New-age music

New-age is a genre of music intended to create artistic inspiration, relaxation,

and optimism. It is used by listeners for yoga, massage, meditation,[1] and reading as a method
of stress management[2] to bring about a state of ecstasy rather than trance,[3][4] or to create a
peaceful atmosphere in homes or other environments. It is sometimes associated
with environmentalism and New Age spirituality;[5][1] however, most of its artists have nothing to
do with "New age spirituality", and some even reject the term.
New-age music includes both acoustic forms, featuring instruments such
as flutes, piano, acoustic guitar and a wide variety of non-Western acoustic instruments,
and electronic forms, frequently relying on sustained synth pads or long sequencer-based runs.
Vocal arrangements were initially rare in the genre, but as it has evolved, vocals have become
more common, especially those featuring Native American-, Sanskrit-, or Tibetan-influenced
chants, or lyrics based on mythology such as Celtic legends.[6][7][8][9]
There is no exact definition of new-age music.[7] An article in Billboard magazine in 1987
commented that "New Age music may be the most startling successful non-defined music ever to
hit the public consciousness".[10] Many consider it to be an umbrella term[11] for marketing rather
than a musical category,[8][12][13] and to be part of a complex cultural trend.[14]
New-age music was influenced by a wide range of artists from a variety of genres. Tony
Scott's Music for Zen Meditation (1964) is considered to be the first new-age recording. [13]
[15]
Paul Horn (beginning with 1968's Inside) was one of the important predecessors.[16] Irv
Teibel's Environments series (1969–79) featured natural soundscapes, tintinnabulation, and "Om"
chants and were some of the first publicly available psychoacoustic recordings.[17] Steven
Halpern's 1975 Spectrum Suite was a key work that began the new-age music movement.[18]

Definitions[edit]
New-age music is defined more by the use and effect or feeling it produces rather than
the instruments and genre used in its creation;[10] it may be acoustic, electronic, or a mixture of
both. New-age artists range from solo or ensemble performances using classical-
music instruments ranging from the piano, acoustic guitar, flute, or harp to electronic musical
instruments, or from Eastern instruments such as the sitar, tabla and tamboura. There is also a
significant overlap of sectors of new-age music
with ambient, classical, jazz, electronica, world, chillout, pop, and space music, among others.[12]
[13][19]

The two definitions typically associated with the new-age genre are:
 New-age music with an ambient sound that has the explicit purpose of aiding meditation
and relaxation, or aiding and enabling various alternative spiritual practices, such as
 alternative healing, yoga practice, guided meditation, or chakra auditing. The proponents
of this definition are almost always musicians who create their music expressly for these
purposes.[20] To be useful for meditation, music must have repetitive dynamic and texture
without sudden loud chords or improvisation, which could disturb the meditator.[10][9] It is
minimalist in conception, and musicians in the genre are mostly instrumentalists rather
than vocalists.[21] Subliminal messages are also used in new-age music, and the use of
instruments along with sounds of animals (like whales, wolves and eagles) and nature
(waterfalls, ocean waves, rain) is also popular. Flautist Dean Evenson was one of the first
musicians to combine peaceful music with the sounds of nature, launching a genre that
became popular for massage and yoga. [22] Other prominent artists who create new-age
music expressly for healing or meditation include Irv Teibel, Paul Horn, Deuter, Steven
Halpern, Paul Winter, Lawrence Ball, Karunesh, Krishna Das, Deva Premal, Bhagavan
Das, and Snatam Kaur.[23][11]
 Music found in the new-age sections of record stores.[20] This is largely a definition of
practicality, given the breadth of music classified as "new age" by retailers that are often
less interested in finely grained distinctions between musical styles than are fans of those
styles. Music that falls into this definition usually cannot be easily classified into other,
more common definitions, but can contain almost any kind of music; it is more of a
marketing slogan rather than musical category.[10]

Debate and criticism

Stephen Hill, founder of Hearts of Space, considers that "many of the artists are very
sincerely and fully committed to New Age ideas and ways of life".[24] Some composers
like Kitarō consider their music to be part of their spiritual growth, as well as expressing values
and shaping the culture.[25] Douglas Groothuis stated that rejection of all music labeled as "new
age" would be to fall prey to a taboo mentality, as most of the music belongs to the "progressive"
side of new-age music, where composers necessarily do not always have a New Age worldview.
[25]

