Background Music | Business of AV

I was recently sitting in church service when I noticed something amazing that completely changed me and the way I thought about that “background noise” of those little internal voices that are always bouncing around in our heads. Just like normal, after the opening worship set, the pastor stepped up to preach, while the band walked off the stage. Yet, something interesting… ok, different, happened… the keyboard player stayed behind and soft pads continued to swell underneath the pastor’s opening lines. At first, it seemed like a unique transitional feature of the service. But, they kept going. Five minutes in, the music was still there. Ten minutes in, the music was still there… Gentle, supportive, never drawing attention to itself, but definitely present. What started as something that initially caught me off guard as “different,” became a soothing reprieve.

I found myself wondering, “is he really going to play the whole time?” I started analyzing the mix in my head, the tone of the keys, the volume relative to the pastor’s voice, the stage setting, the accent lighting… You know, all the things AV people can’t not do. For a moment, the background was in the foreground. And it felt… right. The intentionality of “different” became power in the present.

As the sermon went on, something shifted, I stopped noticing the keyboard as an “extra” and started feeling it as part of the message. The music wasn’t competing, it was supporting. It gave certain moments weight. It softened others. It created this sense of continuity that carried the room forward. When the pastor leaned into a key point, the harmony added to the conviction. When he paused, the chords filled just enough space to keep everyone emotionally engaged. By the end, I realized that the background had shaped my entire experience.

And that’s when it hit me… Our lives both personally and professionally are no different. We select “background music,” literally and figuratively, that define the power of our actions.

As AV and production people, we instinctively understand the power of background music in a room. We use it all the time for pre-event playlists, lobby tracks, dining facilities, and walk-in and walk-out music. They all say something without saying anything. We know that if we play something bright and energetic, people will talk louder, move faster, lean in more. If we choose something mellow and reflective, they’ll quiet down, breathe deeper, settle. The content on stage matters, but the soundtrack changes how that content is received. We have the power to impact the totality of the experience, even if we aren’t the deliverers of the main stage message.

What I experienced in that sermon is what I think many of us are living without realizing it… We all have a “keyboard player” that plays internally throughout our day. We all carry a background track that is sometimes literal music, but more often the internal soundtrack of our thoughts, the voices we amplify, the stories we repeat about ourselves, our team, and our industry. That track is always playing. Most of the time, we don’t notice it. We just feel the effect, whether good, bad, or ugly. The background music of our lives gives everything we do more power, for better or for worse.

In reflecting on my experience, I started asking myself a question: “What’s been the background music that’s been on repeat in my own head lately?” Not the public message I portray. Not the polished vision statement I can blurt out as a 60-second elevator pitch. I mean the real internal track that plays when no one’s listening. For me, it comes in the form of self-doubt, imposter syndrome, fear of failure, fear of letting others down, the feeling I’m not doing enough at home or work, and questioning what my next steps are.

Maybe you think some of those same things at times. Those thoughts may not come out of our mouths, but they definitely loop in our heads. They become the pad underneath every meeting, incoming email, “we need to talk” request, and even just the wondering of what today will bring. Those who we interact with don’t necessarily hear the exact chords, but they absolutely feel the mood.

This background music shapes how every message lands, even if we don’t realize it. It shows up in lack of confidence, withdrawal, burnout, and risk avoidance. The thing is, if we don’t carefully curate the playlist in our heads, it might just be working against the story we say we want to tell. If the internal soundtrack is scarcity, even a good opportunity will feel like a threat. If the background is resentment, even reasonable feedback will sound like an attack. If the underlying pad is cynicism, even genuine progress will feel like “not enough.” And the fact is, the room responds to what’s playing, whether we acknowledge it or not.

Here’s the catch… Most of our background music isn’t chosen intentionally. It just sneaks in by the way we live our lives. We let our inbox set the tone. We let social media dictate the mood. We let industry gossip become our internal chorus. We replay old frustrations, times we’ve let others down, difficult relationships, and over time those become our default keynotes.

