You've heard of the Lo-Fi Girl who helps you work, or those playlists that are supposed to help you in the gym. There are thousands of them out there. For every activity, every stage of the day, there's a soundtrack to match. There are even playlists for cleaning, getting depressed, going to the toilet, having a snack with friends, or for your indoor plants. But does this music really increase our motivation? In reality, it's mostly music made to create a sound atmosphere, to break the silence, and not really to be listened to. But this music still represents millions of stream hours and a very big business. And if it's such a phenomenon, maybe it's because it's succeeding in changing people's behaviour. And if I were to tell you that there really is such a thing as music designed to manipulate you, it's called Muzak.

Generative AI steps into this arena with the ability to fine-tune music creation, tailoring tracks precisely designed to enhance your mood or productivity, taking the concept of Muzak to a new level of personalization and effectiveness.

The soundtrack of everyday life

Muzak was invented by George Squier, an American soldier during the First World War. Basically, he just proposed a service for broadcasting music over the telephone. But then radio arrived in homes, and Muzak's business was thrown into turmoil. But Georges saw it coming and just in time he abandoned the idea of broadcasting to people's homes and concentrated instead on businesses and public places. His aim from then on was to distribute his music in places where people worked and consumed, such as offices, factories, restaurants and shopping centres, and it was a success. When George Squire died in 1937, the company was even bought by Warner Bros.

Today it may seem commonplace to have music in supermarkets, but back then it was a revolution. Before that, all you could hear were the sounds of trolleys rolling away. The Muzak found its raison d'être, becoming the soundtrack to everyday life by filling the sound space, and all without us really paying attention. In restaurants, shopping centres, offices, factories and hospitals, music is everywhere, all the time. Even in lifts, hence the expression "lift music". Today it's a pejorative term, but in the 1930s it was a social achievement. They found a way to lighten the atmosphere in places where there might be a little discomfort, like when you're waiting for long seconds in a lift with strangers. Muzac is well aware of this, and he takes advantage of the obligation to install intercoms in lifts to convince manufacturers to add a small loudspeaker that will play soft, relaxing music at a fairly slow tempo.

And that's when Muzak thought, if our music can soothe people? Can't we go further? Can't we change their behaviour?

Psychology and capitalism

We finally arrived after the 2nd World War, and some studies learn that their music reduces absenteeism and delays the departure of employees at the end of the day. Nice, you're a boss, you take out a Muzak subscription and people stay longer and work more efficiently! So, yes, but not so fast. Today we know that these studies should be taken with a grain of salt, not to say that they're bogus. But at the time, it prompted the company to fund research that led to a method registered by the brand and called Stimulus Progression. Basically, these studies succeeded in identifying the natural rhythms of employees, who alternate more or less productive phases of the day depending on how tired they are or when they have eaten.

We're in the 60s and popular music is becoming a means of making cultural claims by taking on political and social symbols. We listened to Bob Dylan, the Beatles, the Rolling Stone and the whole hippy movement. Young people's music carries messages. So, inevitably, the younger generation saw Muzac for what it was: the music of the consumer society. And that was the beginning of the end for Muzak. The competition started too. His idea worked so well that other companies started offering the same service.

In the 90s, Muzak was plagued by bad press, and associations formed to call for a ban on broadcasting this kind of music. At the same time, Ted Nugent, an American musician, offered to buy Muzak for 10 million dollars to put it out of business, believing it to be an evil force at work in society.  After several takeovers and mergers, Muzak was declared bankrupt in 2009. It was bought out by the Mood Media group in 2011, which has since maintained its activities as well as its heritage, since the company still holds a catalogue of over 3 million tracks.

There are still playlists available for major brands. These playlists are timed to alternate different types of music in order to regulate behaviour according to the crowd, with high rhythms at peak times and softer tempos the rest of the time. Do the test: go into any McDonald's and listen to the music playing. If you're there during rush hour, there's a good chance you'll hear pop, something energetic and fast-moving. The rest of the time, it's mostly quiet stuff like tripop, for example.

Brainwashing

The studies carried out at the time with Muzac and everything were bogus. But that hasn't stopped other researchers from looking into the matter much more recently. Because today, while the music we listen to is no longer intended to manipulate us or change our behaviour, it can still influence us. This is what the French psychologist Nicolas Gueguen has shown. He wrote a book in which he showed that playing classical music in shops selling wine would multiply the price paid by customers by 2.5. They don't buy more, but they buy more expensive bottles, as if their brains were making a link between the music they hear and the quality of what they want. And he's not the only one working on this. Tests have also been carried out on the tempos and volume of music played in shops, proving that music does influence our behaviour in a consumer context.

Today, no company openly proposes to compose music to manipulate people. But that's what you find in the automatic playlists offered by your streaming platforms. Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer, ... So there is a heritage, and now you know where it all comes from.

Now imagine what generative AI can do. You run a supermarket and you're running a big promotion on sausages? AI can generate a caliente latino music that will make you crave for BBQ! Once you've grab your best merguez sausages, you head over to the wine aisle: the AI will accompany you with lively classical music that will guide your choices towards the best quality red wines on the shelf!