Hi,

My name is Justin. I'm the Director of operations for mad pizza. I would like to start off by apologizing for the choice of on hold music. This is a new store and new employees. They did not realize that the music played on the in store satellite radio is the same music that the people on hold listen to. They assumed because they were alone in the restaurant that it would be OK. I myself had to hold back some laughter at this. After all like more then one responder said "this is Seattle". But in all seriousness I am sorry if this offended anyone and can assure you that ALL employees have been informed about this.

thank you.
Justin at madpizza

This is what I get for calling Hot Topic, I suppose...

i agree, the essential elements of jazz being improvisation, with no help from computers, and so on. however, this does not negate the distinction between "jazz" and "smooth jazz", regardless of how inappropriate that label may be.

i've never heard of "Soft Jazz" as Papercutninja calls it... if he/she meant to say "smooth jazz", i disagree, as it is very appropriate hold music. if they are referring to real jazz, i agree - it probably isn't the most appropriate hold music... unless, of course, i was living a hundred years ago on a southern swamp where blowing air through pipes sounds appealing for lack of anything better to do.

oopz, did i say that out loud? perhaps i should improvise less...

Soft Jazz is not music. It's hot garbage. There has not been any jazz created in the last 40 years that doesn't sound like noisy, too-cool-for-the-room dreck. I'm glad they used NWA."

friend, we should probably acknowledge the clear distinction between smooth jazz (predominantly synth music, programmed on a computer) and jazz (predominantly saxophone, a wind instrument designed centuries ago that emulates dying geese).

though i do fancy "too-cool-for-the-room" music, i admittedly do have NWA on my iPod (variety calms me).

peace! *dropz mic*

Nobody complained. Maybe they were just happy not to be subjected to endless repeats of Frosty the Snowman and Feliz Navidad?

"...And it don't stop till we get these crackers off our block!"

//I'm white
//dead prez is great

I always did like seeing the customers faces when at 5:45AM they walked in to techno music.

If you don't like the hold music you can always take your business elsewhere.

Perhaps if it were something other or more professional than a pizza joint just say to the employee, "did you know what your hold music is playing …" and leave it at that.

Best on-hold music I've ever heard goes to the FAA bureau in Miami, FL which had "The Best of Jimmy Buffett" on hold...including, "Why don't we get drunk and screw." Alas, they took it off about 2-3 years ago, which is a shame. Made waiting the file a flight plan a bit more enjoyable.

you remember when that song was on every other TV commercial? one reason i don't watch TV anymore.

the worst music, i find, is classic rock. soft jazz i can ignore, but 'Stairway to Hotel Freebird" just makes me insane. do we really need to hear it again? do you really need to play a song that EVEROBODY knows ALL the words to? I thought that listening to your parents music WASN'T cool?

WTF?/??/?!1

If you were referring to me, then it is you who are speaking out of ignorance. As an Army brat, I was born in Washington, DC. I grew up in New York, Missouri, Texas, New Mexico, California, Washington state, and Germany. Sometimes I lived in a big city, sometimes in a suburb, and sometimes in the country. I graduated high school in California. I attended college in Texas and Washington state.

So, when I speak of different places or regions, I speak from actual knowledge - not ignorance. The fictional town of Hicksville, Mississippi, certainly referenced all of Mississippi, but could include the entire South. I mentioned the banning of Dungeons and Dragons and teen dances because that actually happened. Those policies were pushed by Christian conservatives.

Now, if you're not referring to me, who exactly were you referring to?

This is such a brutal abuse of classical music. For God's sake, use Kenny G. That's why God created him. Don't destroy Mahler or Liszt because you (general you) think classical music makes good "background" music because you don't understand it! ARGH!

Don't hate language!

I personally think it would awesome to hear NWA as hold music. I might actually enjoy being on hold for a change. As the generations change, tastes change. Surely my generation (I'm 28), is going to want hear music of it's era in restaurants, elevators, on hold etc.

As far as kids ... well, fuck the kids. Kids have heard that kind of language before, most likely from their parents. Deal with it. They are only words. If words hurt you, you must be awfully fragile.

I'm fairly eclectic, but demand authentic music. Most of which doesn't make it to radio, let alone hold music stations.

I stopped ordering from Papa John's because their pizza stank after they lost their lawsuit, and - equally - their hold music was a HORRIBLE blaring of infomercials urging callers to upsell to more Papa John's stuff. Grrr. So no more $$, Papa John.

For the "What if _____ calls" people, is it really that big a deal? Children usually don't order pizzas (Many delivery drivers won't allow minors to pay for it anyways). And if a cop calls, oh well. I would hope that the men and women charged with protecting our communities aren't going to get all butt-hurt every time some old song tells them something they don't agree with.

