Sonic air-conditioning

Muzak as affect management for office workers in Japan

Bibliographic Data

ID4857960
AuthorsLorraine Plourde (0009-0005-2410-9128, Purchase College, corresponding author)
Year2017
Volume12
Issue1
Pages18-34
Publication date2017-01-02
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Senses and Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1745-8927 • E-ISSN: 1745-8935
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/17458927.2017.1268812
OpenAlexW2592298901
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited23

Muzak is what musique concrète composer Pierre Schaeffer referred to as “acousmatic sound” – sound we hear without seeing its source. Muzak’s presence in public space is particularly relevant in Japan, a country often critiqued or celebrated as a “sound saturated society” where background music is engineered to a spectacular degree. BGM, as Muzak is referred to in Japanese, is simultaneously unnoticed, dismissed, ironically appreciated, and, more recently, used to heal, calm, and manage white-collar office workers at a time in which mental health issues, work-life balance, and the negative effects of overwork on office workers are increasingly on the rise. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork with background music employees in Tokyo and analysis of the company’s print media literature concerning their music for office workers program, this essay explores the relationship between background music and the affective management of worker stress in contemporary Japan. I argue that BGM in Japan is emerging as a form of ambient labor control that exploits a particular mode of sonic engagement. The essay focuses in particular on the culture industry surrounding the use of BGM as a means to effectively manage office workers and their environments in post-economic bubble Japan

Aesthetics · Affect (linguistics · Art · Media studies · Office workers · Operations management · Political science · Public relations · Sociology · Engineering · Geographies of human-animal interactions · History · Posthumanist Ethics and Activism · Walter Benjamin Studies Compilation

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