For the past several months, I’ve found myself returning to the same video as I wind down for the evening after work.
Noir Apartment Ambience | Smooth Jazz, begins with the sound of rain, accompanied by the sound of clinking ice cubes in a glass. Nothing makes me as relaxed and ready for bed as this hastily thrown together sequence of sound effects.
Slowly, the tones of a saxophone fade in, along with the vibrating chimes of a xylophone and the gentle sounds of light percussion, which continue through the hour long video. When this is playing, I picture myself draped over an Eames chair in a tailored sports jacket, staring out into a moodily lit metropolis at night (for a depiction of this, one needs only to look at the thumbnail of the video in question).
The comments section below is filled with devotees like me, singing the praises of this relatively formulaic video and describing the memories, both real and fabricated, that they have chosen to connect with what they are watching. Many commenters have focused on the “Noir” element of the video, choosing to write up small vignettes that demonstrate the imagery that plays in their mind as they listen while doing homework, falling asleep, or sending work emails. One commenter wrote: “The rain hit the pavement like a cheap apology—fast, cold, and meaningless. I lit a cigarette with a match that barely sparked, just like my luck. The city stretched out in front of me, a maze of neon lies and half-paid debts, and somewhere in the middle of it was her.”
Also common amongst the feedback to the video are messages conveying gratitude for a particular escapist itch that the video scratches: “Great cozy vibes. Currently reading the Sin City comic books while listening to this mix. It's a perfect fit”; “By far one of the best Noir videos I've come across. Thank you <3.”
While at first I had assumed that this video and the community watching it was a one-off quirk, I’ve since discovered an ocean of content that follows a similar formula. These videos capture a moment in time and space, real or fiction, and transport the viewer there. In browsing for some background for this post, I found videos including: chill EDM tracks in an alien space bar, a 1980s late night driving through Tokyo mix, a “Brutalist” synthwave soundtrack and 1940s lounge tunes (muffled as if they were playing a room away, adding to the melancholy, nostaligic effect of the video). The only commonality here is the unobtrusive, relaxed nature of the audio and the community of viewers who come back again and again, leaving messages of gratitude for the videos behind in the comments, carving their name into the calm atmosphere they’ve created for themselves.
The channels that post these videos are often anonymous in nature, with vague names and bios that don’t reveal any characteristics that would identify the person or people behind the videos. The sources of the music and any artists behind it are often uncredited. For better or for worse, it feels as though the the internet has spun them up out of an abyss of human consciousness, as a sort of placid reflection of the world that we’ve saved and uploaded.
How should we place value on such repeatable, duplicative, art? To me, it seems that the answer can be found in the results of this genre’s intended purpose: to provide its audience with an escape from the moment, or at least to give the mind something to chew on to make whatever the task at hand is more appealing. I can’t think of many other genres with an approach that’s so utilitarian and obviously implied. Within background music, there’s a beauty in its practicality that goes under appreciated and unrecognized. What elevator music lacks in originality it makes up for in its clear, unadulterated artistic purpose.
Thanks for reading