About this episode
“Elevator music” was once the sound of restaurants, offices, and elevators in mid-20th century America. But ironically these bland, string-driven instrumental tracks are never heard in elevators anymore. In this episode, we speak with Joseph Lanza, the author of “Elevator Music,” and Julian Treasure, chairman of The Sound Agency , about the sound of Muzak -- the company that changed the way we think public spaces should sound. Twenty Thousand Hertz is produced by Defacto Sound . Subscribe on YouTube to see our video series. If you know what this week's mystery sound is, tell us at mystery.20k.org . Support the show and get ad-free episodes at 20k.org/plus . Follow Dallas on Instagram , TikTok , Facebook , and LinkedIn . Join our community on Reddit . Episode transcript, music, and credits can be found here: https://www.20k.org/episodes/muzak Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices