One’s something you do for enjoyment, often to create a soundtrack for your life - especially the boring bits. The other’s a place you likely don’t want to be, and that lightens your wallet on the way out - too much so, some say.
And yet the two - music and supermarkets - come together every day, even if we aren’t consciously aware. So what are we hearing, why, and does it even matter? Cherie Howie reports.
There’s reggae and soul, a bit of folk and quite a lot of rock, some electropop and of course its bog standard parent - pop.
If you’ve shopped in any of Foodstuffs South Island’s supermarkets, which includes 43 New Worlds, a dozen Pak’nSaves and 60 Four Squares, you’ll likely be familiar with the most popular Kiwi songs on their store playlists.
The co-operative has shared its unofficial top 10 New Zealand supermarket songs, with Six60′s omnipresent Don’t Forget Your Roots in the top slot, R&B and soul singer Aaradhna’s motivating Wake Up in second and crooner Marlon Williams’ feelgood My Boy third.
The rest of the list reads like a Who’s Who of New Zealand music from Crowded House in the 1980s to the success of Benee in the last five years.
Software platforms can help plan the perfect playlist for a retail environment like a supermarket, but most of what makes the list is more an art than a science, TV5′s Mike McCaleb said.
The director of TV5, which provides video and audio enhancements to retailers, helps curate music for Foodstuffs South Island’s supermarkets.
“The only criteria are the songs don’t have explicit themes or words, and they put you in a good mood.
“Do they make you want to sing along or hum the tune? That means anything is on the table, and the library just keeps growing.”
Stores still had a lot of autonomy to pick the music best suited to their communities, such as golden oldies for the mid-morning crowd and contemporary for after school.
The introduction of the Māori Top 10 singles had also meant more te reo songs were appearing on playlists, which filtered through to what we heard at the supermarket, McCaleb said.
“What customers want to hear; even what staff want to listen to, all plays a part. It’s mostly about having something that makes you feel good so you enjoy your time in the supermarket, it can even help reduce decision fatigue.
“I see it as a form of therapy - the tunes that take you back to a certain time of your life have a hugely positive effect on our mood. They are the ones that are going to have us humming our way through the aisles.”
Musicologist Dr Gregory Camp agreed the main aim of supermarket sounds was to keep shoppers “happily going along”.
“I’m not aware if anyone studied whether playing music makes us purchase more or less … I don’t think there’d be much data to claim that specifically.
“I think it’s mostly about just keeping you in the shop and happy to be there.”
Creating that “air of comfort” usually involved playing music most people had heard before and wasn’t divisive, the University of Auckland academic said.
“They’re not playing rap, [or] country music … anything that a lot of people dislike. It’s kind of middle of the road pop that everyone will at least tolerate.”
Unlike in theme parks such as Disneyland, where up tempo music dominates the start of the day, and toned down sounds kick in near closing time, he hadn’t noticed music being used in the same way at the supermarket, Camp said.
“If we think about the style of the music and the tempo, most of what I hear is … not really slow, not really fast. So it’s not pumping you up too much, but it’s keeping you sonically engaged with what’s around you.”
Like the music weaved through our favourite movies and TV shows, the balance is in keeping the listener engaged, but not at the cost of the main action - what’s happening on screen for TV and movie watchers, and what’s on the shelves for shoppers.
“If you’re aware of the music, it’s not doing its job very well”, Takapuna’s The Sound Room composer Marshall Smith said in 2020 when talking about his high-wire efforts composing music for screens big and small.
“You’re there to support the action on screen, not to get in the way of it.”
His efforts, and those feeding Kiwi favourites through supermarket loudspeakers, are helped by our nimble auditory system - hearing is our fastest sense, allowing us to recognise sound in 0.05 seconds, compared to the at least a quarter of a second it takes the brain to process visual recognition, American auditory neuroscientist Seth Horowitz told US media Radiolab.
It also never takes a break, instead constantly filtering different auditory streams, hearing researcher Dr David Welch told the Herald in a 2020 story about the music of TV and film.
“When you recognise something you activate in your brain a whole network of associations … that [can] colour your experience of the main action.”
Supermarkets want customers to experience the music they choose - even if they’re not fully aware they’re hearing it - as part of the ambience of the store, said Camp, the musicologist.
“It’s like conditioning the space in a similar way to lighting, temperature, decor. You don’t really necessarily notice the design on the floor, but someone has thought about what’s the best design to make it a welcoming space, [and] not too antiseptic.
“So, the music is similar.”
Making the supermarket playlist would please artists because they got royalties when their music was played, and it also confirmed they were in a category of familiar music that a lot of people liked, he said.
“There is a whole genre of ambient music that’s composed and designed for those kinds of uses. [English musician] Brian Eno wrote a whole album called Music For Airports, which is music meant to be played as a secondary part of your attention.”
That’s not what most artists were aiming for in their creative efforts, he said.
“We want our music to be at the forefront of people’s attention, not in the background.”
1. Six60 - Don’t Forget Your Roots
2. Aaradhna - Wake Up
3. Marlon Williams - My Boy
4. Dave Dobbyn - Slice of Heaven
5. Mutton Birds - Dominion Road
6. Crowded House - Something So Strong
7. Benee - Supalonely (radio edit)
8. Kids of 88 - Just a Little Bit
9. Avalanche City - Love, Love, Love
10. The Exponents - Why Does Love Do This to Me
Cherie Howie is an Auckland-based reporter who joined the Herald in 2011. She has been a journalist for more than 20 years and specialises in general news and features.
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