Must We Have Bad Music in Public Spaces?

The "Idea of the Day" column in the New York Times quotes an article in Travel & Leisure by Peter Jon Lindberg, He complains about the noise pollution in public spaces — not people talking, but the omnipresent bad music in shopping centers, elevators, fancy resorts (even underwater in pools), airports, and on and on. He makes a whimsical point that if he has to listen to music, he would much prefer Mozart to Vivaldi's Four Seasons and Bob Dylan to The Eagles.

We concur with his affirmation of "the right not to listen to music." Why do we have to have some kind of noise always besieging our already fried brains? Can't we do anything without a soundtrack? And what does this assault on our ears say about our fear of silence?