The BBC is testing ways of letting viewers tune out background noises, including music which is often so loud that it is foreground music. This should make dialogue easier to follow and allow the sounds of nature on wild life documentaries  to be heard. A trial version on the BBC website adds a slider button as well as the overall volume control. Moving the slider to the left reduces background noises of all sorts. The project is aimed chiefly at the 11 million Britons with hearing loss but will make dialogue much more comprehensible for everybody. It will also reduce, if not eliminate, superfluous and very irritating music.

The technology, which is said to be very labour intensive, is still experimental but it could become available on Iplayer and even on broadcast television as the BBC develops a ‘personalised system of broadcasting called object-based media’.

Last year, 2018, the World Health Organisation  (W.H.O.) issued new guidelines for noise across Europe. its key conclusions are that current government policies and targets are inadequate and out of date and that new targets need to be set. The W.H.O. recommends tough new limits on aircraft noise both at day and at night.  Affected communities should be consulted about changes in flight paths and the construction of additional runways. The adverse effects of noise on health, with sleep deprivation leading to lack of concentration, especially among children, and to accidents at people work and while driving, are well established. New evidence has emerged to show that night time noise can cause cardiovascular disease, particularly for those living under flight paths. Even while a person is asleep noise can cause the release of stress hormones, damaging blood vessels, including the coronary arteries. Three quarters of the population in Britain live in areas where night-time safe noise levels are exceeded.  So noise really is a major health hazard, even for those not fully aware of it.

Nigella Lawson, the famous super-chef, says that the thump of loud music now found in some of the most fashionable (and expensive) restaurants leaves her ‘unable to taste her food’.  She says she is ‘allergic to all noise including music in shops and restaurants…  It is utterly draining. And it drowns out the taste of food. I’ve always presumed that these decisions are made by people who feel uncomfortable without  noise.’ Many other chefs agree with her.  Paul Askew, Chef Patron of the Art School in Liverpool, said that ‘great food needs to be tasted in a softer, more gentle environment’ and that he tries in his restaurants to ‘create an oasis of calm and a sanctuary of restoration for the soul.’  Oisin Rogers, who runs The Guinea Grill in Mayfair, thinks that bad music can ruin one’s appetite. ‘Canned music is often an irritant, an annoyance. It might please some folk but never all. And it is irritating. Nigella is perfectly correct. It is impossible to enjoy food while irritated.’ Although not all chefs accept this argument, a poll in The Daily Telegraph of 8th June found that 55% of respondents agreed that restaurants should stop playing music.

The following welcome news appeared in the Spring 2019 magazine of the Skipton Building Society:- ‘We[the Skipton Building Society]  recently gave customers the option to turn off the music and messages they’d usually hear if they were put on hold during a call to us. It was originally intended to help customers with accessibility needs who are affected by loud music. However, figures show that on average so far this year, 35% of our callers are now opting for the silent option and we’re getting great feedback from customers.’ This shows that a significant  proportion of customers – not just those termed disabled – prefer silence to canned music down the line, debunking the old myth that callers ring off if there is no muzac to reassure them.

Firstdirect, the online/telephonic banking service, now plays birdsong rather than muzac while customers are kept on hold – an improvement that is welcomed apparently by some, but not all, customers. We need to reassure Firstdirect and the Skipton BS that they are doing the right thing, and persuade  other banks, building societies etc to offer the same silent or at least birdsong option.

Sam Smiths, the independent Yorkshire-based brewer, has banned the use of mobiles, iPods and similar devices in all its 200 plus pubs. Its policy has long been  to avoid music of any sort in its pubs. If people wish to use their devices for any purpose, they must now go outside, just like smokers. ‘The brewery’s policy is that our pubs are for social person to person conversation’, says Humphrey Smith, a descendant of the original founder Sam Smith. All Sam Smith pubs are highly traditional, with often splendid Victorian interiors lovingly preserved or restored.

By treating noise-mongers in the same way as smokers, Sam Smiths is proving itself a pioneer in regard to the physical and psychological health of both its staff and and its customers. Other chains should follow suit!  While based in Yorkshire, Sam Smiths has pubs throughout the land from Edinburgh to Kent, with 20 in London.

Psychologists from the University of Central Lancashire, the University of Gävle in Sweden and Lancaster University investigated the impact of background music on performance by giving people verbal insight problems that tap creativity.  They found that background music significantly impaired’ people’s ability to complete tasks testing verbal creativity. In contrast,  no effect was discovered for background library noise.