However, it is often noted that "new-age music" is a mere popular designation that successfully
sells records.[25] J. Gordon Melton argued that it does not refer to a specific genre of music, but to
music used for therapeutic or other new-age purposes.[26] Kay Gardner considered the label "new
age" an inauthentic commercial intention of so-called new-age music, saying "a lot of new age
music is schlock", and how due to record sales, everyone with a home studio put in sounds of
crickets, oceans or rivers as a guarantee of sales.[27] What started as ambient mood music related
with new-age activity became a term for a musical conglomeration of jazz, folk, rock, ethnic,
classical, and electronica, among other styles, with the former, markedly different musical and
theoretical movement.[7][28][9][13]
Under the umbrella term, some consider Mike Oldfield's 1973 progressive
rock album Tubular Bells one of the first albums to be referred to under the genre description of
new-age.[29] Others consider music by Greek composer Vangelis and general modern jazz-rock
fusion as exemplifing the progressive side of new-age music. [22][30] Other artists included
are Jean-Michel Jarre (even though his electronic excursions predate the term), Andreas
Vollenweider, George Winston, Mark
Isham, MichaelHedges, Shadowfax, MannheimSteamroller, Kitarō, Yanni, Enya, Clannad, Era a
nd Enigma.[11][12][13]
However, many musicians and composers dismiss the labeling of their music as "new age".
When the Grammy Award for Best New Age Album was first created in 1987, its first
winner, Andreas Vollenweider, said, "I don't have any intention to label my music... It's
ridiculous to give a name to anything that is timeless". Peter Bryant, music director of WHYY-
FM (90.9) and host of a new-age program, noted that "I don't care for the term... New-age has a
negative connotation... In the circles I come in contact with, people working in music, 'new-age'
is almost an insult", that it refers to "very vapid, dreamy kinds of dull music... with no substance
or form or interest", and that the term has "stuck".[12]
Harold Budd said, "When I hear the term 'new-age' I reach for my revolver... I don't think
of myself as making music that is only supposed to be in the background. It's embarrassing to
inadvertently be associated with something that you know in your guts is
vacuous." Vangelis considers it to be a style that "gave the opportunity for untalented people to
make very boring music".[31] Yanni stated that "I don't want to relax the audience; I want to
engage them in the music, get them interested",[16] and that "New age implies a more subdued,
more relaxed music than what I do. My music can be very rhythmic, very energetic, even very
ethnic."[13] David Van Tieghem, George Winston and Kitarō also rejected the label of new-age
artist.[9][16][32] David Lanz said that he "finally figured out that the main reason people don't like
the term new age is because it's the only musical category that isn't a musical term". [13] Andreas
Vollenweider noted that "we have sold millions of records worldwide before the category new
age was actually a category", and shared the concern that "the stores are having this problem
with categorization".[19]
Ron Goldstein, president of Private Music, agreed with such a standpoint, and explained
that "Windham Hill was the hub of this whole thing. Because of that association, new-age has
come to be perceived as this West Coast thing". However, Windham Hill's managing director
Sam Sutherland argued that even the label's founders William Ackerman and Anne Robinson
"shied away from using any idiomatic or generic term at all. It's always seemed a little
synthetic", and they stopped making any kind of deliberate protests to the use of the term simply
because it was inappropriate. Both Goldstein and Sutherland concluded that the tag helped move
merchandise, and that new-age music would be absorbed into the general body of pop music
within a few years after 1987.[12]
The New York Times music critic Jon Pareles noted that "new-age music" absorbed other styles in
more softer form, but those same, well-defined styles do not need the new-age category, and that
"new-age music" resembles other music because it is aimed as a marketing niche—to be a
"formula show" designated for urban "ultra-consumers" as status accessory; he also said the
Andean, Asian and African traditional music influences evoke the sense of "cosmopolitanism",
while nature in the album artwork and sound evoke the "connection to unspoiled landscapes".
Alternative terms[edit]
The borders of this umbrella genre are not well-defined, but music retail stores will
include artists in the "new-age" category even if they belong to different genre, and those artists
themselves use different names for their style of music.
Kay Gardner called the original new-age music "healing music" or "women's
spirituality".[33] Paul Winter, considered a new-age music pioneer, also dismissed the term,
preferring "earth music".[19]
The term "instrumental music" or "contemporary instrumental" can include artists who do
not use electronic instruments, such as solo pianist David Lanz.[34] Similarly, pianists such as
Yanni[35] and Bradley Joseph[36] use this term as well, although they use keyboards to incorporate
layered orchestral textures into their compositions. Yanni has distinguished the music genre from
the spiritual movement bearing the same name.[37] The term "contemporary instrumental music"
was also suggested by Andreas Vollenweider, while "adult alternative" by Gary L. Chappell,
which was the term by which Billboard called the new-age and world-music album charts.[19]

