New Age music

At its beginnings, new age music was closely related to the New Age movement of beliefs, therefore, its contents have been constantly associated with mystical matters clearly present within the cultural movement. Today, it has become associated more with general relaxation and is taken lightly by most listeners, although a strong mystical perspective is often presented through the packaging of the music and the venues of purchase. To be specific, the mysticism present is characteristic of the 21st Century New Age movement—it draws freely from religious traditions around the world with very little deference to the clarity of the traditions' histories. This also can be applied to the music structures, instruments, and timbres. Often composers will utilize traditional instruments (or synthesized versions of them) with little relation to the musical context of their origin. For many critics, ethnomusicologists, and the like, this is the major criticism of this musical style: its vapid and potentially hegemenous appropriation of musical material and instruments.

External links

• NewAgeMusic.com The #1 online source for New Age Music!
• Inner Peace Music - home of Steven Halpern, one of the primary originators of new age music.
• New Age Music - a guide to new age musical style, including an extensive set of CD reviews.
• New Age Music Made Simple - overview by Hearts of Space's Stephen Hill.
• Solomon Keal Piano - home of Solomon Keal
• Spirited Visionary Dreamscapes by Brad Kalita - A Diverse Collection of Original Music, Illustrated Prose and Short Stories