Mall Of 1974 by Mall Music Muzak

Remember real shopping music? Before the music over shopping mall PA systems became a mishmash of Adult Contemporary recurrents and tired, overplayed '80s oldies?

The music was always more welcoming because it was agnostic. It wasn't someone's favorite music. Or anyone's. It was that stuff that you heard just slightly below the general din of a typical day inside a shopping mall.

You don't know headaches until you've just heard Bon Jovi music playing in the echo chamber of an empty shopping mall. You just don't.

Because the malls acoustically are/were the worst places for contemporary pop/rock music of ANY kind. I soon realized this after the malls started changing their background music from easy listening to pop music from 1987 to 1990. And I soon had a renewed appreciation for orchestras with pianos and lots of big brassy instruments. 

Photo: Long Island '70s Kid

Because shopping malls have/had hard surfaces. The glass storefronts, marble floors and walls, fountains, the weird metal abstract art sculptures and high vaulted courtyard ceilings all reflect sound. Acoustically, they were just better tempered for low volume Percy Faith than mid-volume Paula Abdul. Pop/rock booms in malls with a cathedral-like echo that's sometimes disorienting. Some people can't process that and the person next to them talking through the echo as well as the older easy listening and I'm one of them. Now get off my lawn.

But now you can relive that golden sound as you browse through the Amazon app on your smartphone! Mall Of 1974 is essentially a nifty compilation of classic mall PA music. But also with added echo and reverb to simulate the sound of a shopping mall, circa 1970s/early '80s.

Enjoy!

A Very '70s Kmart Christmas

Remember that Not Found In Nature, Only At Kmart shade of turquoise blue? Well bring it home for the holidays!

"This is a digitized version of an in-store reel to reel tape that was played within a Kmart store in December 1974.  The opening Kmart jingle is interesting at the beginning of both hours, and there are theft deterrent security pages and store policy announcements between every few songs.  This must have been in attempt to discourage shoplifting.

This is a Tape-Athon product perhaps in their early days - see the attached pictures.  There also was an insert within the reel to reel box stating that the recording was made on a state of the art system -- and to possibly adjust volume levels.

The recording contains both sides, which are 1 hour long each, totaling 2 hours.  This tape is in good shape and was recorded on the 3¾ speed. This was transferred to digital using my Akai GX-4000D which is in excellent operable condition, and I cleaned the heads between plays as the tape did leave residue.

Special Thanks to Tom Schwarzrock (Zephryrhills, FL) who personally provided this very rare tape to me so that it can be added to the archive collection.  Tom preserved this from store #3405 Lake street in Minneapolis, MN as he worked there as a department manager in the 1970's." - Mark Davis

"The Sound of Christmas" The Living Strings (Pickwick/Camden, 1970)

You probably had a mom or a grandma with a BIG veneer console stereo and some record like this would plop down from the automatic record changer inside it.

Here it is, complete with the snap crackle and pops of vinyl you remember.....