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Bill Catherall
04-30-2003, 08:45 AM
(I didn't put this thread in the Columns General forum because I wish to discuss one of DCA's shortcomings, not today's column.)

In today's article, California Reamin' (http://www.mouseplanet.com/david/dk030430.htm), David Koenig talks about the precedence to some of the things DCA gets the most complaints about. I have one other complaint that he didn't address.

Now admittedly, I haven't seen this complaint much, if at all, on these or other boards. So that's probably why David didn't bring it up. But to me it's DCA's biggest problem. In fact, I actually like DCA. It's this one thing that gets to me and makes me dread going there and limits the amount of time I can spend there.

It's just too loud.

From the moment you enter the park you are literally bombarded with music. Every area of the park has music. And it's not really background music. It's loud. It feels like it's being piped directly into your head. It makes it difficult to carry on a conversation with others in your group without shouting. After spending about 5 hours in DCA last week I was horse and agitated by the end of the day. I couldn't really figure out why at first.

We were there for 3 days. The first 2 days we started out at Disneyland and hopped over to DCA later in the day. On the third day we started out in DCA with the plan to hop over to Disneyland in the afternoon. It was on this 3rd day, after spending all morning and a good portion of the afternoon that I realized why I was so agitated and aggravated. It was like the infamous water torture. A few drops doesn't do anything. But drop after drop after drop and you soon have a pounding headache. Five hours was about all I could take before I just wanted to scream. I had to get out.

But something magical happened when I left and finally entered Disneyland. Peace came over me! I could still hear themed music in Disneyland, but it wasn't loud. I could talk to my wife without speaking up. I actually felt much more relaxed walking among the crowds of Disneyland.

Yeah, walking down Hollywood Blvd. to the James Bond theme is cool. But turn it down! It's too overpowering.

Jason Reynolds
04-30-2003, 11:18 AM
Maybe your just getting older, the older one gets the louder the music seems to be.

zapppop
04-30-2003, 11:25 AM
Very good point Bill.
I can't think of a single quiet spot anywhere in DCA.
Even the restrooms have music. :rolleyes:

stan4d_steph
04-30-2003, 11:27 AM
I have noticed this as well. The music also tends to clash rather badly at different locations. In particular, the area near the Winery, Golden Dreams, Wharf. The openness of DCA allows the music from different areas to bleed together.

innerSpaceman
04-30-2003, 11:27 AM
I think there's a spot where the water sound from the cascades on Grizzly Peak actually drowns out the music. (pun not intended)

It's far from quiet, but at least the sound has the pleasant illusion of nature.

Bill Catherall
04-30-2003, 11:30 AM
Originally posted by Jason Reynolds
Maybe your just getting older, the older one gets the louder the music seems to be. Actually, I usually like to play it loud. Especially my movies. When I'm watching a movie the only reason my wife talks to me is to tell me to turn it down. ;)

I think regardless of age, people have an intolerance to listening to high levels of noise for long periods of time. It puts a strain on our senses. If DCA is meant to be an all day play place then they need to make it more comfortable for people to stay there for longer than 5 hours at a time.

Has anybody else felt this kind of auditory overload at DCA before?

(EDIT: Oh I see that Zapp, steph, and iSm posted before I saw it.)

Disneyphile
04-30-2003, 12:20 PM
Here's my theory:

The DCA music is probably played at the same volume as DL, but there are people at DL to help absorb some of the soundwaves, making it a bit softer. ;) So, DCA's low attendance just rings even louder through its sound systems.:~D

RStar
04-30-2003, 12:50 PM
My theory:


1) It's loud so you can't hear other people complain about the park.

2) They are trying to make people want to leave sooner so they don't run out of things to do before they would want to leave.



I noticed the level, but never really thought about the agitation part of it before. I have noticed how much happier I feel when I then go to DL and start walking down Main Street, it's like going home. Comforting, familiar, soothing.

Rallymonkey23
04-30-2003, 01:25 PM
Originally posted by RStar
I have noticed how much happier I feel when I then go to DL and start walking down Main Street, it's like going home. Comforting, familiar, soothing.

