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[OrigNES]

Ok so all day we have the run of the stereo, my coworker and myself. But I have to say the worst he ever put on was Dashboard Confessional something about listening to it makes me just want to sit in the corner and do nothing all day. Anyone else have coworkers that play something you aren't into.

[Landstander]

Not a coworker, but one of my dormmates plays Soulja Boy all the time. It's the worst thing imaginable. I'm not really a fan of rap/hip-hop in general, but I can tolerate and even enjoy some of it. Not this. I've probably now heard that damn album more times than ones I actually really like. It makes me so glad I go to college about 15 minutes away from home, so I can get away from it on the weekends, "college experience" be damned. If the college experience is listening to Soulja Boy, I want no part of it.

[Liz]

Both of my jobs now (I work retail) have company-chosen soundtracks that play on a constant loop while the store is open. If you work a long shift you are liable to hear just about every song at least eight times, which gets really old when it happens day after day after day.

The job I had before that I washed dishes, so we chose whatever station we wanted on the radio. Those were the days...

[amok]

Both of my jobs now (I work retail) have company-chosen soundtracks that play on a constant loop while the store is open. If you work a long shift you are liable to hear just about every song at least eight times, which gets really old when it happens day after day after day.

I worked retail just after 'By The Way' by RHCP came out. It was every second song. For 9 months. 9 months.

Fuck ASDA and fuck the red hot chili peppers.

[amok]

Yeah I blame my rampant alcoholism and music snobbery on that one year alone. It was awful.

[calenlass]

Retail places generally play obnoxious soft-rock and easy listening because there are a ton of marketing studies that show that a) most shoppers are women, generally, and b) Michael Bolton songs make women spend money.



On a slightly related note, I have to go back to work at the craft store again soon. Hrrrrnnnng.

[OrigNES]

We had a tape deck which had It's Alive by the Ramones stuck in it,

See now that I wouldn't mind so much but playing Dashboard followed by Blink 182 and then some Good Charlotte, kinda kills music for the day for me.

[the-artful-dodger-rodger]

I also work in retail with a company-appoved-owned soudtrack which at least is 10 songs.

[PacoSees]

We're not allowed to listen to music.

Every once in a while, we get a new secretary that asks if she can bring a stereo in to add a little "life" to the place and everyone chuckles.

Then we cry.

[cmalberg]

I worked with a guy named Pascal who absolutely loves Gwen Stephanie. If it weren't for the fact that it was a 250 pound, six foot Haitian singing "Rich Girl," I would have gone insane.

[calenlass]

Every time I hear that song I want to put on a yarmulke and a fake beard and sing it right.

[imapiratearg]

My coworker plays stuff like Rob Zombie, Nickelback, and stuff like that.  The moment she leaves, I start playing The Weakerthans, and all the pent up rage of suffering through that rubbish is flushed from my body.

[Liz]

Retail places generally play obnoxious soft-rock and easy listening because there are a ton of marketing studies that show that a) most shoppers are women, generally, and b) Michael Bolton songs make women spend money.

Luckily both of my workplaces don't completely go for that. Payless (yeah, shut up) plays mostly newer pop music. We get our fair share of Justin Timberlake and Fergie and that kind of thing, which I guess isn't much of a step up from Michael Bolton. Bath and Body Works, however, will usually have some pretty good CDs that mix up artists like Michael Buble and the Beach Boys with some instrumental/techno stuff and, of course, Justin Timberlake. Because everyone seems to love him.

Next time I work at both places I will pay closer attention to what we are listening to. Usually I just tune it out.

[sandman263]

I consider myself extremely lucky - I work for a tech/media company, there are a LOT of nationalities there, and most of us (in my circles, at least), have complementary tastes - I've picked up a lot of great stuff I'd have never heard before, and have managed to spread the word of some Irish bands. In fact, a few of my friends were either music journalists in their home countries, or write part-time for local music magazines.

[mberan42]

Seriously, no jury in the civilised world would convict you.

Ahh, but do we actually live in a civilised world?

I'm lucky in that I have my own office and can choose what to listen to - my mp3 player is on non-stop. I seriously don't think I'd be able to work without music.

[Johnny C]

Every time I hear that song I want to put on a yarmulke and a fake beard and sing it right.

A recent slip of the tongue by one of my friends has led to a running joke that we're developing a musical called "Schindler On The Roof."

Townspeople: Schindler, get off that roof!

