Please Hold

We thought this was pretty fkn great when we heard about it: The American Music Center, a foundation started by Aaron Copland to help starving composers make ends meet by linking them up with generous donors, recently commissioned music to replace the muzak callers hear while on hold. In other words, artsy-fartsy music to replace "on hold" muzak.

This is the perfect marriage. The only audience for modern classical is a captive audience. Nobody can stand a Philip Glass concert for more than about a minute, just like nobody can stand to be on hold for more than about a minute. Curt receptionists who say, "Please hold," and then play inane music piss us off. John Adams pisses us off, especially when playing his inane music. We could go on listing the reasons why this is so great...

Unfortunately, the irony seems lost on the American Music Center, which seems to think this is a great idea and hopes other, major companies will hire composers to write new music for their phone systems. Right.