Getting your groove on while shopping

In recent weeks, I have been shopping for "back to school" clothes. Through the course of my retail therapy, I have found myself spending WAY too long in many of these stores. In addtion to sales and my love of shopping, the music they play keeps me so engaged and I find myself wanting to stay in the stores, and spending money, for longer than necessary. Often I find myself looking like this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fsbpZjkqT8) or this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaOoeiTXPJc). I have a feeling many other people have found themselves lip syncing, singing and dancing to the tracks played in retail stores. Therefore, the topic of my inquiry project deals with the music played in shopping/retails stores.

So far in my inquiry project, I have a few questions. 1) Who designs/where are the megamixes designed? 2) Do the music choices have a specific purpose? Are music choices designed to increase purchasing? Or are they used simply for enjoyment?

At this stage in completing this inquiry project, lucky me, I have been able to do a lot of shopping. I have made observations in stores such as Forever 21( http://www.forever21.com/Default.asp?cookie%5Ftest=1), Express (http://www.express.com/home.jsp), and Ann Taylor Loft (http://www.anntaylorloft.com/home.jsp). I have noticed the types of music they play, the volume the music is played at, genres of music they play, the artists or specific songs they play and finally how people react to the songs played. As the project continues I hope to gather resources through interviews. I hope to interview sales associates as well as customers to gather their knowledge, insights and opinions on my inquiry topic.

One thing that has posed a challenege is the lack of concrete researchable information. At this point, I have not found many blogs or published research on this topic. Throughout the course of this project, I will need to continue to find more information.

Because this topic is interesting and enjoybale to me, I am hoping it is to other people in my class. If anyone has any background knoweldge, experience or opinions on the music played in retail stores, I would LOVE to discuss it with you. So far, I have talked with classmates who have siblings or friends that work in retail. I have also spoken with classmates who LOVE to shop. If you fall into either of these categories, please come speak or shop with me :)

As discussed, I have found there is little information, espeically in blog format on my topic. At this point the "Daily DOOH" is the best blog I have found. This blog deals with "out of home audio". There is a really intersting history of music in retail stores, or as the author puts it, "audio retail choreography". http://www.dailydooh.com/archives/10124

This is another blog that deals with "royalty free" music. Because retails stores need to purchase or pay to play music in their stores, this blog discusses royalty free or "free" music that stores can play. It is great because it illustrated types of music, and artists which can be used for holidays or seasons (valentiens day, christmas, etc.) http://www.loopsound.com/blog/

Although not directly related to retail audio choreography, this blog allows people and artists to share music with one another. This is a great, and very popular blog. Similar to http://www.loopsound.com/, royaly free music is available. I feel this is a great way for people to get ideas as to what music they would like to play in their store.

Again, because I have had some difficulties finding blogs, if anyone has information on this topic please feel free to share it with me. I feel fellow shoppers will be a great resource in my inquiry!