Explore how music and atmosphere shape the drinking experience. Discover the impact of ambiance on your bar visit.
How Music and Atmosphere Shape the Drinking Experience
Walking into a bar isn’t just about the drinks available to you. The music, the light, the volume, whether you have to whisper or can speak in a conversational tone, and so many other things make, or break, the experience of heading somewhere to get a drink. These two places could be pouring the same cocktails, but the atmosphere may make one feel you’re in a different realm altogether, and that vital vibe is what keeps patrons, or drives them away from your door all night long.
The Volume of Music
The volume of the music might seem like it wouldn’t make that much difference, but it absolutely does to the type of interaction people can have in its space. Low volume becomes a setting for conversation. This permits a bar to be suitable for dates and business meetings, and good old-fashioned catching up with friends. You want to be able to speak in a conversational tone without having to repeat yourself.
Moderate volume allows for interaction and just enough energy without making conversation complicated. This is where most bars should aspire to be; some noise is good, but not so much that you have to scream to be heard; it should always remain in the background, and never take over the setting.
High volume immediately shifts the interaction within a space. If you have to shout to people right next to you, there isn’t much chance of engaging in complicated conversation. Loud bars are for people who want to feel the music and sacrifice their speaking abilities for an atmosphere.
What Music Do You Play?
What you play is just as important as how loud it is. The type of music playing in any venue announces to the patrons who it’s for, and who’s welcome there, and the type of experience they’ll have. The current top 40 appeals to a lot of people but, ultimately, sets up a generic atmosphere. A carefully constructed playlist that nods to a decade, genre, and specific vibe gives your venue a solid identity.
Learning this lesson from choosing the right music is how you set up an experience. A bar playing specific tracks or genres becomes an experience patrons can share. These venues become places people return to for drinks instead of just looking around for a good spot to grab something, down it, and carry on with their lives. Bars that play a certain type of music like a 90s themed cocktail bar in covent garden form identities around themselves, and encourage communities of patrons who share the same vibe.
Live music changes what you get at your bar. Even if it’s just someone strumming acoustic guitar, the music will command attention to one corner, changing interactions within that space. When people come specifically to see someone play, everyone ends up their audience, which works great if they’re the ones you came to see. However, if you’ve got a group of people who need to catch up, this could become problematic in no time.
Lighting in Bars
The dimmer the lights, the more relaxed and intimate customers feel. Dim lighting blurs the crowd, creates that certain vibe by taking away the harshness of sterility, and encourages people to enjoy the atmosphere. Yet, excessively dim lighting often works against the venue. People still want to read menus. They want to navigate their environments with relative ease and not have to rely on fumbling in the dark; they want to interact with the staff without drama.
Brightly lit venues offer a sense of sterility but allow people to read menus, engage with the staff, and just get through their experience with ease.
Lighting certain areas while keeping others dim gives you a pleasing visual without making patrons feel restricted. You can light up the bar area for ordering drinks while allowing the seating area to remain slightly darker (and slightly viewed, without being overly lit)
Different colors have different impacts on crowds. Warm lighting encourages people to feel relaxed and at home in certain spaces. Extremely cool and sterile lighting makes them feel lively but not in a comfortable setting. Bars that play around with the lighting tones that go against their intended vibe give people a unique atmosphere that feels wrong.
Design of Bar
Bars that use open concept designs encourage patrons to engage with each other and foster social energy within these spaces. This does work wonders for engaging with existing friends or new acquaintances but can make it hard for anyone wanting to hold an intimate conversation with one specific person.
Layouts and designs impact how people interact with others and their groups. Open spaces do permit people to mingle and chat while different designs encourage engagement with specific groups only.
Sitting at the bar gives you a different atmosphere than sitting at a table in most bars. People sitting at bars sit closely next to one another, encouraging chat while waiting for their drinks. People choosing tables or booths immediately separate themselves from others, forcing social interaction with designated groups only.
The time someone spends sitting in various arrangements at a bar can be different. Uncomfortable seats encourage people to rush their drinks so they can leave the venue as quickly as possible. Bars with comfy seating arrangements encourage them to linger about, contemplating the vibe instead of rushing into new purchases or adventures.
Bring on the Senses
Temperature might not be something you consider when stepping into a bar; however, that doesn’t mean someone doesn’t need to keep an eye on it every moment of every day. Bars that keep patrons in excessively cold spaces make them feel tense. Bars that keep them too warm have them sweating up a storm, and feeling a bit stuffy. Dealing with temperature setups that accommodate them and other people they share their drinks with as they change over time goes a long way toward making bars comfortable.
Honestly thinking about smell around bars might not occur often; not a lot of people consider it however, using olfactory memory goes a long way toward creating an experience. People avoid bars that smell like old beer on carpets or on bathroom floors. Some people create scents that customers remember and associate with their bars.
The difference between a busy bar and a designed bar impacts how people feel when entering certain locations. Busy bars may make people feel energetic when they walk in after long days. Those haphazardly designed spaces force patrons to feel chaotic versus organized with their lives and the areas in which they end up.
Match Each Aspect
None of these atmospheres is better than another; this is about ensuring each aspect can be chosen deliberately based upon who you want roaming your space post-drink pour. You can’t blast club music at conversation-killing levels in a cocktail bar hoping to maintain an air of sophistication while creating certain atmospheres.
All aspects work together. Everything about someone’s favorite bar was purposely chosen before they came in through the door; if they can sit there humming along with the song that creates a certain level of comfort with themselves and how they open a drink as cautiously as possible, they will have the divine experience worthy of return. They won’t necessarily look forward to going back if the elements are contrary.
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