My wife and I have been traveling quite a bit this summer, and, consequently, have been dining on the road far more than usual. (I have become a bit more corpulent, unfortunately.)

Most of the restaurants and fast-food places we visited play piped-in music at irritatingly high volume. Is there marketing research that supports this practice? No matter what kind of music that is forced on the customers, a sizable percentage of them won't like the particular style of music they must endure. Why irritate them?

I have never heard anyone complain that an eating place is too quiet.