Easy listening

Easy listening music is a style of popular music which emerged in the mid-20th century. Around 1980, it was the most listened to radio format in America, although it soon became scarce as a format not because its listeners were too few but because they were getting too old and therefore less desirable for radio advertisers. This type of music features simple, catchy melodies, cool, laid-back harmonies and occasionally rhythms suitable for dancing. While it is mostly instrumental music, some singers, such as Andy Williams, Jack Jones, Engelbert Humperdinck and Eydie Gorme had vocal styles which were highly compatible with this style. Much of the work of some other pop vocalists, including Frank Sinatra, Tom Jones, and Mel Torme was too frenetic or swing-oriented to be played in an easy listening format. "Mood music" is another term for this style. Beautiful music is a subset of easy listening music, since as a radio format it had rigid standards for instrumentation (e.g., few or no saxophones) and restrictions on how many vocal pieces could be played in an hour.

Related Topics:
Popular music - 20th century - Andy Williams - Jack Jones - Engelbert Humperdinck - Eydie Gorme - Frank Sinatra - Tom Jones - Mel Torme - Beautiful music

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The term has sometimes been applied negatively in the years since this format went out of fashion. It is similar to what is called lounge or lounge core, but lounge music is much more jazz-oriented and dependent on improvisation than easy listening. Easy listening music is almost always orchestrated and is more analagous to classical music than to jazz. Since easy listening music is rather unknown to the younger generations, the term easy listening is often incorrectly applied to soft pop or new age music.

Related Topics:
Lounge - Soft pop - New age music

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