We have twice been at others’ homes for dinner recently and they each had very good but not intrusive music mix in the background. Do you have a go-to such as a Pandora or Spotify station you play regularly for something like this or anything else?
I like Pandora “Happy Radio” for upbeat daytime music background. We often play a ‘60s, 70s, 80s mix, but want something with more variety/interest and maybe more instrumentals, yet not elevator music!, when we have guests over or want music with dinner.
I like the serendipity of a station- not looking to make a “mixtape”
My family makes fun of me for requesting Pandora’s “Indie Singer Songwriter radio” so often, but I think it’s a great mix. It’s made up mostly songs I have never (or rarely) heard but enjoy listening to. Not instrumental, but definitely on the quiet/relaxed side, not at all disruptive to conversation.
Our house came with a top of the line (at that time, Y2K) wired audio system - wall or ceiling speakers in every freaking room except the secondary bathroom and laundry room. The previous owners must have loved background music. We like background silence.
Forr at home relaxing, cooking, etc. - Beatles Pandora station
For workouts - Pandora 80s Rock & Roll station
For entertaining - generally no music – on occasion some jazz played softly. (Exception - I do put on a CD I burned years ago with my favorite Christmas music for an hour or so on that holiday)
ETA: meant to reply to thread, not specifically to @BunsenBurner. Apologies.
I like a mixtape better (my son makes great ones for just this purpose, thank you bud!) BUT in a pinch I’ll do Spotify “Happy Hits” or any playlists with the word “Happy” in it - so more of an upbeat vibe.
Sometimes on Sunday morning I’ll do a Sunday Easy Listening or Sunday Jazz to appeal to my H a bit more.
I have 2 classical radio stations I listen to most days and in my car. I also make various mix lists on Spotify. My go to is titled my feel good list and whenever I think of a song I’ve loved I add it.
My family really loves making Spotify lists for each other. My kids always make me a new one for my birthday, full of things I will like, but also what they refer to as “culturally necessary” tracks that maybe I don’t love but need to stay current. Definitely some things I don’t love, but also bands like Lake Street Dive that I had never heard and do love.
There is an awesome playlist called Kitchen Swagger that I play during the day if I am not listening to Motown and pretending I sing as well as Gladys Knight. I would also be listening to classics from the Big Band era (Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman, Les Brown, Stan Kenton) but it reminds me too much of my Dad right now so I haven’t been able to do that yet.
Jazz piano—any Beegie Adair. We listen to DH’s vast playlist of jazz piano every night while we eat dinner and when entertaining. We also like Big Band.
I like no background music.
I use Amazon music or pandora when I work out.
I use Spotify with my grandson in the car. He’s partial to Leo the Truck. He gets annoyed that my music comes with commercials. I to
D him that’s is because grandma doesn’t pay.
Do most of you pay for your music streaming services?
We are a family of classical musicians and prefer no background music. We all have difficulty not listening to the music so if there is background music playing we struggle to have a conversation without interruption to listen to or comment on whatever is playing.
Another example: when DH and I see a movie, sometimes I’ll ask him his favorite scene and he will go to the piano and figure out parts of the score. But he won’t know what the dialogue was about.
Hmm. We have Prime. I just ask Alexa (at our house, we have set it to repsond to Amazon) to play alternative or indie music. I guess it knows what I like now.
When people come over, we ask it to play just indie music and have it at low volume in the backgorund. If we are having a party, we usually play 80s music.
My current obsession is the “Life with John Mayer” channel on Sirius. It’s just a great mix of music (not just JM) old and new, and lots of genres. With John’s commentary sometimes interspersed, which usually is kind of interesting. It’s about the only channel that I can play for days and not get tired of.
On Pandora, we have a lot of stations built off of artists or songs that we like. Like “Vampire Weekend radio” or “Al Stewart radio” or “The Boxer radio”, depending on the mood.
We pay for our Sirius subscription (called them for a pretty good rate) and the bottom-tier Pandora also.
For me at home - nothing. Noise upsets my equilibrium or something. Too much is anxiety-inducing. I’ll even watch hockey with the sound off.
My husband has tv or a Spotify playlist going most of the time. Music varies from (haha) oldies from our prime years/early adulthood to newer artists in the same vein.
I work in a store and Pandora plays in the store itself and in the back office where I and a couple of other people work. I am constantly surprised that I am the only one who even notices what music is playing. We usually have on something like Classic Mellow Rock or Loggins and Messina Radio. I try to make sure it’s set on crowd faves because nobody is thumbing up or down and it can go completely off the rails. Every now and then I put on something unusual like Hawaiian music just to see how long it takes somebody to notice.
I have Sirius XM in my car and mostly listen to politics but also enjoy On Broadway. And there Siriusly needs to be more folk, indie and country rock on Sirius.
No music at home because my husband finds all music annoying. He says go ahead and play it but I can’t enjoy it when I know he hates it.
Sometimes we have the tv playing an easy jazz station. I still have my old cd player hooked up, and to be honest one of my favorite things to put on is “Ella Fitzgerald sings Cole Porter”.
Depends on what we are doing…
Formal entertaining - I usually have a classical playlist in the background. Love the music from Bridgerton, Lindsey Sterling, etc for that kind of dinner.
More casual - I like an acoustic “coffee house” mix