You've never heard of these artists, but you know their work.
In 1989, Tim Carleton and Darrick Deel, two high school friends, wrote a song called "Opus Number 1" and recorded it using a Yamaha DX7IIFD and an Alesis Midverb. They composed it because of its specific auditory qualities - the synth, the taps. It was a pleasing sound to these high school kids - Carleton was particually into Yanni, so that was also part of the inspiration. The song is 5 minutes and 38 seconds of abslolute new-age bliss.
They went on to big rock stardom no big rock stardom, but the song was never by either of them.
Both Carleton and Deel went on to become IT professionals in the San Francisco Bay area. Deel worked for a company called Cisco, who were starting to move beyond routers and switches and into the world of IP telephony. Deel happened to be one of the engineers on the project for the first IP phones from Cisco, and knew that the project needed default on-hold music.
He happened to have the perfect song on his phone, and the rest is history.
So, to all the lazy IT professionals who have set up a Cisco phone system and left the default hold music in place - thank you. You have helped to make "Opus Number 1" the most popular on hold music in the world, by far.
This music is so pervasive, it was featured in a Super Bowl commercial for Bud Light this year.
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