History[edit]
The concept arose with the involvement of professional musicians in the New-
Age movement. Initially, it was of no interest to the musical industry, so the musicians and
related staff founded their own small independent recording businesses. Sales reached significant
numbers in unusual outlets such as bookstores, gift stores, health-food stores and boutiques, as
well as by direct mail.[25][9] With the demand of a large market, the major recording companies
began promoting new-age music in the 1980s.[12][38]
New-age music was influenced by a wide range of artists from a variety of genres—for
example, folk-instrumentalists John Fahey and Leo Kottke, minimalists Terry Riley, Steve
Reich, La Monte Young, and Philip Glass, classical avant-garde Daniel Kobialka, synthesizer
performers Brian Eno and Pink Floyd, and jazz artists Keith Jarrett, Weather Report, Mahavishnu
Orchestra, Paul Horn (beginning with 1968's Inside), Paul Winter (beginning in the mid-1960s
with the Paul Winter Consort) and Pat Metheny.[39][28][9][16][40][41][42]
Tony Scott's Music for Zen Meditation (1964) is considered to be the first new-age
recording,[43] but initially it was popular mostly in California, and was not sold nationally until
the 1980s.[22] Another school of meditation music arose among the followers
of Rajneesh; Deuter recorded D (1971) and Aum (1972), which mixed acoustic and electronic
instruments with sounds of the sea.[22] Kay Gardner's song Lunamuse (1974) and first
recording Mooncircles (1975), which were a synthesis of music, sexuality
and Wiccan spirituality, were "new-age music before it got to be new-age music". Her A
Rainbow Path (1984) embraced Halpern's theory of healing music from that time with women's
spirituality, and she became one of the most popular new-age sacred-music artists.[44] Mike Orme
of Stylus Magazine writes that many key Berlin school musicians helped popularise new-age.[45]
The 1972 Italian progressive group "Celeste" was the first to have created a new rock in
the New-Age style (see YouTube video "Rainbow of Hope - Suite life")[citation needed].
Paul Winter's Missa Gaia/Earth Mass (1982) is described as "a masterpiece of New Age
ecological consciousness that celebrates the sacredness of land, sky, and sea".[46] His work on
the East Coast is considered to be one of the most important musical expressions of new-age
spirituality.[46] On the West Coast, musicians concentrated more on music for healing and
meditation. The most notable early work was Steven Halpern's Spectrum Suite (1975), the
musical purpose of which was described as to "resonate specific areas of the body... it quiets the
mind and body", and whose title relates "to the seven tones of the musical scale and the seven
colors of the rainbow to the seven etheric energy sources (chakras) in our bodies". In the 1970s
his music work, and the theoretical book Tuning the Human Instrument (1979), pioneered the
contemporary practice of musical healing in the United States.[47]
In 1976 the record label Windham Hill Records was founded, with an initial $300
investment, and would gross over $26 million annually ten years later. Over the years many
record labels were formed that embraced or rejected the new-age designation, such as Narada
Productions, Private Music, Music West, Lifestyle, Audion, Sonic Atmospheres, Living Music,
Terra (Vanguard Records), Novus Records (which mainly recorded jazz music), FM (CBS
Masterworks) and Cinema (Capitol Records).[9]
Between the intentional extremes of the U.S.' coasts are some of the most successful new-
age artists, like George Winston and R. Carlos Nakai. Winston's million-
selling December (1982), released by Windham Hill Records, was highly popular.[9] Most of
Nakai's work, with first release Changes in 1983, consists of improvised songs in native North
American style. During the 1990s, his music became virtual anthems for new-age spirituality.[48]
In 1981, Tower Records in Mountain View, California added a "new age" bin.[49] By