SCHINDLER, on the roof, opens his coat and unfurls the LIST,
which unrolls all the way down to the ground

[kablaaamo]

Both of the jobs I worked when I was in high school had the same radio station on in the background the entire time I was there.

It was one of those stations that was like "BobFM" or "FrankFM" or whatever the male name was. Basically the ones that claim to play 'everything' when really they play 'everything terrible'. I remember near the end of when I was working there, Maroon 5 was a super big deal...I seriously want to throttle someone every time I hear that shit falsetto for the chorus of "She Will Be Loved" after that.

Someone said something about bad work music bringing about their alcoholism and music snobbery? Yeah, me too.

[TrialAndTerror]

I worked retail just after 'By The Way' by RHCP came out. It was every second song. For 9 months. 9 months.

Fuck ASDA and fuck the red hot chili peppers.

ASDA FM has branched out a bit, they play a fair selection of shit nowadays. Whenever Modest Mouse's last album came out they played Dashboard about once a day which was ok. Our store mostly turns the radio off as soon as customers come in for some reason though. I'll agree with your closing statement.

[Inlander]

I'm lucky in that I have my own office and can choose what to listen to - my mp3 player is on non-stop.

It's similar for me in that I work from home so get to play whatever the fuck I want.

Hmm . . .Baby Dayliner time, I think.

[sean]

Wow, I feel lucky compared to you guys.

I work as a lifeguard, so while in the guard office, us workers pretty much have control over the radio. My co-workers are also pretty apathetic about music and will listen to whatever, so I can just put on whatever I feel like listening to.
I actually got one of my friends obsessed with the Isis/Aereogramme split that way. It's nice.

[leperphiliac]

I worked for about a year in an office that constantly played some adult alternative channel on satellite radio. It was such a mind numbingly boring job that I couldn't help but notice what was on the radio, all the time. It got on my nerves so much I actually sat around making lists of the songs which annoyed me the most. I think Maroon 5 and Uncle Kracker topped the list. One good thing about the experience was that since then I appreciate good music a lot more.

[E. Spaceman]

I work at a call centre for tech support. We are not allowed to listen to music but i've spent many a day listening to one earbud. What is sometimes great and sometimes awful is the hold music. Normally we are not subject to it like the poor bastads who call in, but if during a transfer there is hold time we get it just the same. It is actually interesting to listen to, some departments have a markedly better taste than others. Maintenance always has the same crappy easy listening loop that is actually very unnerving for me. Billing has soothing music and so on, but Second Tier is special, under normal circumstances, the customer will never hear STS hold music, and for this reason it has sometimes really odd selections. Things i remember hearing have been Ryan Adams, the Ted Leo cover of Since u Been Gone and today Planet Rock by Afrikaa Bambaataa.

[BrittanyMarie]

I'm pretty sure you guys who get the rampant alcoholism and music snobbery are doing it wrong!

When I worked at the factory, it was in a town with zero stoplights. The closest town WITH stoplights was about 75 miles away. THUS there was one (one!) radio station that could come in, and it played country. I listened to a whole heck of a lot of Gretchen Wilson and Big and Rich and other really shitty country music, but at the end of the day, that's all it is! You can make Redneck Woman kind of fun if you turn your brain off. I think I learned to appreciate music maybe a little bit more because of that experience. I know that sounds contradictory, but they were smart to make it easy to sing along to.

Though now one of my coworkers has totally awesome taste in music (he listens to more kick ass old timey sounding country than I do), and two have really generic mainstream rap taste. I can get down to both Townes Van Zant and a rap where the lyrics to the chorus go "I'm crispy! So crispy!"

[Jimmy the Squid]

I work in a market research call centre so we don't get any music. Before that I worked at a mobile phone store and instead of music there was a tv that played the same 2 minute advertisement one a continuous loop for a month at a time. Previous to that I worked at a bottle shop and there was no music there. Music played over the neighbouring supermarkets PA would leak through though so I would be forced to have Fergie and Avril Levinge played at me for hours on end. My first job though was at a sports shoe warehouse store. In the quiet moments I would be able to discretely rock out to Pearl Jam or A Perfect Circle (anything else would get turned off by the manager) but for the most part my co-workers would change it to Ashanti or Backstreet Boys or something equally banal. That job was shit.

[valley_parade]

When I worked at a restaurant, we generally just listened to Motorhead in the kitchen all night.

