An article about Whamming & Mariahmming translated from a local newspaper:
At Christmas 1989, an unpleasant surprise awaited Manuel Noriega – the drug lord and former CIA agent who had risen to the leadership of Panama. The US had invaded the country to overthrow its former partner and he had taken refuge in the Vatican embassy, where US marines were not allowed to enter.
To force him to surrender, military Humvees with huge speakers were parked around the embassy and began playing rock, punk and heavy metal songs over and over – including U2's “All I want is you” and “ I fought the law" performed by the Clash. As the BBC previously reported, the Pentagon was so proud of the idea that the playlist, which played non-stop for three 24-hour periods, has been preserved in the National Security Archive at George Washington University.
The US often uses similar practices in the torture centers it sets up in various parts of the world, despite the fact that the use of music on prisoners has been banned by the United Nations and the European Court of Human Rights, and is characterized as a "form of torture" by Amnesty International.
But what happens when the "prisoners" are the employees of a store who are forced to listen to the same songs every day for the duration of their shift? Apparently the volume of the music is not as strong and the variety of songs is noticeably greater. Or maybe not;
The first time I felt that the music of a store evoked torture was in a supermarket in Tokyo. Cheap speakers played the hysterical voice of a commercial about 15 seconds long. Then there would be a few seconds of extremely annoying music, which was distorted by the poor quality of the speakers, and the message would start again – from the morning until the supermarket closed at night. In the three to four minutes that I stayed in the place, I felt a strong sense of discomfort and irritation, while I looked in wonder at the employees who stoically endured the "torture" imposed by their employer.
Although such extreme cases are not often encountered in Europe and North America, more and more employees in retail stores complain about the constant repetition of the same songs. A few years ago Starbucks workers in Canada complained that the stores were constantly playing a song from the musical "Hamilton." "Next time I hear it, I'm going to take a ladder and rip out all the speakers," one employee told CBC radio. He, in fact, suggested creating a special complaint line at the labor inspectorate for such conditions.
The phenomenon always escalates at Christmas and New Year, when the musical repertoire is limited to holiday songs. An employee recently complained on Reddit that the store where he worked only played five different renditions of "Jingle Bells" and wished that "the person who made that playlist is going to do something really bad." The Wall Street Journal conducted a survey a few days ago on the reactions of workers around the world to songs like "All I want for Christmas is you", by Mariah Carey. "Every time I hear it I hide in the warehouse until it's over," Kia Coleman, who works at a department store in London, told the paper.
It should be noted that at the time of writing there are at least three petition campaigns underway on change.org to ban the broadcast of this particular song in public places.
Paradoxically, according to several advertisers the constant repetition of the same songs does not necessarily have a positive effect on sales, while in some cases it irritates customers - especially in department stores where they spend more time and are forced to listen to the entire list of songs.
So why would a store "torture" customers and employees at the same time? Many times overseas retail chains are "forced" to choose short lists with few songs, because in this way they pay less to copyright management companies - that is, it is a conscious degradation of working conditions decided by managers, who do not spend all their time in the store.
Apparently for tens of thousands of employees around the world who are experiencing inhumane working conditions these days, repetitive music may be the last of their problems. Even on a symbolic level, however, it comes to remind us that many large companies treat employees as just another piece of capital equipment, devoid of feelings and needs.
Happy holidays, then, with two wishes: Let's stop buying from stores that "torture" their workers. And… no more Mariah Carey.
Υπάλληλοι αλλά και πελάτες καταστημάτων λιανικής συλλέγουν υπογραφές για να σταματήσει η επαναλαμβανόμενη αναπαραγωγή χριστουγεννιάτικων τραγουδιών της Μαράια Κάρεϊ ● Καλώς ήρθατε στα βασανιστήρια των εορτών.
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