Back in June I attended an outdoor (tented) wedding. It was great to be around other humans and feel relatively safe for the first time in years. Event hosts painstakingly placed people (as always) at appropriate tables to maximum conversation and revelry. But just as we began scarfing down the post-nuptial meal, the wedding deejay inexplicably cranked up the music like he was emceeing a Euro-rage event where everyone’s buzzed. Buzzkill!
Conversations came to a screeching halt, as did event enjoyment. Talking Heads once sang, “this ain’t no party, this ain’t no disco”… but this was a party, cut short by mis-timed, throbbing, pulsating beats.
My frustration continued at a wonderful brainstorming convention last month. Again, great efforts were made to split up 150 attendees at dinners to ensure maximum socializing, idea-sharing, and perhaps even some problem-solving creativity. And then the live musicians began to play loudly, quashing any repartee. Attempts to chat suddenly required horrid more airborne particles spewing forth than can be tolerated semi-post-pandemic. This wasn’t supposed to be a dinnertime concert, but it had the numbing and unintended effects of one.
As I’ve previously stated, nothing stimulates more parts of the brain than music. I am a lifetime music fanatic; it’s simply the best. But at times it needs to stay in the background, simply turned down. By the way, side note to headlining rock concert performers: we paid $150 per ticket so you “don’t stop believin’”; but please don’t turn your handheld mic towards the crowd at chorus time and encourage the world’s worst mass karaoke moment! We know you’ve aged, but c’mon, you sing it… please.
Finally, I attended a well-done, awards celebration breakfast, and after everyone played the awkward “…and-what-do-you-do?” game while in the buffet line, they returned to their tables only to hear the duo up front playing at decibel levels that precluded normal, small room conversation. Again, we’d been placed at tables to chat, learn, exchange business cards and ideas, but were stifled by a stultifying “American Idol” tryout unnecessarily taking place.
So, note to event organizers. Music is stimulating and vital. But at events designed for small group reverie, interaction among participants, and getting-to-know-you engagement, music should be dampened; it’s not a Woodstock/Coachella gala. Groups, soloists, or deejays should know if they’ve been hired as background, not foreground or fairground, entertainment. It’s hard to listen when you can’t hear.
Think about it…