For the last two years, Dick Corbett has been fascinated by a piece of hold music that plays when he calls the doctor's office. To him, this music is very catchy and interesting to listen to. He would hear it when he called to inquire about his medical bill, and when he called his cardiologist. It turns out that his entire healthcare system uses this piece of hold music. He can't get away from this.
Sometimes Dick would call the hospital asking to be put on hold so he could listen to it. He is a very driven person, and will not stop listening until he figures out what this is. Dick tried to figure out what this music was by having someone listen to many clips of music to see if it matched. Nothing.
Eventually, a registrar at a hospital did some digging for him, and found out all the hospitals on his healthcare network have phones set to the Cisco default hold music. It is entitled "Opus No. 1." It turns out that many people, like Dick, like the song, and have been trying to find it somewhere. After that, the reporter tracked down the composer to let him know of his popularity.
His name is Tim Carleton, who recorded the song in 1989 when he was 16 years old. He no longer composes music. He hasn't profited off Cisco using the piece of music, which is now installed on 65 million of its units. Listening to it, Tim compares it to seeing an old high school yearbook photo of himself.
This American Life is very good at taking a stories that seem trivial and making them super interesting. Knowing Dick's background and personality are important to knowing why he would care so much about a piece of hold music. Tracking down the composer made the story well-rounded and gave listeners the significance of the sound.
Listen to "Opus No. 1" here.
No comments:
Post a Comment