Corporation that pioneered the use of background music to encourage efficiency in the workplace (and later to create a soothing atmosphere in stores). In the early 1920s, General Squier merged “music” with his favorite “high-tech” company Kodak, to name his new company which first supplied music for elevators. This music, characterized by re-recordings of popular hits at soothing volumes, using strings in muted tones, barely noticeable at one moment and omnipresent at another, came to be known as muzak.

Ironically Muzak’s articulation of background music has influenced avant-garde rock artist Brian Eno and Ambient music.