It's like porn, they all used to have music, and now people still make jokes about how bad it was but it's just gone now

It's not as common as it used to be, but I think the point was kind of that you're not supposed to notice it?

Look into "muzak" (the style of music. Apparently it's also a brand according to Google), and some of Brian Eno's ambient albums like "Music for Airports" (which is definitely a bit more sparse than elevator music, which was often like smooth jazz versions of classic songs), but along similar lines.

I don't like to think I'm that old, and I 100% remember elevator music.

Edit: was possibly thinking of "musique concrete" rather than muzak.

Yeah they always go with awkward silence

I've been in a few that played music (or more recently, ads) in them. But, yeah, it's like quicksand in that I was led to believe it would be pretty uniquitous.

I don't think I can actually recall one either.

Maybe in a department store or mall in the 80s. It was just so deliberately bland I never noticed when it became less common.

I worked in an office that installed music in the bathrooms. It wasn’t there for a long time, and then they added it. An email went out at one point instructing people to stop turning off the music (someone figured out where the Sonos controls were I guess). Someone at the top had decided it was IMPERATIVE to have something to listen to other than the coworker grunting next to you.

Some hotel elevators have it.

But yeah, I don't recall the last time I heard music in a residential elevator.