What’s the difference between New Age music and Easy Listening?
They both the same. I can’t tell the difference.
My definition is:
New age has arty/spiritual pretensions, easy listening is your more run of the mill pop stuff with the balls cut off.
But allmusic says this:
Easy Listening music is instrumental music that was designed to be soothing and relaxing. Unlike jazz, which demands your utmost attention, easy listening slips into the background, which is the very reason many critics and listeners dismissed the music as nothing more than disposible fluff. Although some records certainly fall into that category, there were a number of inventive arrangers and conductors working in the genre, such as Martin Denny, Les Baxter and Esquivel, who distinguished themselves with unpredictable instrumentation and idiosyncratic arrangements. Still, the primary characteristic of easy listening, from Ray Conniff’s lush wordless vocals to the Latin flourishes of Herb Alpert, is that it’s pleasant and easy on the ears.
and this
Born from an aesthetic that aims to induce a sense of inner calm, new age music emerged from the meditational and holistic fields. Generally, these are harmonious and nonthreatening albums that are allied with new age philosophies encouraging spiritual transcendence and physical healing. Some of these albums are artistically satisfying as well as therapeutic. Lesser musicians, however, often make ridiculous claims in the liner notes as to their ability to catapult listeners into advanced spiritual states through specially designed sonic vibrations and "immaculately conceived" musical ideas. — Linda Kohanov
So while I can understand your confusion, as there is an overlap I reckon if you gave me a piece of music I could tell you 98% of the time which genre it fell in.
October 24th, 2010 at 8:32 am
New Age is stuff like Enigma.
Easy Listening is like Kenny G.
There’s a huge difference.
References :
October 24th, 2010 at 9:03 am
My definition is:
New age has arty/spiritual pretensions, easy listening is your more run of the mill pop stuff with the balls cut off.
But allmusic says this:
Easy Listening music is instrumental music that was designed to be soothing and relaxing. Unlike jazz, which demands your utmost attention, easy listening slips into the background, which is the very reason many critics and listeners dismissed the music as nothing more than disposible fluff. Although some records certainly fall into that category, there were a number of inventive arrangers and conductors working in the genre, such as Martin Denny, Les Baxter and Esquivel, who distinguished themselves with unpredictable instrumentation and idiosyncratic arrangements. Still, the primary characteristic of easy listening, from Ray Conniff’s lush wordless vocals to the Latin flourishes of Herb Alpert, is that it’s pleasant and easy on the ears.
and this
Born from an aesthetic that aims to induce a sense of inner calm, new age music emerged from the meditational and holistic fields. Generally, these are harmonious and nonthreatening albums that are allied with new age philosophies encouraging spiritual transcendence and physical healing. Some of these albums are artistically satisfying as well as therapeutic. Lesser musicians, however, often make ridiculous claims in the liner notes as to their ability to catapult listeners into advanced spiritual states through specially designed sonic vibrations and "immaculately conceived" musical ideas. — Linda Kohanov
So while I can understand your confusion, as there is an overlap I reckon if you gave me a piece of music I could tell you 98% of the time which genre it fell in.
References :
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=73:30
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=73:117