Welcome To Pipedown

PIPEDOWN has been formed to counter one of the under-recognised scourges of contemporary life: PIPED MUSIC.

Also called muzak, muzac, acoustic wallpaper, elevator music or canned music, piped music is made possible by systems which allow a constant supply throughout a building or other public place.

It is the misuse of this in public areas (and only this) which Pipedown has been formed to fight, encouraging and giving a voice to millions of people who hate piped music but at present often feel totally powerless to do anything about it.

The problem arises from piped music being widely considered an unmixed blessing. Silence -in shop, restaurant, railway station, swimming bath or other public place - seems to be anathema.

Cows, when being milked, are supposedly more productive if lulled by piped music; the same principle is used to stupefy us into mindlessness before parting us from our money, votes, wits.

Piped music also cripples conversation and mutilates real music. Hence the eminent musicians (of all types) who support Pipedown. All music is debased by being treated as acoustic wallpaper or a marketing tool.

The right to silence in public places is one we must fight to establish. Those who object are often made to feel cranks or killjoys. There is no need to accept either label, for many members are in their twenties or thirties. Charges of being old-fashioned or elitist are irrelevant; what is relevant is our attempt to restore the freedom of choice (and the real value of music) to individuals.

Pipedown aims to protest: legally, courteously, preferably wittily but always persistently. TO PROTEST EFFECTIVELY AGAINST PIPED MUSIC , PIPEDOWN RELIES ON THE SUPPORT OF INDIVIDUAL MEMBERS. We are NOT a large campaign with glossy offices, telephone helplines, research assistants or full-time paid employees. The campaign is run almost entirely by one or two volunteers. But Pipedown does offer inspiration, a rallying-cry and above all hope to everyone driven frantic about the seemingly relentless rise of piped music. As the following stories show, concerted protest by members can and does work.

In 1994 we won a major victory at Gatwick Airport (nr London) by helping persuade the management to carry out a survey. Of the 68,077 people questioned, more disliked than liked piped music, which has since been discontinued.

Yorkshire buses, Tesco and the National Trust all dropped plans to introduce piped music, thanks in part to our concerted protests. These included writing letters and emails to the relevant managements, pointing out clearly and calmly that people who dislike piped music outnumber those who like it, both in numbers and in the strength of their feelings. (Pipedowners accept, however, that some people do like it and are not trying to ban the music in places like the Hard Rock Café, where it is expected.)

But there is a health aspect. The 14% of the population with hearing problems find that piped music aggravates their condition, making conversation impossible. Any unwanted noise puts up the blood pressure and depresses the immune system. A 1995 survey of blood donors at Nottingham found piped music made them more, not less, nervous or anxious. In a Sunday Times survey published in January 1997, 17% cited piped music as the single thing they most detested about modern life.

A poll by NOP in November 1998 showed that 34% of the population disliked piped music, only 30% liked it, the remainder being indifferent. Among those over 45, an absolute majority disliked it, and among people with hearing problems (14% of the population according to the RNID), 86% disliked it.

In February 2005, a BBC poll of commuters on trains in Essex (where piped television was being trialled by TNX, who thought they had found the perfect 'captive audience') found that 67% of travellers objected it. Piped television has since been dropped. PLEASE SIGN THE PETITION TO BAN PIPED MUSIC IN HOSPITALS AND SIMILAR PLACES where it may be literally inescapable for patients lying immobilised in bed or on stretchers. www.gopetition.co.uk/petitions/against-forced-music-in-hospitals/signatures.html

"Piped music has spread like an insidious cancer throughout society"             
                                                                                Julian Lloyd Webber

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