| | Joe,
I have heard that the sort of music that increases alcohol sales in a nightclub, is fast, frenetic music... AC/DC or Guns & Roses and such. Because presumably, people are trying to down-regulate the hyperagitation that the music is causing, through booze.
Therefore, if you want to play something minor and lunar -- which is sedating possibly to the point of sadness, you should take advantage of the agitation effect, and play it somewhere that is serving agitating drinks, such as a coffee house.
If you notice, in coffee houses, the music is best when it's sedating and easy. In bars, it's best when it's high-energy.
Now, as to what makes something "grown-up music", what I've just said applies to that, too.
Whereas most children have easier lives than adults, they crave novelty, excitement, frenzy. Their music tends to be "jump around, tiddly-wink music"... music in a major key. All because their nervous systems are typically understimulated. This perspective is supported when you give a hyperactive child caffeine, and they fall asleep or calm down. They are in order to auto-stimulate their understimulated nervous systems, and achieve a tranquil balance.
Grown-ups -- on the other hand -- tend to lead stressful lives of burdensome responsibility, when compared with most children, so their nervous systems are typically overstimulated. As a result, they tend to prefer music to depress their agitation down to a more relaxed level, and so they tend to prefer music in a minor key. Unlike hyperactive children, if you feed the average adult caffeine, he/she doesn't fall asleep or calm down, but rather, is up all night.
Now, what I've just described is the norm. It's possible to find anomalies: you might have a stressed-out kid or an understimulated grown-up. In that case, the same rule still applies... you follow the agitation level, not the age of the person.
In other words, a stressed-out kid would prefer minor key music, and the understimulated grown-up would prefer major key music.
That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.
(Edited by Orion Reasoner on 10/20, 10:16pm)
|
|