[PacoSees]

I work at a call centre for tech support. We are not allowed to listen to music but i've spent many a day listening to one earbud. What is sometimes great and sometimes awful is the hold music. Normally we are not subject to it like the poor bastads who call in, but if during a transfer there is hold time we get it just the same. It is actually interesting to listen to, some departments have a markedly better taste than others. Maintenance always has the same crappy easy listening loop that is actually very unnerving for me. Billing has soothing music and so on, but Second Tier is special, under normal circumstances, the customer will never hear STS hold music, and for this reason it has sometimes really odd selections. Things i remember hearing have been Ryan Adams, the Ted Leo cover of Since u Been Gone and today Planet Rock by Afrikaa Bambaataa.

Lucky bastard.  There's only so many times I can hear the Diablo II themes before I get "short" with the person next to me.

[Alex C]

We're not allowed to listen to music.

Every once in a while, we get a new secretary that asks if she can bring a stereo in to add a little "life" to the place and everyone chuckles.

Then we cry.

I would kill a man for the right to not have people listen to music around me at work, but I find I'm in the minority there, unfortunately.

[bbqrocks]

Some listen to metalcore/rock, a couple listen to rap and one or two to trance/house.

[amok]

ASDA FM has branched out a bit, they play a fair selection of shit nowadays. Whenever Modest Mouse's last album came out they played Dashboard about once a day which was ok. Our store mostly turns the radio off as soon as customers come in for some reason though. I'll agree with your closing statement.

I don't know if Dashboard is a Modest Mouse song or you meant Dashboard Confessional but either way I would've committed seppuku within a week. I feel kinda lucky I left when it was just RHCP now.

Let's just say fuck retail in general eh.

[Katherine]

I used to work with a woman who listened to Celine Dion.  Loudly.  And before her was the one who listened to Billy Joel.  Loudly.  All. Day. Long.

Currently, I listen to music at my desk even though I share an office with two other people.  I censor what I listen to relatively carefully to make sure its non-offensive, and keep it at a pretty low volume so hopefully only I can hear it.  I had my computer speakers plugged into my iPod for a while, and it was heavenly, until I broke the speakers.  Now its back to Last.fm all day.

[Alex C]

I can definitely agree about the retail settings being a harsh mistress. My sister works at Walgreens and can make frighteningly accurate estimations of the exact time based on what songs are playing. On the upside, she says that there's a few shitty songs that she's developed an immunity to due to a combination of over exposure and positive association. She's pretty sick of Sheryl Crow under most circumstances, but at least it means they're roughly 10 minutes from closing.

[PacoSees]

We're not allowed to listen to music.

Every once in a while, we get a new secretary that asks if she can bring a stereo in to add a little "life" to the place and everyone chuckles.

Then we cry.

I would kill a man for the right to not have people listen to music around me at work, but I find I'm in the minority there, unfortunately.

Work Customer Service at Blizzard, in NorCal.

[SevenPinkerton]

I'm still confused as to when rap and hip hop became mainstream as it's always playing when I enter into stores. (Well, it's like dumbed down annoying evil hip hop and rap) I feel sorry for folks that have to work in the places that play that crap.

When I worked at Toys R Us, they played "Little April Showers" in the girls bathroom. I guess it's supposed to make you pee better.

[bff]

The Billboard Top 5 songs (week of 19Jan08):

Flo Rida Featuring T-Pain - Low
     
Alicia Keys - No One

Timbaland Featuring OneRepublic - Apologize
     
Chris Brown Featuring T-Pain - Kiss Kiss
     
Fergie - Clumsy

I think it is safe to say Rap/Hip Hop is mainstream

[imagist42]

The only downside of working the electronics department of Target (as opposed to any other department) is the TV spots that are on a continuous cycle. Really annoying, especially with crap like Collective Soul being plastered all over them. However, when I put in some hours over the holidays to save more money for this semester, they did have an iPod Touch spot with some CSS song over it. I'm not sure whether I'm glad that it saved my sanity during those hours or sorely upset that it has effectively ruined my enjoyment of CSS otherwise.

[Beastmouth]

We have horrible jazz running at the restaurant I work at, whenever the boss puts one of her CDs on.  I've lent some Miles and Cannonball, but somehow that damned sax & piano version of freaking half of Kanye West's Late Registration always ends up playing again.  If you thought the edited version of 'Gold Digger' (-Now I ain't sayin' she's a gold digger, but she ain't messin with no broke, broke!) was ridiculous, you ain't heard nothing yet. 

