| Easy listening | |
|---|---|
| Other names | |
| Stylistic origins | |
| Cultural origins | 1940s, United States[1] |
| Derivative forms | |
| Subgenres | |
| Space age pop | |
Easy listening (includingmood music[5]) is apopular music genre[6][7][8] and radio format that was most popular during the 1950s to the 1970s.[9] It is related tomiddle of the road (MOR) music[1] and encompassesinstrumental recordings ofstandards,hit songs, non-rock vocals and instrumental covers of selected popular rock songs. It mostly concentrates on music that pre-dates therock and roll era, characteristically on music from the 1940s and 1950s. It was differentiated from the mostly instrumentalbeautiful music format by its variety of styles, including a percentage of vocals,arrangements andtempos to fit various parts of the broadcast day.
Easy listening music is often confused withlounge music, but while it was popular in some of the same venues it was meant to be listened to for enjoyment rather than as background sound.
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| External audio | |
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 You may hear examples of easy listening music performed by John Serry on his albumSqueeze Play in 1956Here on listenbrainz.org |
The style has been synonymous with the tag "with strings". String instruments had been used in sweet bands in the 1930s and was the dominant soundtrack to movies of Hollywood's Golden Age. In the 1940s and 1950s strings had been used injazz andpopular music contexts. As examples in the jazz genre, there are recordings ofFrank Sinatra.[10] Another example of a practitioner in the popular context wasDinah Washington's "What a Difference a Day Makes". In the 1950s the use of strings quickly became a main feature of the developing easy listening genre.
Jackie Gleason, a master at this genre, whose first ten albums went gold, expressed the goal of producing "musical wallpaper that should never be intrusive, but conducive".[11]
Similarly, in 1956John Serry Sr. sought to utilize the accordion within the context of a jazz sextet in order to create a soothing mood ideally suited for "low pressure" listening on his albumSqueeze Play.[12][13][14]Jerry Murad also contributed to the music, including a variety of types of harmonica.
The magazinesBillboard andRecord World featured easy listening singles in independently audited record charts. Generally 40 positions in length, they charted airplay on stations such asWNEW-FM, New York City, WWEZ, Cincinnati, andKMPC, Los Angeles.Record World began their listings January 29, 1967, and ended these charts in the early 1970s.Billboard's Easy Listening chart morphed into theAdult Contemporary chart in 1979, and continues to this day.[15]
During the format's heyday in the 1960s, it was not at all uncommon for easy listening instrumental singles to reach the top of the charts on theBillboard Hot 100 (and stay there for several weeks).[16]
Beautiful music, which grew up alongside easy listening music, had rigid standards for instrumentation, e.g., few or nosaxophones (at the time, the saxophone was associated with less refined styles such as jazz androck and roll, althoughBilly Vaughn was an exception to the rule), and restrictions on how many vocal pieces could be played in an hour. The easy listening radio format has been generally, but not completely, superseded by thesoft adult contemporary format.[17]
According to theContinuum Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World, "The public prominence and profitability of easy listening [in the postwar years] led to its close association with the so-called 'Establishment' that would eventually be demonized by the rockcounterculture."[18] InChristgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981), rock criticRobert Christgau said "semiclassical music is a systematic dilution of highbrow preferences".[19]
Easy listening/lounge singers have a lengthy history stretching back to the decades of the early twentieth century. Easy listening music featured popular vocalists such asFrank Sinatra,Bing Crosby,Dean Martin,Patti Page,Tony Bennett,Nat King Cole,Rosemary Clooney,Doris Day,Perry Como,Engelbert Humperdinck,The Carpenters,The Mills Brothers,The Ink Spots,Julie London, and many others. The somewhat derisive term lounge lizard was coined then, and less well-known lounge singers have often been ridiculed as dinosaurs of past eras[20] and parodied for their smarmy delivery of standards.[21]
In the early 1990s the lounge revival was in full swing and included such groups asCombustible Edison,Love Jones, The Cocktails,Pink Martini andNightcaps. Alternative bandStereolab demonstrated the influence of lounge with releases such asSpace Age Bachelor Pad Music and theUltra-Lounge series of lounge music albums. The lounge style was a direct contradiction to thegrunge music that dominated the period.[22][23]
Mood music has come to be known as easy-listening music; however ... in the strict sense of the term, mood music means background music written for radio and television programs (including 'commercials'), as well as feature, documentary and newsreel films.