“ON HOLD”
I know it’s strange, but for some reason I love the music they play when you’re on hold. It’s always totally crappy, but it’s a very different kind of crappy background music from the typical muzak you hear in the elevator or at the dentist’s office.
My favorite hold music is when you get these horrible quality instrumentals that sound like midi files that came as free samples with windows 95 or something like that. These pieces are so cheesy, but in a funny way you can almost totally rock out to them.
A good example that’s been running through my head recently is the hold music at HSBC. Dial 800-975-HSBC (4722), then options 1,3,2,1,1. When it asks you for your account number, just press #, then # again, then # a third time. They’ll put you on hold while transferring you to an operator, and you hear this awesome short bass line and cymbals intro. It gets me every time. (It only lasts a few seconds though, then you get transferred somewhere else.)
Post any hold music favorites in the comments and I’ll check them out!
September 19th, 2008 at 4:36 am
I know what you mean. I’m on extended hold with them RIGHT NOW and thought to do a google search to see what other people thought about that slap-bass cymbal terribleness / awesomeness. I’ve heard the whole song about 14 times now, and it’s still just as bad as when I called up twenty minutes ago. Holy God, it’s terrible.
Thanks for posting this, good to know I’m not the only one that feels the need to share a perverse enjoyment of porno style midi music on corporate phone lines. I like to imagine what the conversation was like in the room when they decided to on this piece of music. It hasn’t changed in years.