Talk:Easy listening

message: To say that lounge music is something else than easy listening is to split hairs, in my opinion. Lounge music is usually just what EL sounds like live, with a smaller orchestra.
Vintermann 06:44, 19 October 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: Speaking of spilt hairs: the list of easy listening is now chock-full of opinions and un-encyclopedic comments like "if this list seems suprising, then". Bear in mind that easy listening is for the most part a term few musicians describe themselves with.
We need to do something with that list!
Vintermann 09:00, 20 October 2005 (UTC)
thread_title: Lounge etc.

message: I've read the opinions that Easy Listening derived from swing bands or jazz. Perhaps that is partially true, since the tonal language of Easy Listening arrangements utilized some jazz harmonic concepts with an orchestral instrumentation. 
But there are some other primary influences which need to be mentioned in terms of repertoire and melodic aspects of the genre:
: (1) Broadway show tunes comprise a certain large segment of it -- tunes by Richard Rodgers, Jerome Kern, Cole Porter, etc.
: (2) Motion Picture and Television Themes -- tunes by Victor Young, John Green, Alfred & Lionel Newman, Henry Mancini and others. 
: (3) the semi-symphonic "Pops Concert" music of arranger/composers like Leroy Anderson ("Fiddle Faddle", "Plink Plank Plunk", "The Pennywhistle Song") and Richard Hayman ("No Strings Attached"). 
: (4) the earlier British tradition called "Light Music", which evolved from the lighter pieces of serious publishers (what U.S. orchestra concert programs might have referred to as "Light Classical" music.) British "Light Music" composers included Richard Addinsell (of "Warsaw Concerto" fame), Eric Coates ("A Sleepy Lagoon"), Robert Busby ("Orchid Room") and Robert Farnon ("Portrait of a Flirt" and "Journey Into Melody".)
There was also one influence that had more to do with the recording business than art of music:
: (5) U.S. record companies all had on staff arrangers like Percy Faith, Hugo Winterhalter, and Paul Weston to write and conduct arrangements for vocal crooners. When technologies like "Hi Fidelity" and the "Microgroove LP" arrived, it was a natural business decision to have their staff arranger and studio orchestra make records to demonstrate the sonic possibilities of the medium. 
: And when "Stereophonic" recordings emerged, the same thing happened at the record companies, and this provided the material for "Easy Listening" or "Beautiful Music" (flavors of "Middle-of-the-Road", or "MOR") that was known by those terms on radio.
So there were both musical and non-musical origins and influences.
--Digital Dave (former Program Director of the Easy Listening/Beautiful Music format "Music Just for The Two Of Us" on over 100 radio stations)
::I'd agree with Digital Dave and broaden the scope somewhat to also include the fact this is one amazing genre of music that became one of the only ones I know that forced the larger format distributors to custom-record a lot of the cover music that went out on the format tapes to radio stations.  Bonneville, which I've had the most experience with, hired Lex DeAzevedo, among others, to produce quick covers of songs of the day just for this format.  One of the major driving forces of this format was that it would attract then-lucrative older demographics, generally with more disposable income, making it a great sell for higher end car dealers and other such advertisers.  Listeners wouldn't tolerate the "rock" music of the 1960s and 1970s, but were quite happy to listen to Ronnie Aldrich or the Romantic Strings (or Lex) rearrange the piece into a gentler instrumental cover.  A huge part of the core library of the easy listening format was cover recordings of pop tunes of the 1960s and 1970s.  I can't think of too many Beatles tunes that weren't rearranged for this format!
::Since a lot of the covers were custom-made or licensed from BBC orchestras rechristened as something else for radio's purposes, it wasn't surprising that so many songs covered were also popular in the United Kingdom.
::I added a sentence to make mention of the cover recordings.  Ironically, it was probably this practice that helped earn the format the "elevator music" label.  For the fans of the original artists, it was unsettling to hear them rearranged into something their parents would enjoy, and music critics used to savage the format quite often for this reason.  Unfortunately, the real "muzak" type background music distribution services also did some covers themselves and were far less choosy, custom-making less-thought-out covers of pop songs that just turned out sounding silly (and cheesy when a lot of synths were employed).  That would explain some bad covers of Prince tunes we would hear in places like Wendy's in the 1980s.
::The one thing I do agree with is that the genre is completely misunderstood by a lot of folks who weren't around during the easy listening radio format's peak.  Today, all sorts of lounge, jazz, big band, pop vocalists, and new age stuff get dumped into this genre.  I've even seen a few classic country artists dumped into the easy listening category.
::Wny 21:32, 2 October 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Influences/Origins of Easy Listening 

message: This makes it sound like easy listening is only a term old people know, but I don't think I'm old yet. (Granted I'm old by Wikipedia standards as I'm 29) Easy listening is a category at Amazon.com and a Sirius Radio station.--T. Anthony 11:09, 18 September 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I feel the same way, and I'm only 16. 24.226.77.23 (talk) 17:08, 29 June 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: Odd article

message: I suggest the Notable Artists section, which is rather long, be moved to a new list, e.g. List of Easy Listening artists. 79.73.200.251 (talk) 11:05, 7 January 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Or create a category? --Northernhenge (talk) 13:28, 28 April 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Either way, something's gotta be done. I added Frank Mills btw. 24.226.77.23 (talk) 17:09, 29 June 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: Artists list

message: I've added a Globalize request to this article. If I knew anything about the subject, I'd add some non-USA examples but the only one I can think of is The Mike Flowers Pops. I've also deleted the radio station subheading as (a) it was empty and (b) if it was filled it would become enormously long. Wouldn't it be better to use a category? --Northernhenge (talk) 13:27, 28 April 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Globalization 

message: Would you consider Guy Lombardo to be easy listening? I ask because in the Guy article it says he made "easy listening" music famous, but that seems to be contradicted by the claim in this article that easy listening came along later, in the mid 20th century. Also if Guy made it famous, why isn't he mentioned here?
I'm not sure of the answer myself. I always thought of Guy as a 1930s musician who was still playing pre-swing pop after the rise of the swing bands. Sort of a nostalgia act, although his main fans seem to have been college kids. Rees11 (talk) 16:02, 6 May 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Guy Lombardo? 

