Whotone Music Information

Popular Easy Listening

Popular Easy Listening

Easy Listening is a form of Popular Music that is characterized by simple and catchy melodies as well as soft and laid back tones .This style of music emerged in the mid 20th century and evolved out of Big Band and Swing. It is also related to Beautiful Music and Light Music. This Genre includes two different types: The Instrumental and Vocal.

Easy Listening has been generally superseded, although not completely by Adult Contemporary Music Radio. There are a lot of Radio stations that dedicate themselves to playing Easy Listening Tunes alone. Beautiful Music is considered as a subset of Easy Listening Music since it has rigid standards for instrumentation and that is few or no Saxophones.

Since Easy Listening is virtually unknown to the younger set, the term “Easy Listening” has been erroneously associated with genres such as: soft rock, soft pop, smooth jazz and even new age music as well as world music. Another term for easy listening music is Mood Music or elevator music.

The term “Easy Listening” is similar to what is called as “Lounge Music” or “Lounge Core”, although this form of Music is much more rooted in Jazz in comparison to Big Band and Swing. Easy Listening music is also sometimes referred to as Nostalgia Music as it tends to take listeners back to older, simpler days.

Despite Dropping in popularity, Easy Listening Music is still a constant in the Music world. With old songs being re-recorded and compiled into “Best of…” CDs. A few groups like The Lettermen and The Cascades are still seen doing the occasional tour, going all over the world marketing Nostalgia. Despite the advent of new technology and VCDs, DVDs and Blue Ray Disc, true easy listening aficionados know that nothing takes you back more than Vinyl Records do. Old vinyl records may be found in basements, garage sales and even online.

Popular artist and Bands of easy listening include the following: Leroy Anderson, Ray Coniff, Johnny Douglas, Arthur Greendale, Nick Ingnman, Johnny Pearson, Anne Murray, Don Ho, Ronnie McDowell, Joseph Bradley, Roger Williams, Engelbert Humperdinck, James Taylor, Andy Williams, Tony Bennet, Perry Como, Ed Ames, Boston Pops, Jackie Gleason, Living Strings, Ray Martin, Neil Diamond, Neil Sedaka, John Denver, Sammy Davis Jr., Nat King Cole, Jim Reeves, Kenny Rogers, Neil Sedaka, Olivia Newton John, Stephen Bishop, Gordon Lightfoot, Frank Sinatra, Barbara Sterissand, the Lighthouse Family, The Ray Charles Singers, Billy Vaughn, The Lettermen, The Cascades, Barry Manilow, Dean Martin and a lot more.