What is "elevator music"

n. (context US English) bland, inoffensive music played as a background in elevators and businesses (such as offices and shopping malls).

Elevator music (also known as Muzak, piped music, or lift music) refers to a type of popular music, usually instrumental, that is commonly played through speakers in elevators, shopping malls, grocery stores, department stores, telephone systems (while the caller is on hold), cruise ships, airliners (during flight after taking off), hotels, airports, business offices, restaurants, bars, hospitals, as well as electronic program guides, weather forecasts, television testcards, and some arcade game venues. The term is also frequently applied as a generic term for any form of easy listening, smooth jazz, or middle of the road music, or to the type of recordings commonly heard on " beautiful music" radio stations.

This style of music is sometimes used to comedic effect in mass media such as film, where intense or dramatic scenes may be interrupted or interspersed with such anodyne music while characters use an elevator (e.g. The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, The Blues Brothers, Dawn of the Dead, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Asterix & Obelix: Mission Cleopatra, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Spider-Man 2, and Night at the Museum). Some video games have used elevator music for comedic effect, e.g. Metal Gear Solid 4 where a few elevator music-themed tracks are accessible on the in-game iPod, as well as Rise of the Triad: Dark War, which occasionally plays elevator music when in elevators during stages.

Muzak was a major supplier of business background music, and was the best known such supplier for years. Ironically, while its name is commonly associated with elevator music in the public mind, that was never one of the company's offerings. Since 1997, Muzak has used original artists for its music source, except on the Environmental channel.