Easy listening
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Easy listening music is a style of popular music which emerged in the mid-20th century and which is smooth, pleasant and undemanding on the ear. It features simple, catchy melodies, cool, laid-back harmonics and rhythms suitable for dancing. While it is mostly instrumental music, Burt Bacharach in particular became famous for his songs. "Mood music" and "beautiful music" are additional terms for this style.
The term has usually been applied negatively in the years since this style went out of fashion. More neutral terms used by adherents of this style today include lounge and lounge core, connecting it to the cocktail lounge culture of the 1950s and 1960s. Since this style of music is rather unknown to the younger generations, the term easy listening is often incorrectly applied to soft pop or new age music. However, it can be applied to the Beautiful Music FM radio format of the 1960s through the 1980s.
Artists and music
- 1950s and 60s easy listening