I hope some of my readers did not think that I was trying to “von Trapp” you into thinking this column was about that Julie Andrews musical. 

This column is about a hundred-year-old patent that for decades became a part of our collective culture. Thanks to a patent issued to George Owen Squier in 1927, the hills and many other locales were alive with the sound of Muzak. 

The term Muzak has been registered as a trademark since 1954. It became so popular and dominant that it has come to mean any type of background music regardless of the source. 

It often was called elevator music because it was piped into elevators as a way of getting passengers to relax. 

Squier recognized that his patent technology could be used to send music to people without the use of radio. Early on he tested his theory by sending music from lower Manhattan to Staten Island via cables that connected the two boroughs.

Eventually the rights to his patents were acquired by the North American Company that sold electricity to its customers. They created a subsidiary called the Wired Radio Company and charged its customers for the piped in music.

When most households began listening to radio shows for free, the need for Muzak diminished.

The company actually did very well during World War Two. The war effort required more and more industrial production. Research by the company made a discovery that would surprise everyone. Muzak could apparently make workers happier with a system called stimulus progression that offered 15-minute blocks of instrumental background music. It gave listeners a subconscious sense of forward movement. When workers listened to these 15-minute blocks they got more work done!

After the Second World War, Muzak even made its way into the White House. In 1953 during Dwight Eisenhower’s administration, he had it piped into the presidential residence. 

Later Lyndon Johnson actually owned a piece of the Muzak Austin Texas franchise during the 1950s. Radio personalities like Bing Crosby also wound up owning a piece of the Muzak company.

In the 1960s with the growth of the youth culture and growing influence of the baby boomer generation Muzak’s popularity declined. A company named Yesco offered original artist music programming instead of Muzak’s canned music.  

Rock’n’roll legend Ted Nugent hated the Muzak company so much, calling it to be everything uncool about the music industry. In 1986 he offered $10 million to purchase the company with the stated intent of closing it down permanently. 

He called Muzak “an evil force in today’s society causing people to lapse into uncontrollable fits of blandness.”  His bid to acquire Muzak was turned down by the then owner, the Westinghouse Electric corporation.

The Muzak corporation tried to rebrand itself by distributing 300,000 commercially available original artist songs. It offered almost one hundred channels of music via the satellite EchoStar 7 that was in orbit around the earth. But it did not last long and in 2009 Muzak holdings LLC filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

In today’s world with headsets, earbuds and portable devices that play music there is no need for the concept that spawned Muzak. Many people referred to Muzak as mental floss that kept everybody calm and occupied.

Muzak brings back memories of a simpler time. For many it was comforting to be entertained as we went about the workday. The hills and valleys of America were filled with the sound of Muzak.

Hudson Cooper is a resident of Sullivan County, a writer, comedian and actor.