"Mood music" redirects here. For other uses, see Mood music (disambiguation) and Easy Listening (disambiguation).
Easy listening
Other names
Beautiful music[1]
middle-of-the-road[1]
Traditional pop[1]
Stylistic origins
Light music[1]
big band[1]
Cultural origins
1940s, United States[1]
Derivative forms
Chill-out music[2]
sunshine pop[3]
adult contemporary
space music
ambient
exotica
lounge
lofi hip hop[4]
Subgenres
Space age pop
Easy listening (including mood music[5]) is a popular music genre[6][7][8] and radio format that was most popular during the 1950s to 1970s.[9] It is related to middle-of-the-road (MOR) music[1] and encompasses instrumental recordings of standards, hit songs, non-rock vocals and instrumental covers of selected popular rock songs. It mostly concentrates on music that pre-dates the rock and roll era, characteristically on music from the 1940s and 1950s. It was differentiated from the mostly instrumental beautiful music format by its variety of styles, including a percentage of vocals, arrangements and tempos to fit various parts of the broadcast day.
Easy listening music is often confused with lounge 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.
^ abcdefgKeightley, Keir (2012). "Easy-Listening". In Shepherd, John; Horn, David (eds.). Continuum Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World Volume 8: Genres: North America. A&C Black. p. 192. ISBN 978-1-4411-4874-2.
^Rosen, Jody (June 7, 2005). "The Musical Genre That Will Save the World". Slate.
^Murray, Noel (April 7, 2011). "Gateways to Geekery: Sunshine Pop". The A.V. Club. Onion Inc. Retrieved November 27, 2015.
^"Chill Hop, Jazz Hop, LoFi, Whatever You Call It, It's Catching on with Gen-Z". Forbes.
^Musiker, Naomi; Musiker, Reuben (2014). Conductors and Composers of Popular Orchestral Music: A Biographical and Discographical Sourcebook. Routledge. p. 16. ISBN 978-1-135-91770-8. 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.
^"BBC Four - the Joy of Easy Listening".
^"What is Easy Listening Music?".
^"Easy Listening Music Genre Overview". AllMusic.
^Lanza, Joseph (2008). "Chapter 16: Zing! Went the Strings". In Miller, Paul D. (ed.). Sound Unbound: Sampling Digital Music and Culture. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press. p. 161. ISBN 978-0-262-63363-5.
Easylistening (including mood music) is a popular music genre and radio format that was most popular during the 1950s to 1970s. It is related to middle-of-the-road...
in September 28, 1994. Dubbed as the "#1 EasyListening Station" in Metro Manila, it carried an easylistening format. After gaining success in half a...
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degrees of easylistening, pop, soul, R&B, quiet storm and rock influence. Adult contemporary is generally a continuation of the easylistening and soft...
to number 34 on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 and number seven on its EasyListening chart. Love Theme from The Godfather The famous theme, composed by Nino...
topped the chart, then published under the title EasyListening, based on playlists submitted by easylistening radio stations and sales reports submitted by...
Smith Foursome, Volume II (Roost, 1957) Flower Drum Song (Roost, 1958) EasyListening (Roost, 1959) Johnny Smith Favorites (Roost, 1959) Designed for You...
topped the chart, then published under the title EasyListening, based on playlists submitted by easylistening radio stations and sales reports submitted by...
For example, the Beautiful music format that developed into today's Easylistening and Soft rock formats is nearly extinct due to a lack of interest from...
EasyListening for Iron Youth: The Best of NON is a 1991 compilation album of Boyd Rice's NON recordings. It is a "best of" collection from 1975–1991....
top-performing songs in the United States which were considered to be "easylistening". The chart has undergone various name changes and since 1996 has been...
television soundtrack recordings. Nearly all easylistening orchestras are studio orchestras. Some famous easylistening studio orchestras are the 101 Strings...
8 million copies in the UK alone and established them as a popular easylistening duo throughout Europe. They are best known for their worldwide hit "High"...
100 on July 22, 1972. It also peaked at No. 12 the same week on the Easylistening chart (later known as Adult contemporary), a chart it first entered...
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