Boarding Music

When you get on and off and airplane, do you ever listen closely to the boarding music?

Airlines spend a fair amount of time and money researching appropriate music choices for the boarding and deplaning process. It’s a search for the ultimate mix tape. A tape that will soothe your nerves if you are feeling harried. One that will cheer you up if you are depressed. Songs with beats that will make you step lively, yet with lyrics that will not offend.

Before a mix tape can be approved, lots of people must be involved. This may include focus groups, an inflight committee (or two), and some sort of management review process. The music will then be recorded, and additional people will be involved to review the quality of the production, get the music onboard the airplanes, and the lively tunes “sold” to the Flight Attendant group.

Once the new music arrives on the airplanes, we play it. Over, and over again, we play it. Within a week we are sick of it. It’s not calming our nerves, it’s making us cranky. We’re not cheerful, we’re growing more and more anxious every time we hear these songs. After two weeks, we’d just as soon turn the music off as listen to it, and by the third week we have turned it off.

I’ve never really been certain if passengers appreciate or even like the boarding music. All I know is that I’ve been off the plane for a couple hours now, and I still can’t get “New York, New York” out of my mind.