@Rectilinear Propagation: How do you do the quote thing?

Honestly, that was my first reacton, too. But then I realized that, if I called a pizza place and this was their hold music, I'd probably call them back the next time I wanted pizza, too.

But then, I'm a 25 year old male.

Also, I'm trying to convince my boss that we need some Tiny Tim tracks for our hold music where I work.

It, too, cracks me up.

At the office building I work at in Houston I've heard "Paint It Black" muzak-style in the elevator area on my floor a few times lately. It always makes me chuckle.

Personally I think I'd laugh my butt off, and if I liked the pizza (ok even if I didn't) I'd call back just to see what they played next.

I had a really funny one the other day though. One company I called had their ad playing and since it was only 8 and I wasn't too bored yet, I listened. I was at first slightly annoyed that I was listening to their Christmas/Holiday music, until I heard them say that they planned on making 2005 and beyond just as great. Then I just cracked up and once I was finished with my business let them know so they could change it.

It doesn't end. So long as being insulted is subjective, you'll never find anything that appeals to everyone. So in light of that, you appeal to your demographic, which, it seems they are quite well.

I've been to Mad Pizza and this completely goes with the attitude they're trying to project. They're like a group of 20-something, laid-back dudes who decided to make pizza. I'm sure their hold music is the same music they play in their shop.

Given what XopherMV said I'd say it's ok for them to do it. (Even the person who sent this in wasn't really offended.)

I might feel different if I was a parent with kids old enough to watch themselves at home and order dinner...but I'm not.

Forced? Nobody is forced to order from Mad Pizza. Just as you can choose to change the radio station, you can choose to order from another pizza place. And the chances of Domino's or Papa John's having N.W.A for their hold music is pretty much zero.

that's what I'm thinking, then again, maybe their clientèle isn't really going to be offended by NWA.

But then my (not so) common sense kicked in and I figured that if someone is that offended by the music, simply hang up and don't give them your money. Done and done.

Before I get flamed, remember, tolerance is a two way street.

the FCC gets its panties in a bunch over the most harmless of things nowadays, I wouldn't use that as my standard personally.

no, but it is a similar situation, every retail establishment is going to have rules dictating the music, to varying degrees.

although, when i did work for starbucks, we hacked the music player,it didn't play standard CDs, the music had a different encoding, i took a disk home, reversed engineered it, figured out the codec, ripped a bunch of CDs. (I don't remember now the codec, this was years ago)

Of course, later, when the music player got all statically, and my manager asked if I could look at it, i saw a much easier hack, there were RCA inputs in the back, all I had to do was get an RCA-3.5mm jack adapter male-male wire and then I could plug in my ipod, co-worker's CD player, etc. (turned out the left speaker wire was loose)

We had: The Blumenschwanz Polka by Die arschgefickten Gummifotzen

Chokotto LOVE by Pucci Moni

Patricia by Joe Bucci Trio

Battery by Metallica

Twelve Days of Christmas by John Denver and the Muppets

And so on...

My whole thought process was that the sales guys KNEW what the hold music was, and they had to answer that call ASAP otherwise, our customers would ASK about the hold music which embarassed the hell out of the sales team. Suffice to say, calls were on hold for about 10-15 seconds tops.

My opinion is that people shouldn't have to be subjected to a full blown run of all curse words, but being creative in putting some quality hold music out there won't hurt anyone.

And I'd go for insipid AND profane over advertising on hold. I called up one large corp one day, and got to listen to advertisements for their other services, while I waited for them to get to me.

Or when I call some government offices, and they use the hold music to remind me about proper disposal of grass clippings.

I also prefer actual songs, be it classical, jazz, or mutilated soft rock, to a vague tune that just repeats over and over.

...And my call is not that important to you. If it was, you'd have answered already.

so when did $tarbuck$ lose its way? Maybe some of you locals should go over there and give them a swift kick in the behind and remind them of their roots?

The company I work for now uses classical music in the stores, and I just want to blow my head off some nights. But customers are adamant about it, there have been store managers fired over email complaints that something other classical was playing (usually jazz), *rolleyes*

Seattle is a city where last week we had a festival that features naked bicyclists. We are the birthplace of grunge music. We pride ourselves on being laid-back, not wearing suits, and accepting people for who they are.

I've been to Mad Pizza and this completely goes with the attitude they're trying to project. They're like a group of 20-something, laid-back dudes who decided to make pizza. I'm sure their hold music is the same music they play in their shop.

So no, I don't have a problem with this.

I don't care what is playing when I'm on hold for a pizza, but if this was a doctors' office or somthing like that I would fell differently.