For example, a participant was shown three words (e.g., dress, dial, flower), with the requirement being to find a single associated word (in this case “sun”) that can be combined to make a common word or phrase (sundress, sundial and sunflower). The researchers used three experiments involving verbal tasks in either a quiet environment or while exposed to         background music with foreign (unfamiliar) lyrics,  instrumental music without lyrics and      music with lyrics already known.

Dr Neil McLatchie of Lancaster University reported: ‘We found strong evidence of impaired performance when playing background music in comparison to quiet background conditions.’ Researchers suggest this may be because music disrupts verbal working memory.

The third experiment – exposure to music with familiar lyrics- impaired creativity regardless of whether the music also boosted mood, induced a positive mood, was liked by the participants, or whether participants normally studied with music being played. But  there was no significant difference in performance of the verbal tasks between the quiet and library noise conditions. Researchers say this is because library noise is a ‘steady state’ environment which is not as disruptive.

‘To conclude, the findings here challenge the popular view that music enhances creativity, and instead demonstrate that music, regardless of the presence of semantic content (no lyrics, familiar lyrics or unfamiliar lyrics), consistently disrupts creative performance in insight problem solving.’

This wholly independent survey (not funded by the piped music industry in any way) confirms earlier research from Swansea University and contradicts the many familiar arguments in favour of piped music.

• Earlier this year, infuriated Starbucks employees  took to Reddit to rage about how they had to listen to the same songs from the Broadway hit musical Hamilton endlessly repeated at work. One employee, Emily, wrote that if she heard a Hamilton song  one more time, ‘I’m getting a ladder and ripping out all of our speakers from the ceiling.’  Pipedown has long argued that the people who suffer most from  piped music in shops, restaurants, cafés etc are those who work there, and that such people’s rights are being trampled on.  (See the case of Douglas Perry at the Hull Post office among others). Starbucks has yet to respond meaningfully to this outburst from their long-suffering employees but the writer Adam Johnson compared the piped music to the acoustic torture inflicted on prisoners of Guantanamo Bay.

Recently several members – those, with acute hearing problems such as  tinnitus and dystonia but who are not actually deaf – have announced that they are willing to confront shops, restaurants, banks and other places that fail to provide for their condition. (The Equality Act of 2010 ‘requires service providers to make a reasonable adjustment for disabled people to make sure that they are not places at a substantial disadvantage compared to non-disabled people. This may include such actions are accommodating requests for communications to be conducted in a particular format.’  See the post for 28 October 2018). As most places are probably unaware of the Equality Act, initial reactions may be bafflement, even disbelief. However, pointing out the Act’s implications could quickly lead places to reconsider their piped music policies. They are very unlikely to want to risk breaking the law. Pipedown can produce a new card along these lines for members’ benefit, if enough members want one.

Quiet Scotland (Pipedown Scotland) now has an on-line forum or chat site where members can exchange views, ask questions, share news or just chat. To access the forum, go to the main website (www.quietscotland.org.uk), then click on the “Forum” link at the top of the page.  NB The forum will be visible in Google, and anybody – not just Quiet Scotland members – will be able to read its contents. So don’t post anything that might be considered sensitive or confidential.  To post to the forum  you will need to register. This is a simple one-off process. Just click the “Register” link in the black menu bar near the top of the page.

Quiet Scotland has tried to keep the whole thing as simple as possible. If you get stuck, look at the Help pages (from the green link near the top-right corner). If you can’t register or log in, email mlewis@ml-consult.co.uk.  If Quiet Scotland’s forum proves a success, Pipedown UK may start its own forum. 

Tesco in Marlborough has introduced a Quiet Hour’ every Wednesday from 2-3pm. Nicola Barker, a customer who finds noise physically painful, protested and Matt Jones, the branch manager, listened to her protests and decided to act. ‘We wanted to help our customers and make shopping easier for them,’ he said. Not only piped music but tannoy announcements and bright lights are muted during this weekly hour of peace. Since introducing the Quiet Hour, staff in Marlborough have noticed ‘many more customers benefitting from the less intense experience.’ There is as yet no plan by Tesco to expand Quiet Hours nationally, however. There should be so we need to keep writing to Tesco’s CEO Dave Lewis dave.lewis@uk.tesco.com

Meanwhile the Co-op has been running similar  ‘autism awareness hours’ at some of their branches across the country and will be ‘running more going forward.’ Email Steve Murrells the CEO to encourage him with these awareness hours at steve.murrells@co-operative.coop