message: Most of the articles here concerning easy listening, lounge music, or whatever term is used to describe the orchestral performance of popular songs, show a lack of knowledge of the origins of the genre. There is a decided point of view and bias towards the music. The writings are apparantly written by those with a post-Beatles attitude towards western popular music. That being that all pop music prior to The Beatles is simplistic and insignificant. This philosophy has been informally dictated through the culture and media for several generations. At this point, the philosophy is considered doctrine for those educated through Rolling Stone Magazine, MTV, or whatever else formed their musical taste.
When one reads that easy listening is characterized by "simple melodies", it's obvious the writer has little formal education in music nor the appreciation of it. The songs performed in any set or playlist of this genre, are written by Kern, Ellington, Mercer, Mancini, Bacharach, and others that are considered to be the great songwriters of the 20th century. And yes, I will include Lennon/McCartney, James Taylor, and Carol King, and others from the rock genre as well.
Instrumental music, including something more than a guitar, bass, and drums, was a staple of popular music for decades. There are many reasons why it experienced a decline in popularity, which are beyond the scope of this topic. It must be said however, that the decline has nothing to do with the quality of the music, nor the indication that rock music is any way superior.
Eelb53 (talk) 09:17, 16 March 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  An Objective Discussion of Easy Listening is Difficult 

message: Some record stores I've been to seem to classify all classical music as "easy listening". The Newgrounds audio portal classifies all "classical" and "jazz" music under the "easy listening" category. How widespread is this? Esn (talk) 20:54, 7 April 2010 (UTC)
thread_title: Classical and jazz is easy listening?

message: I just don't see how "orchestral pop" could be considered part of easy listening. Exotica, lounge, library music, yeah... But really, not orchestral pop, especially the kind that Harpers Bizarre and similar artists were making. I think that orchestral pop should be a separate article redirecting to baroque pop. Is there anybody who disagrees?--Ilovetopaint (talk) 20:34, 28 July 2013 (UTC)
replies: text: What are you basing your proposal on, other than personal opinion? The sources that I used to add that section to this article relate it to "easy listening" (the first sentence says orchestral pop is "a more challenging form of easy listening.") Otherwise, I would not have added it in this article. Secondly, are you suggesting we remove it altogether from this article and make "orchestral pop" serve as a redirect to "baroque pop", because it doesn't sound similar enough to you? Dan56 (talk) 01:52, 29 July 2013 (UTC)
replies: text:  Isn't the phrase "challenging form of easy listening" an oxymoron? None of the other sources listed refer to orchestral pop as easy-listening -- except for Allmusic -- and Allmusic is not the end-all be-all source of genre info. The name doesn't even make sense. It's a loose term meant to describe pop music with orchestration, not the umbrella term/genre "easy listening" that started as a radio format. Anybody else should see that the "orchestral pop" section bears absolutely no continuity to the rest of the article.--Ilovetopaint (talk) 05:51, 1 August 2013 (UTC)
replies: text:  You're incorrect; the book by Lanza that is cited in that section does, but you obviously didn't bother to check (). You have no basis for removing this information from this article, other than disagreeing with cited sources (the section happens to be the only appropriately sourced in this article) and POV-based claims about what "easy listening" is and isn't, which is evident in both your last remark and your edit history. And you have offered nothing to contradict what the sources cited say or to support anything regarding "baroque pop". Dan56 (talk) 06:08, 1 August 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  Orchestral pop split 

message: Incredibly, for a genre mainly with instrumentals just singers were listed. I added a list of instrumental performers.Dogru144 (talk) 15:43, 4 October 2016 (UTC)
thread_title: Performers

message: The article has heavy attention to WPIX-FM's music formats in the latter half of the 20th century. It is questionable that one radio station's formats should be so central. Dogru144 (talk) 01:16, 13 October 2016 (UTC)
thread_title: Emphasis on one radio station's genre format

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thread_title:  External links modified 

message: I have just removed vaporwave from the infobox, where it was listed as a "derivative form" of easy listening.  Please revert if this is inappropriate.
My reason: Come on.  In no way, shape, or form is vaporwave a derivative of easy listening.  While I admit I'm not an expert on the genre, I read some of the sources linked on its article and about the only connection I can see to easy listening is the occasional sampling of 80's soft pop (which itself is not really easy listening; easy listening peaked in the 60's and 70's).  If the standard for a "derivative form" is the use of samples, then just about all dance and hip-hop music of the last 40 years is a derivative form of just about every other form of music there is.  Put another way: to suggest that vaporwave is a form of easy listening is either OR in the extreme, or requires a citation of a reliable source.  WeirdNAnnoyed (talk) 14:55, 3 August 2020 (UTC)
thread_title:  Vaporwave?