The “It’s time you should be going home” Music

[Tianjin42]

Is anyone else familiar with the music played in various institutions at closing time (and often a lot earlier than closing time when the members of staff want to go home)?

I hear this at the gym, the supermarket and many other places.

 

I recall two pieces of music:

1, a slow 80s style sax solo

2, a piano ditty that (I think) speeds up slightly

 

I have heard these across northern China – are they also used in the south?

How did these pieces of music become synonymous with closing time?  

 

I gather this may sound odd – but I wonder if anyone else knows what I am talking about here. 

[Lu]

Kenny G - Going home.

Underneath that video are people saying that it's such a great song, their favorite, etc. For me it'll never be anything else than the 'get out' song. Brings back memories :-)

 

Don't know if they also use it in the south. In Taiwan in the computer room at the uni, they would turn of the lights instead of putting on music.

[eshton]

I seem to recall something of a jazz or 80s sax song that I would hear at supermarkets or other places in Shanghai around closing time. There was definitely one used on the metro when approaching the end of a line. I haven't heard anything of the sort here in Nanjing though.

[mandarina]

In Shanghai, Kenny G is usually played at the final stops of metro lines (sometimes in elevators). Funny enough, although he's usually dissed in the West, he's pretty popular in China (although I doubt he's actually being paid for any time he's broadcast - I read about this on NPR don't remember the details though).

 

He had a concert in Shanghai last year. Has anyone been?

[Tianjin42]

Didn't know he'd played Shanghai. I hope he didn't play the aforementioned 'Going Home' song mid-set. Everyone would have automatically left the venue.

[Lu]

I hope he didn't play the aforementioned 'Going Home' song mid-set. Everyone would have automatically left the venue.

That would be hilarious. I hope he knows that this song of his has this meaning in China, I wonder what he does with that in concerts? Does he play it at the end, does he avoid playing it at all? Personally I will never be able to hear that song as just a song in its own right, the message it sends (f***off, we want to go home) is infinitely stronger than the music and whether it sounds nice.