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.

See also

• List of new age / new instrumental musicians
• World music