Like me in those first minutes of the sermon, we often only notice the “music” when something feels off. But our natural instinct instead of pausing to ask what’s playing, and questioning how it will impact us (either for good or bad), we push through and call it reality.

Yet in that church, someone made a choice. The worship leader and pastor didn’t accidentally leave the keyboard player out there. They designed it. They experienced the impact of the underscoring and decided, “this helps carry the message where we want it to go.” They curated the background for the purpose of impacting others. And we should do the same.

What if we approached our inner background music with the same intentionality we bring to our careers and daily actions. Often our problems aren’t in ability, but delivery. We know how to ask the right questions when we walk into a room. We know how to troubleshoot and problem-solve. That’s in our DNA. And people don’t question our what… They do question our how and why, however.

As we curate our relationships and interactions with others, we need to pause and truly ask, “What’s the purpose here? What should they ‘feel’ from me? What experience am I trying to create out of this relationship?” Likewise, we need to ask those same questions of ourselves: “What kind of leader do I actually want to be and what soundtrack will create that version of ‘me?’ What do I want people to feel when I walk in? Anxiety, relief, pressure, possibility? What message do I want my presence to underscore?”

If I want my team to feel safe bringing problems forward, but the tone under my reactions is always frustration or a bodily “here we go again,” my behavior and my soundtrack are out of tune. If we want to build strong partnerships with other departments, teammates, or industry partners, but our internal loop is “they’re always a roadblock” or “we’re competitors, not partners,” then our conversations will always carry a hidden dissonance no matter how we sugarcoat the pretty Powerpoint. Likewise, if we say we want to mentor and elevate others, but our personal background track is insecurity, comparison, and jealousy of other’s accomplishments, we will subconsciously undercut the very people we claim to champion.

Changing the background music starts with noticing it, naming it, owning it, and then deliberately swapping tracks. That might mean feeding your mind with more hopeful, visionary voices instead of constant complaint threads on social media. It might mean choosing gratitude as your default pad under tough conversations, recognizing that lasting relationships are often the result of conflict resolution, not the avoidance of it. It might mean letting go of an old narrative that you built in your head about a past employer, a failed project, or an industry wound that you may have actually been reason for. Change tracks is about curating your own top hits chart first so that you can compliment other people’s playlists. Additionally, a solid personal playlist allows you to drown out the negativity that will undoubtedly try to dampen you.

It’s also important to note that in that church service, the keyboard never once demanded attention. No big riffs, no flashy leads. Just a steady, supportive presence that gave everything on top of it more emotional weight. And here’s the thing, your life has that same power of underscoring who you are and who you want to be. Some of us have made negativity our anthem. Others have made hustle our anthem. Some have chosen victimhood. Some have chosen curiosity. Some have chosen forgiveness. Some have chosen generosity and giving. Some are still looping whatever was handed to us years ago without ever asking if it still fits who we are now.

The truth is, our background music becomes our brand. It defines how people experience us in the hallway, in the meeting, in the crisis, online, and at the dinner table. It leads us towards certain decisions and away from others. It either keeps us trapped in old patterns or helps us take the leap of faith into new ones.

So as AV professionals, as leaders, as people trying to do good work in a complex world, we can’t afford to treat our internal soundtrack as an afterthought. We serve in an industry that demands we serve others, for the good of others. We have to be as intentional about the music we guide our lives with as we are about the music coming at us. Because without doing so, when true challenges come our way, we’ll never be able to have a strong foundation that can benefit others.

That day in church, once I got past the initial surprise, I realized how much more connected, open, and engaged I felt because of a simple, steady keyboard pad that refused to leave. It made me question what would change in my life if I intentionally curated the background music in my head, quietly and consistently supporting the message I actually want to live out?

Whatever that answer is for you, that’s the playlist worth building. And if you don’t like the track that’s been playing lately, you already know what to do… Fade it out. Cue something better. Let your life-mix match the story you desire to tell.

-> Article inspired by the sermon message “Accusations and Actions” by Jeff Moors at Rhythm Church Oceanside. Click here to view the entire sermon. <-