Inadvertent Comedy

I was reading the Times-West Virginian today and the Reader's Write column left me chuckling for the inadvertent comedy...I give you the letter against "rock and roll":

Today I went to shop in a store in Middletown Mall. We passed through one store with attractive music that would encourage cus­tomers to stop by and browse. In another store, I intended to do a lot of looking around for things to buy. I had not been there in a while and hoped to find a number of things to purchase. The music was not very good, and then a repetitious and controlling rock and roll song came over the speakers.

I immediately looked for a worker whom I could ask to turn off the rock and roll. I found a middle-aged worker, who may have been a manager and asked if she could turn off the music while we were in the store. She asked me, “Why?”

The music was harsh enough that I assumed she would have understood. I explained that it was irritating and she said they had chosen that music for every­one in the store. I let her know that we were leaving because of the bad music. She could have at least turned it down for the short time that we would be shopping in their store.

On the way home, I told my daughter that I still had that bad song in my mind. She said that she did, too.

One would think that a store manager would know that the purpose of the music in a store is to soothe the customer and to encourage them to step into the store and buy something. This store was using their music to run off customers.

I am glad that we could at least give one manager two votes against rock and roll music. I hope that this letter will get the message across to other store and restaurant owners that many of us do not enjoy, or approve of, the words and music of rock and roll songs.

Who would have thought ten years ago that restaurants would be “smoke-free?” Maybe more establishments in the future will become “rock and roll free.”

Maybe it was some harsh thrash metal song or something new (and completely horrible like Nickleback) but I can't help but hope it was Elvis or The Beatles. Those kids and their dag-gone rock and roll music.