I know what you mean - When I'm at a bar, I enjoy a quieter setting to have a beer and chat with people. Adding in a pool table or something is great as well. But when music is blaring (live or recorded) that's really all you can do, whether you like the music or not. In my college town, there was a bar that made AWESOME bloody marys. I would sometimes walk there (a couple blocks away) just for one of them. Inspired me to start making my own. This bar was also a music venue (even called "House of Rock"). When a band was playing, I just wasn't interested in going there so much. But on their off nights? You'd get a record player (yes, actual vinyl) playing something on the sound system at a reasonable background volume, just enough that you could talk about that song with the bartender or something without having to shout about it. And it had just a few other people, so you could easily shoot the breeze with whoever else was there.