On Music

I got some groceries, some peanut butter,
To last a couple of days.
But I ain't got no speakers, ain't got no headphones,
Ain't got no records to play.

—Talking Heads “Life During Wartime”

Happy New Year!

I hope you had a long and relaxing holiday break. Alas the Banks family didn’t manage to travel this season, but we’re already plotting to do so next December. After some quiet time off (and having fully recuperated from getting mauled in a fight for a Stanley x Starbucks collab quencher), it is nice to get back at it.

Did you get your Spotify wrapped in December? What did it say? Like a lot of things in life there is usually a bit of a disconnect between our musical self-perceptions and the reality: we think our list will be filled with lots of DJ Craze and Kruangbin, when in reality it’s Kelly Clarkson and NSYNC in heavy rotation.

In that vein I think a lot of us retail people think we do music pretty well. I hate to be the one to tell you this, but generally we’re terrible at it.

The biggest moments of our lives are often defined by music. As a teenager I totaled my car to Livin’ In the USA. I realized I was in love with my then-new-girlfriend when Sister Golden Hair came on the car radio (I proposed. She said Yes). I drove through Louisiana in a sad gentle rain listening to Miles Davis on the way to visit my dying father for the last time. Music is important.

So why don’t we pay more attention to the soundscapes that we deliver as retail developers? “Have Some Music Somewhere Sometimes” seems to be the extent of it. As with a lot of things in life, there aren’t Rules but there are guidelines. Ignore them at your peril.

1. The first step is admitting you have a problem, and most likely the problem is you. There are a fair number of people on this distro list and so maybe that’s too big a paintbrush. But the odds are the odds, and the odds are you aren’t the right person to pick the playlist. That’s okay. We can’t all be great at everything, God doesn’t give with two hands.

2. You probably need an expert. Hire a Vibe Manager. Or maybe a Directeur d’Ambiance. That Gen Z in the mailroom with permanent headphones will probably do in a pinch.

3. Put this new expert in charge but then you can’t give them too much leeway, lest you get angry calls from patrons complaining about the extremely explicit lyrics their six year old was exposed to (yes this has happened to me).

4. The playlist needs to vary through the day and night and the week and the season. Outspoken restaurateur Keith McNally has hundreds of different playlists for whatever the mood and season and time of day.

5. Don’t be afraid of the volume. If you’ve handed over the reigns and the playlist is righteous, crank it up. We’re supposed to be having fun here. . .

6. . . . unless you need something soft and contemplative. It can be jazz, or instrumentals. It does’t always have to be songs from the cannon of American Pop. Like this NYC restaurant playlist (more bel0w).

7. How about some live music? At my neighborhood Publix there is often a guy with a guitar. Apparently he showed up one day and the folks at Regency wisely let him. I hope he stays because it makes the experience so much better. At a DC Metro stop the other day a guy was playing Knocking On Heaven’s Door with steel drums. It put a pep in my step and I gave him a buck. You don’t need a stage. Just someone with an instrument.

8. Or it can be a stage. Set up one and run shows as often as the budget will allow. Don’t you remember how badly we missed live music during Covid?

9. If you can’t afford a stage or a vibologist and the kid from the mailroom keeps programming Young Thug and you really don’t care about any of this, just play 2/3 Taylor Swift and 1/3 Beyonce and go back to fighting over lease guarantees.

10. Or, go hog wild and start a radio station.

11. Whatever you do, take a moment to consider the acoustics. They are so important and hardly anyone one thinks about it. If the floors are concrete and the walls are metal and the ceiling is open, the sound is going to suck. Yet another reason not to build retail ceilings so damn high.

12. If the acoustics are irreparable, organize silent discos.

13. Now that we’ve got the what down, how about the where? If the space in question is an enclosed common space -- mall, food hall, office lobby, coffee shop, apartment amenity—I think you must have music.

