Easy listening singers Įasy listening/lounge singers have a lengthy history stretching back to the decades of the early twentieth century. Īccording to the Continuum Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World, 'The public prominence and profitability of easy listening led to its close association with the so-called ' Establishment' that would eventually be demonized by the rock counterculture.' In Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981), rock critic Robert Christgau said 'semiclassical music is a systematic dilution of highbrow preferences'. The easy listening radio format has been generally, but not completely, superseded by the soft adult contemporary format. īeautiful music, which grew up alongside easy listening music, had rigid standards for instrumentation, e.g., few or no saxophones (at the time, the saxophone was associated with less refined styles such as jazz and rock and roll, although Billy Vaughn was an exception to the rule), and restrictions on how many vocal pieces could be played in an hour. ĭuring 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 the Billboard Hot 100 (and stay there for several weeks). Billboard 's Easy Listening chart morphed into the Adult Contemporary chart in 1979, and continues to this day. Record World began their listings January 29, 1967, and ended these charts in the early 1970s. Generally 40 positions in length, they charted airplay on stations such as WNEW-FM, New York City, WWEZ, Cincinnati, and KMPC, Los Angeles. The magazines Billboard and Record World featured easy listening singles in independently audited record charts. Jerry Murad also contributed to the music, including a variety of types of harmonica.

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 album Squeeze Play. 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'. In the 1950s the use of strings quickly became a main feature of the developing easy listening genre. Another example of a practitioner in the popular context was Dinah Washington's 'What a Difference a Day Makes'. As examples in the jazz genre, there are recordings of Frank Sinatra. In the 1940s and 1950s strings had been used in jazz and popular music contexts.

String instruments had been used in sweet bands in the 1930s and was the dominant soundtrack to movies of Hollywood's Golden Age. The style has been synonymous with the tag 'with strings'. You may hear examples of Easy listening music performed by John Serry on his album Squeeze Play in 1956 Here on ( June 2016) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message) Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources in this section. This section needs additional citations for verification. 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.Įasy 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. It mostly concentrates on music that pre-dates the rock and roll era, characteristically on music from the 1940s and 1950s. It is related to middle-of-the-road (MOR) music and encompasses instrumental recordings of standards, hit songs, non- rock vocals and instrumental covers of selected popular rock songs. Easy listeningĮasy listening (including mood music ) is a popular music genre and radio format that was most popular during the 1950s to 1970s. For other uses, see Mood music (disambiguation) and Easy Listening (disambiguation).

Easy listening music songs