If you have taken a trip in a passenger lift in a set of offices, apartments or retail properties in recent years, they tend to be soundtracked by the smooth, relaxing hum of the lift mechanisms working perfectly, interspersed with a calm, clear voice announcing the next floor.

In some cases, these lifts may also be quietly playing a very distinctive type of music that is a mix of inherently familiar, calming and so unintrusive that you may not even have noticed it was there.

This is known as lift music or elevator music depending on which side of the Atlantic you happen to be on, and is believed to have originated with Muzak, a company founded by George Squier under the original name Wired Radio.

Whilst it was pitched and sold for a variety of public spaces, its most common usage was in lifts because the soft, soothing music helped to ease the nerves of lift riders during a time when riding in a lift was still a relatively new experience for a lot of the population.

Back in the 1930s, lifts were far less smooth and there was less of a focus on passenger experience than there is now, so the loud, whirring mechanisms could be somewhat unnerving.

Adding a relatively relaxing soundtrack that combines smooth jazz, easy listening and other light music genre formats helped to soothe these worries and an argument could be made that it helped the adoption and widespread use of lifts.

It turned lifts from a frightening unknown into another part of the furniture, and whilst this betrays the incredible complexity and brilliance of lifts, lifts needed to become as ubiquitous as they are today

The lift music concept became more widespread when the psychological basis for why soothing lift music calms people down was figured out, and Muzak was used everywhere, from shops trying to inspire an additional sale to “Stimulus Progression” works that claimed to boost productivity.

Ultimately, whilst Muzak themselves went bankrupt in 2009, the lift music legacy still endures to this day.