What’s with all the YouTube ambiance music? June 2024

We have a Roku device on our television which allows us to access several different channels for our viewing pleasure, including YouTube. With it I can keep up with my favorite podcasters–the British knitting couple, the sixth-generation Pennsylvania vegetable farmer and his cousin who runs a horse stable, and the Michigander who gives great advice on canning and preserving (and who always runs a lively, rollicking Monday night live show for us to chime in from all over the world), just to name a few. It long ago replaced any need for cable television, as it’s more enjoyable to me to be entertained by real, relatable people.

Over the years we’ve also used it as background noise for the dog, who hates thunderstorms, fireworks, and other things that go bump at all hours of the day and night. My husband is fond of choosing a channel before we leave the house so we won’t come home to a frantic dog who hears everything. We’ve used it so much that my feed this summer is now flooded with every variety of jazz music one could think of:

• “Wednesday Morning Sweet Summer Bossa Nova to Study, Work, and Relax”
• “Happy Morning Jazz at Seaside Coffee Shop”
• “Enjoy Your Day: Early Morning Summer LoFi”
• “Summer in the Garden: A Vintage Playlist”
• “Soothing Jazz Melodies in the Garden Café”
• “Beach Coffee Harmony: Calm Piano Bossa Nova Jazz and Soft Background Music”
• “Positive Jazz”
• “A New Day Full of Energy with Smooth Jazz Melodies”

In cold weather we can choose between many of the same melodies, only with colorful fall leaves or snow added.

Photo by Tirachard Kumtanom on Pexels.com

Notice it’s always a positive, happy, or relaxing setting. Everything from beach waves to sleeping cats to quietly falling snow graces the screen while–I’m just guessing here–the same six songs play in an endless loop. 

There’s never music for those experiences we all have that are at least mildly annoying but universal to us all. Why do we never see:

• “Slow Smooth Migraine Jazz”
• “Neighbor’s Weed Eater at 7am Jazz”
• “Working the Little League Concession Stand Jazz”
• “Flat Tire on Your Morning Commute Jazz”
• “Whiny Kid in the Grocery Checkout Line Bossa Nova”
• “Infant Diaper Blowout Up the Back Jazz”
• “Dripping Faucet Xylophone Ditties”
• “Teenager Slammed the Door Again Percussion Ensemble”
• “Skunk on the Way to Work Focused Breathing Techniques”
• “2am Yoko Ono Catfight Ambiance Punk”
• “Railroaded a Half Mile from Home Heavy Metal Favorites”
• “Starbucks Spelled My Name Wrong Again Folk Music Favorites”

Come to think of it, no one ever hears a DJ on the radio say, “This one’s for all you paper cut sufferers out there…”

We could start a whole new genre–“Commiseration Jazz” or “Empathizing Bossa Nova” could be the next big thing in ambience music. You never know.