1985, independent and chain record retail stores were adding sections for new age, and major
labels began showing interest in the genre, both through acquisition of some existing new-age
labels such as Paul Winter's Living Music and through signing of so-called "new-age" artists
such as Japanese electronic composer Kitarō and American crossover jazz musician Pat
Metheny, both signed by Geffen Records.[49] Most of the major record labels accepted new age
artists by the beginning of the next year.[50] In the late 1980s the umbrella genre was the fastest-
growing genre with significant radio broadcast. It was seen as an attractive business due to low
recording costs.[9]
From 1982 to 1989, working on his own and with Lura Jane Geiger, Adam Geiger, New
Age Composer/Keyboardist, produced and sold a series of cassette tapes of New Age music on
the LuraMedia recording label.[51]
 Stephen Hill founded the new-age radio show Hearts of Space in 1973. In 1983, it was
picked up by NPR for syndication to 230 affiliates nationally,[52] and a year later Hill started a
record label Hearts of Space Records. On Valentine's Day in 1987, the former Los Angeles rock
radio station KMET changed to a full-time new-age music format with new call letters KTWV,
branded as The Wave.[9][52] During The Wave's new-age period, management told the station
employees to refer to The Wave as a "mood service" rather than a "radio station". DJs stopped
announcing the titles of the songs, and instead, to maintain an uninterrupted mood, listeners
could call a 1–800 phone number to find out what song was playing. News breaks were also re-
branded and referred to as "wave breaks".[52] Other new-age-specialty radio programs included
Forest's Musical Starstreams and John Diliberto's Echoes. Most major cable television networks
have channels that play music without visuals, including channels for New age, such as the
"Soundscapes" channel on Music Choice. The two satellite radio companies Sirius Satellite
Radio & XM Satellite Radio each had their own channels that played new-age music. Sirius—
Spa (Sirius XM) (73), XM—Audio Visions (77). When the two merged in November 2008 and
became SiriusXM, the Spa name was retained for the music channel with the majority of Audio
Vision's music library being used.
In 1987 was formed the Grammy Award for Best New Age Album,[12] while in 1988
the Billboard's New Age weekly charts.[7] In 1989 Suzanne Doucet produced and held the first
international New-Age Music Conference in Los Angeles.[7] By 1989, there were over 150 small
independent record labels releasing new-age music, while new-age and adult-alternative
programs were carried on hundreds of commercial and college radio stations in the U.S., and
over 40 distributors were selling new-age music through mail-order catalogs.[53]
In the 1990s many small labels of new-age style music emerged in Japan, but for this
kind of instrumental music the terms "relaxing" or "healing" music were more popular.
Enigma's Sadeness (Part I) became an international hit, reaching number one in 24 countries
including UK, also number five on the US Billboard Hot 100, selling over 5 million worldwide.
[54]
At the time Holland was the home of two leading European new-age labels—Oreade
and Narada Media. Oreade reported that in 1997 the latest trend was "angelic" music, while from
Narada Media predicted that the genre will develop in the direction of world music (with Celtic,
Irish and African influences).[55] In 1995 some "new-age" composers like Kitarō, Suzanne
Ciani and Patrick O'Hearn moved from major to independent record labels due to lack of
promotion, diminishing sales or limited freedom of creativity.[56]
In 2001 Windham Hill celebrated its 25th anniversary, Narada and Higher Octave
Music continued to move into world and ethno-techno music, and Hearts of Space Records were
bought by Valley Entertainment. Enya's "Only Time" peaked at #10 on the Billboard Hot
100 chart, while the album A Day Without Rain at #2 on the Billboard 200, being the number one
new-age artist of the year.[57]