Ahhhhhh. Now I have to get my fix. Thanks alot RStar! :D

As for the DCA music. I totaly agree, the music is way too loud.

teri
04-30-2003, 01:30 PM
We won't stay at Paradise Pier hotel with a park view anymore. You hear the tinny Paradise Pier music from early morning to late night.

mousey_girl
04-30-2003, 01:40 PM
The only place I have really noticed the music being overwhelmingly loud is in the Pier area. I don't know if it is just that by the time we got to other areas of the park I had tuned it out or that we passed thru the other areas so quickly I didn't notice. (the tuning out is the most likely, since I have to do that at work-large call center, lots of noise, needing to focus on what my customers are saying ect...)

Rallymonkey23
04-30-2003, 01:43 PM
Originally posted by teri
We won't stay at Paradise Pier hotel with a park view anymore. You hear the tinny Paradise Pier music from early morning to late night.

Oh boy. I can see it now........ I gigantic "sky" wall to block the music from DCA. :~D

Tref
04-30-2003, 02:17 PM
I noticed the loud music, too, and wondered the same thing. Not only was it obtrusive but it seemed to cheapen the feel of the park. Its ironic, because choosing the right music to fit the land's theme is usually something Disney does better then anybody else (the queue music for Indiana Jones and Tower of Terror comes immediately to mind as being spot on.) In fact, Disneylands music is well intergrated and so natural to wherever I am at that moment in DL, that I am barely aware of its presence (though something could be said about playing the theme to Blazing Saddles in Frontierland) Why they insist on turning up the music at DCA may just be an attempt to distract us.

And why James Bond? Hollywood Blvd's music should reflect the time period that it supposedly recreates -- 1920s thru 1950s Los Angeles. Certainly, Bing Crosby, Paul Whiteman and Glenn Miller would be more at home on that street during that time, then John Barry.

I remain,

innerSpaceman
04-30-2003, 02:36 PM
Originally posted by Tref
And why James Bond? Hollywood Blvd's music should reflect the time period that it supposedly recreates -- 1920s thru 1950s Los Angeles.
If I'm not mistaken, the Hollywood Backlot music loop is just a direct lift from the Disney-MGM Studios loop in Florida. That does not make it any better, especially since the Florida park is even more steeped in the Hollywood-of-yore theme.

Still, I don't think they are trying to evoke a time period with the music; simply trying to evoke "the movies." The result: you are not transported to another time and place; you are magically transported to a movie studio theme park!

Matterhorn Fan
04-30-2003, 02:38 PM
iSm, if they're trying to evoke "the movies," they're not doing very well. Last I checked, "Home Improvement" was a television sitcom.

Tref
04-30-2003, 02:50 PM
Originally writ' by innerSpaceman
... Still, I don't think they are trying to evoke a time period with the music; simply trying to evoke "the movies." The result: you are not transported to another time and place; you are magically transported to a movie studio theme park!

How depressing! I thought DCA's Hollywood area was supposed to be L.A. in the 1920s. Is it really supposed to be a blacklot? Uhg. I can't argue with you as I spent all of five minutes admiring its many charms, though I do remember MGM/Disney's music to be a little closer to the feel of Los Angeles during that time period. Maybe I am wrong about this too, but I think the only backlot at MGM/Disney is the New York set.

I.r.

innerSpaceman
04-30-2003, 03:10 PM
Well, unless such tunes as "Star Wars" and "Jaws" are meant to evoke the 30's and 40's of Hollywood's heyday, Disney-MGM is just as guilty of anachronism as is DCA.

In DCA's defense, the area is called "Hollywood Studios Backlot.


The Florida park, however, is supposed to be the 30's and 40's.

Flippyshark
04-30-2003, 03:15 PM
This issue has always been a big one for me. I have a pretty low threshold for noise, and I tend to notice the audio environment pretty keenly. If the "soundtrack" to an area is either too loud, or simply isn't appropriate, it really irritates me. So, indeed, when Disney gets this wrong, it is all the more dispiriting, since they so often get it right.