[Ng]

At the last gas station I worked at, the other guy who worked second shift only listened to Enya, Enigma, and Aaron Copeland. It was totally out of control.

[cmalberg]

Yeah, I worked in a green house for  a while with an attached cafe. The manager was absolutely in love with Yanni and that crappy Enya song with "sail away" in the chorus. I have been told before, but I don't recall the name of the song. At any rate, I would go in to get my sandwich and been subjected to Yanni for the 10 minutes it took to make (killer sandwiches. Oh god, how i miss them) then go in eat by the fruit trees so all I could here was the fans.

[Beastmouth]

'Orinoco Flow'

[IronOxide]

Katherine, I would like you to know that there's absolutely nothing wrong with listening to Billy Joel, loudly.

[stella]

I second that, one can never have too much Billy Joel. 
I work in a large department store at a cosmetics counter, and we are lucky enough to get to keep a small boom box behind the counter to listen to whatever we feel like (within reason).  I worked in a bookstore for three years and when the Crane Wife came out we listened to that on loop.  Corporate sent it, too, so that was refreshing.  This is, however, the same company that made us listen to that awful "You had a bad day" song last summer every hour on the hour.  That song irks me to no end.

[Jace]

The Billboard Top 5 songs (week of 19Jan08):

Flo Rida Featuring T-Pain - Low
     
Alicia Keys - No One

Timbaland Featuring OneRepublic - Apologize
     
Chris Brown Featuring T-Pain - Kiss Kiss
     
Fergie - Clumsy

I think it is safe to say Rap/Hip Hop is mainstream

Is it bad that I enjoy both Timbaland and Alicia Keys mostly because when I'm at work with my Kung Fu instructor, we just toss on the station that plays the upbeat hip hop, dance, and even a bit of pop and 80s stuff? The game has been developed that, when a Timbaland song comes on, you drink. It can be a devastating game if you really want it to be. Over the course of 8 hours, I heard Timbaland roughly 15 times. Yeah. I mean, now I like it, how can I not?

But yeah, its nice to sometimes toss in some mc chris, or tell the jerkoff to turn off nickleback or rob zombie or whatever mid 90s angst music he listens to since he isn't an employee and shouldn't be behind the counter.

[the-artful-dodger-rodger]

try listening to teen-pop music all day and not lose your mind, cause that is what is on the toys-r-us store soundtrack all day.

(I work at toys-r-us)

[Patrick]

My manager at McDonald's this summer would play TexMex-style Mexican music all day. It was AWESOME for me, I love that shit (Flaco Jimenez is my hero). Some of the customers? Not so much. They would complain about it and I would be like "Dude, it's worth it to see Olive (the manager) dance."

[Calaveth]

I have my own office, and been listening to Maserati all day. Several people have peeked in, wondering what I've been listening to, a slight majority seemingly positive (I think the score ended 3 to 2, the two negative both being 50+). Always nice to spread the good music...

[ashashash]

Yeah, I'm another one who had to deal with the 'company required listening' situation (I worked at a movie theater last summer).  They'd give us promotional CDs of about ten songs that we had to just loop all day, and they mostly consisted of: 1.  songs from Wicked 2.  songs from High School Musical  3.  songs from Legally Blonde (the musical, naturally) and 4.  Fergie.

Once there was a Feist song on one, so that was okay ... the first dozen or so times I heard it.

[ohsweetjesusno]

Wow... that's awful. Any coping mechanisms you used?

[MusicScribbles]

I've been pretty okay with the whole corporate thing right now, because I'm not in that kind of situation. I work in a bakery with one other person and it's pretty nice. We listen to XPN all day, which is in a way a local NPR for the University of Pennsylvania. It isn't as good as the Princeton station, but it will never drive me crazy. I mean, yesterday the station played Don't You (Forget About Me), and then straight afterwards played The Underdog from the new Spoon album. This isn't bad at all, I tell myself.

My job before this though, cooking at a local restaurant, was pretty bad. I would like everyone to know that I loathe Tenacious D and Dane Cook. Absolutely loathe.

[Thrillho]

Jesus tapdancing Christ, I was scrolling through this thread and like, every other avatar is a penis or a naked doll or a naked woman. It's insane!

[Patrick]

I have a raging hard-on