To be fair, would you wanna see Thom Yorke’s wonky-eye while eating a burrito? Anyway, a reporter from Westword spoke to Christopher Golub, the “guy who programs the songs for all of Chipotle’s more than 1,400 restaurants,” about what makes for bad burrito-eating music.
But music programming at Chipotle is about more than just a feeling. “It also has to have what I call ‘texture of sound,'” Golub explains. “You know that if you go into a store, you’ve got the small, hard surfaces. You’ve got concrete floors, a lot of windows, hard walls and a lot of cooking gear and tile. So that doesn’t work with certain songs.” For example, the high, tenuous yowl of Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke wreaks havoc with the steel and concrete of a Chipotle buildout.
That means you won’t hear “Kid A” at Chipotle — but what will you hear? “It’s hard to put my finger on exactly what song makes it and what song doesn’t,” Golub says. “We do our very best to put on programming that’s not on mainstream radio, on Internet channels. We’re not playing the big hits of the world at all. We’re trying to find emerging stars. Emerging artists have this certain feel to their music.” (Via)
Were I Golub, I’d arrange it so that Belly’s cover of “Burrito #1” is playing 24/7.
I’d be fired instantly.
(via Getty Image) (Via Westword)
