expressions for music

mike   Wed Nov 22, 2006 8:36 am GMT
I just read an article about music at restaurants and came across few words I could not understand :

- Piping music
- dreaded music
- blunt music
- peppy music

anyone has an idea??

The article was mainly saying that music at restaurants is getting louder recently.
Robin   Wed Nov 22, 2006 12:49 pm GMT
"piped music" is music of a nondescript nature that continually plays in the background at restaurants.

There are a lot of places where music is played, not only on the phone when you are waiting to speak to someone. Sometimes the music is more interesting, than at other times.

Generally people feel that it is a little bit intrusive, but sometimes it is quite nice, and sometimes it can help to relax, shoppers or diners.

If it didn't work, they wouldn't do it.
User   Thu Nov 23, 2006 12:05 am GMT
>> peppy music <<

Upbeat and bright music, with a fast tempo, sometimes slightly staccato, in a major key, designed to make people feel happy.
Uriel   Sat Nov 25, 2006 4:30 am GMT
Piped music means that it is being reproduced on a sound sytem, as opposed to live music, which is actually being played by real people on real instruments in front of you.

Dreaded music simply means any music that a particular listener doesn't want to have to listen to (dread: to be apprehensive about encountering something). It could be anything, depending on that person's tastes.
User   Sat Nov 25, 2006 3:35 pm GMT
>> Piped music <<

Piped music can also be music piped outdoors from a live concert.
Azz   Wed Nov 29, 2006 4:06 am GMT
As a native speaker of English, I was also confused by "blunt music". I thought that it might be some technical term that I didn't know. I looked through Google's hits on the phrase, and came up with several ideas:

It might be music by James Blunt.
It might be the name of the album that a song was on.
It might be the name of the music publishing company.
It might have been considered a good song to smoke marijuana to. (A certain form of marijuana, perhaps marijuana cigars, though I'm not particularly familiar with the slang associated with the culture, is called a "blunt".)