Playlist Anomalies
It's a given that, when we enter the Gap, American Apparel, Starbucks, or corner bar, the ambient music has been precisely selected to encourage our shopping and spending. Muzak was once based in Seattle, and its ethos lingers in every retail environment: Make the customer feel comfortable, hip, someone who belongs to the milieu. If the mood is right, the wallets and purses will open. Companies like XM, Sirius, and DMX are also important players in this musical-retail nexus. But grocery stores? I usually block out whatever cheesy '70s and '80s pop--usually by groups with low royalty rates--is being pumped in while I pick through the produce aisle. 
Generally speaking, I can block out the cognitive dissonance: "Save It for Later," by the English Beat, in a Starbucks in Maple Valley? Okay, it's an oldie, and so am I. But when I recently heard the Clash's "Should I Stay or Should I Go?" at my LQA Safeway, I had to say (under my breath), WTF? Has everything once punk and rebellious now been co-opted? An instrumental version of the Beatles' "Blackbird" I can understand. But the artists behind Sandinista and London Calling, the original recording? Is nothing sacred? This from Mick Jones and Joe Strummer, who wrote "Lost in the Supermarket"? All of which makes me wonder--what's the most dissonant, thoroughly wrong recording you've heard in a retail environment?
6 comment(s)
Ed Whitson says:
Jeez, it's just the Clash. It's not like you heard Tangerine Dream playing in the Safeway.
Posted On: Sunday, Jun. 14 2009 @ 12:30PM
Hannah Levin says:
I wouldn't say it was "wrong", but I was very disoriented to here the Knife playing in Ken's Market the other day.
Posted On: Sunday, Jun. 14 2009 @ 1:22PM
Brenda says:
Great Balls of Fire- original-
Crown Hill Safeway 7:30 in the morning. Maybe to keep everyone awake?
Posted On: Monday, Jun. 15 2009 @ 4:10PM
Chris Estey says:
The Clash were in a constant struggle against being "sell outs" from their inception, but that also created weird impulses for exposure within their time together and since then. Seeing Joe go from radio station to radio station in "Let's Rock Again" earnestly chatting up dull young DJs was both beautiful and a little depressing.
University Bookstore plays incredibly cool overhead music sometimes, or at least it's a lot of stuff I happen to own. The strangest I guess would be "Golden Brown" by The Stranglers, just because what it's so bluntly about. And it is a beautiful song, just so forthright about the joys of heroin use.
Posted On: Monday, Jun. 15 2009 @ 7:06PM
Stacy Jackson says:
I worked in a grocery store for years; it's also where I learned of the Royalettes, anyway, they'd play "Alone Again Or" by LOVE and I always had to shush people during the trumpet solo. " No talking!!" "Have some respect!!"
Posted On: Wednesday, Jun. 17 2009 @ 12:09PM
Colin Winkler says:
I believe it was at Safeway that I met Kenny G. Soothed by his saxophone solos while amidst a split-up. "Going Home" brought me much relief.
Thank you, Pleasanton HQ!
Posted On: Friday, Sep. 25 2009 @ 10:04AM