Technology has put music everywhere. Whether you’re shopping, working out, visiting your doctor, or using an elevator, you’re exposed daily to music that someone else has chosen for you. For our part, we tend to add to the constant music, running the stereo in the car, wiring our homes for sound, and carrying portable music devices.

Naturally, some see this as a major problem. They fear we’ll go deaf or we’ll be desensitized by it all. They lament the use of music as background and see a great wrong being done to musicians and composers. This might seem a bit extreme, but we can easily sympathize; we care about Classical music and we don’t like to see it misused.

The truth, however, is that “The Wallpaper Effect” is not so much sinister as it is senseless and, with an objective look, amusing. My favorite example:

A few years ago, the American Standard company ran a television commercial in which a worried plumber was running frantically, looking very agitated. When he opened a door, he was confronted with his worst nightmare—American Standard’s new “Champion” toilet, so well-constructed that it would put plumbers out of business. The music behind all of this was the Lacrimosa from Mozart’s Requiem!

Naturally, people were offended and wrote to American Standard. The response, printed in The Catholic Spirit, only made the situation funnier: “Thank you for contacting American Standard with your concerns about the background music in the current television commercial for our ‘Champion’ toilet. We appreciate that you have taken the time to communicate with us and share your feelings on a matter that clearly is very important to you. When we first selected Mozart’s Requiem, we didn’t know of its religious significance. … Although there is ample precedent for commercial use of spiritually-themed music, we have decided to change to a passage from Wagner’s Tannhäuser Overture, which music experts have assured us does not have religious importance. The new music will begin airing in June.”

My friends, we have a very long but friendly fight in front of us. There is no conspiracy to marginalize great music, but there is a sea of cluelessness.

It’s time for a “charm offensive.” Bring your friends and neighbors to concerts. Show them why music matters to you. Put the music in context and help them listen for the right things. Your love of music can be wonderfully contagious. For our part, we’ll try to put our excitement for music into every note.

-- Thomas Wilson

November 13, 2007