Personally, I don't like to hear a lot of TV tunes in my park visits. There is nothing more mundane than something that makes you feel like you are at home slouched on the sofa. TV theme songs do a great job of making just about anything seem ordinary and trite. (Obviously, in an attraction like "Millionaire" it is entirely appropriate.) Movie themes, in connection with attractions based on the movies at hand, are a different story, of course.

I am very fond of the Disney-MGM Studios, but I like best those areas of the park, like Sunset Boulevard, that hark back to an earlier time, and create a soundscape that is removed from the everyday. Other areas, like the dreaded Commisary Lane, are nothing but TV tunes! Walking along, and suddenly hearing the theme from "Roseanne," well, hey, I used to enjoy that show, but hearing this in a park is kind of depressing. The theme from "Home Improvement" just leeches the magic away for me. And I could go the rest of my life quite happily without ever hearing the Brady Bunch theme again. (Especially at a Disney park!)

(In a related rant - I also hate it when popular songs get turned into commercial jingles - wether they change the lyrics or use the original recordings. As soon as something becomes associated with trying to sell me a car, a laptop, a purple pill, or whatever, it just destroys the song for me. I usually find myself pretty much alone on this one, so I will understand if others don't chime along. Thanks for your time.)

Jason Reynolds
04-30-2003, 03:18 PM
I enjoy the restrooms with music in them. It tends to mute out the strange noises that erupt from the stalls.

Matterhorn Fan
04-30-2003, 03:27 PM
Originally posted by Flippyshark
(In a related rant - I also hate it when popular songs get turned into commercial jingles - wether they change the lyrics or use the original recordings. As soon as something becomes associated with trying to sell me a car, a laptop, a purple pill, or whatever, it just destroys the song for me. I usually find myself pretty much alone on this one, so I will understand if others don't chime along. Thanks for your time.) *chiming along* You're not entirely alone. I also hate it when it goes the other way around. Recently I heard on the radio some song that I'd previously only known from a commercial--I immediately changed the station. They don't actually expect me to be able to take that song seriously, do they? All it does it make me think of an ad for a gym.

So as not to be accused of derailing . . . . I do think things are a little too loud in DCA. And I know some people here love it, but that Chance to Shine show is the biggest offender IMHO. I hear it's a good show, but I wouldn't know. I can't take the volume, so I've never stuck around to actually watch the show. If that makes me old, so be it. ;)

Morrigoon
04-30-2003, 03:43 PM
RE: the Koenig article

Wow, apologist much?

MMFan
04-30-2003, 03:45 PM
I think the music in DCA is too loud, and has always been too loud, because it would cost way too much money to turn it down. :D

Tref
04-30-2003, 04:01 PM
Originally posted by innerSpaceman
Well, unless such tunes as "Star Wars" and "Jaws" are meant to evoke the 30's and 40's of Hollywood's heyday, Disney-MGM is just as guilty of anachronism as is DCA. [/size]

Well, I can't imagine me hearing the Jaws theme on the Hollywood Blvd portion of MGM/DIsney and not making a bee-line to whatever their version of DL's City Hall may be to complain, but who knows? Maybe I was oblivious. But I swear I only heard music from the 30s and 40s when I was in the part of the park. I would even bet on it, but ...

I.r.

California Aggie
04-30-2003, 09:18 PM
I never thought about it before, but the loud music does make sense. In the Sunshine Plaza it seems like they are always playing an instrumental version of "little old lady from pasadena"

innerSpaceman
05-01-2003, 11:53 AM
Originally posted by Tref
I swear I only heard music from the 30s and 40s when I was in the part of the park. I would even bet on it, but ...
Well, tref, loops change. I was last at Disney-MGM in '95 and they were certainly playing very current movie themes in the loop.

But, witness our beloved Disneyland. For many years after EuroDisney opened in '92, the Main Street loop of authentic turn-of-the-century tunes was replaced by the Paris loop of Broadway turn-of-the-century facimilie songs (i.e., from "Hello Dolly" and "The Music Man"). In recent years, however, better minds prevailed and Main Street once again properly features authentic music.

Times change. Sometimes for the better.


(Now, if we could only do something about Euro's 'How the West Was Won' and 'Blazing Saddles' in Frontierland.)