14. Outside, the lifestyle center development playbook says you put speakers in the flower beds and you play nonthreatening White People music at a nonthreatening volume. But there is a much more punk play here, especially if you’re tying to fool people into thinking it’s an organic environment: no soundtrack at all. Have you ever shopped in the Marais? Or in Georgetown or NoLita? You probably had a fabulous time. Did you notice the speakers in the flower beds?

12. Office people, I’m looking at you: more music in the lobbies please. The other day on an office tour there was a nice piano concerto played at the right level in the background. It doesn’t always have to be something your kids like. It was on point.

13. Expand your mind. Music can be more than a playlist. Incorporate music uses as tenants. You probably won’t get a Bang & Olufsen showroom, but there are other options. Vinyl record shops are muy fantastico, though the rent admittedly isn’t. I wanted to ditch the leasing office in an apartment building we built years ago and replace it with a record shop (I lost that battle). NB: if you do that in your next multifamily project you have to invite me to the opening.

14. Why oh why can’t we do a Tokyo-style listening bar in Atlanta? I’ve tried and tried. This is high on my list: if anyone has an angle I’m all ears.

15. Or better yet, the world’s quietest room? Apparently people can’t last more than a few minute inside.

16. Encourage all of your tenants to program songwriter sets or other music-forward events. This is hard to do and it won’t be perfect, but make it a goal! The young Talking Heads say they once played a Beefsteak Charlie’s in Yonkers. Maybe you’ll get lucky too.

17. Lastly: though we all need music, don’t forget about silence. Make quiet areas and sensory rooms. Add water features, but only if you can actually hear the water. Quit building 20’ tall retail spaces that echo interminably.

At the end of the day, music is a little bit like interior design. You like green and I like yellow, so the point isn’t so much about finding the perfect color as it is putting in the effort to get a really good one that shows you thought about it.

Revel-favorite Seth Godin talks about the little details all the time, and we’ve stolen one of his lines about Foley Artists. They are the ones that make the sound effects in movies to improve the overall experience. Spending time on the details — with music at the top of the list— is the real estate version of Foley artistry that can make all the difference in trying to differentiate yourself from the competition.

What We’re Working On. Travel! I should have taken that milage run at the end of 2023. Cincinnati, DC, Chicago, Tampa, El Paso (and Juarez!), NYC and Providence. And that’s just in January. . .

Back home in Atlanta we’ve got some great new things cooking as well that I’ll tell you about as the year goes on. Here is to an interesting 2024 for us all.

What We’re Watching. Did you catch this short from techno- savant Peter Jackson about the “new” Beatles song Now and Then? I can’t stop watching. It’s mesmerizing. Paul is 80, then he’s 25, then 50, then 80 again. There are thorny musical-ethical- AI questions to be dealt with one day, but put those aside for twelve minutes and watch. If you loved Get Back you’ll dig this.

What We’re Reading. Why Is This Interesting is always, well, interesting. Daily notes on everything from Japanese hotels to experiential gas stations to the retail scene in Seoul. Noah and Colin are avowed audiophiles, and the best musings often involve music, like one on Airline Boarding Music, one on earworms, or one of my favorites: this one on the soundtrack at Kajitsu in NYC.

What We’re Listening To. Hard to pick just one in a note about music, so how about 500? The History of Rock Music in 500 Songs pod is not for the faint of heart. It’s stripped down, raw, low on fancy production features but high on music-geek background. Don’t even try to listen to them all, just pick and choose. The host is only at #171 with Hey Jude, so you’ve got plenty of time before he gets to Now and Then.

Thanks for reading! If you’ve enjoyed this, please forward to a friend. If you’re getting it for the first time, you can subscribe via the button below.

For those new here, I run a retail development and consulting shop in Atlanta, and I write semi-regularly about commercial real estate (or at least, I used to. If you don’t believe me, you can find past notes here).

If you’ve got a mixed-use project that could use some creative thinking — or just want to chat about your favorite soundtracks— please reach out. We’d love to hear from you.

George BanksJanuary 17, 2024