Easy listening

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Easy listening music is a style of popular music and radio format which emerged in the mid-20th century.^{[citation needed]} It features simple, catchy melodies, soft, laid-back songs and occasionally rhythms suitable for dancing. Easy listening music is mostly instrumental (often played on light of tone instruments such as the Hammond Organ, "lush strings," or Ukulele). Some singers, such as Andy Williams, Jack Jones, Engelbert Humperdinck and Eydie Gorme, have vocal styles which are highly compatible with this style. Much of the work of some other pop vocalists, such as Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Tom Jones and Mel Torme were considered too frenetic or swing-oriented to be played in an easy listening radio format.^{[citation needed]}

Circa 1980, easy listening was the most listened-to radio format in America.^{[citation needed]} However, the easy-listening format gradually declined and became scarce, not because its listeners were too few, but because they were getting too old and therefore less desirable for radio advertisers.^{[citation needed]}

Contents 1 Use of term and related forms of music 2 Artists and music 3 Radio stations playing easy listening music 4 See also 5 External links

[edit] Use of term and related forms of music

Beautiful music is a subset of easy listening music, since, as a radio format, it had rigid standards for instrumentation (e.g., few or no saxophones) and restrictions on how many vocal pieces could be played in an hour.^{[citation needed]} It is sometimes called Nostalgia music.^{[citation needed]}

The term "easy listening" has sometimes been applied negatively in the years since it went out of fashion. It is similar to what is called "lounge" or "lounge core", but lounge music is much more jazz-oriented and dependent on musical improvisation than easy listening.^{[citation needed]} Easy listening music is almost always orchestrated and is more analogous to classical music than to jazz.

Since easy-listening music is rather unknown to the younger generations, the term "easy listening" is often incorrectly used when applied to soft pop, Smooth Jazz, or new age music.^{[citation needed]} Easy listening music is also, sometimes, known as "mood music" or "MOR",^{[citation needed]} or more pejoratively as "Muzak" or "elevator music".

Adult contemporary music is a more fashionable form of easy listening and is one of the top radio formats in the USA today.^{[citation needed]} Easy listening is erroneously referred to as instrumental elevator music by some.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Artists and music

• Easy Listening Orchestras and Music
  • Lex De Azevedo
  • Burt Bacharach
  • Caravelli
  • Ray Coniff
  • Frank Chacksfield
  • Percy Faith
  • Robert Farnon
  • Boston Pops
  • Jackie Gleason
  • Hollyridge Strings
  • Geoff Love Orchestra
  • Bert Kaempfert
  • Andre Kostelanetz
  • James Last
  • Enoch Light
  • Living Strings
  • Longines Symphonette
  • Henry Mancini
  • Mantovani
  • Ray Martin
  • Paul Mauriat
  • Melachrino
  • The Mom and Dads
  • 101 Strings
  • Frank Pourcel
  • David Rose
  • Pat Valentino
  • Billy Vaughn
  • Lawrence Welk
  • Paul Weston
  • Charles Williams

• Easy listening pianists
  • Ronnie Aldrich
  • Floyd Cramer
  • Carl Doy
  • Ferrante & Teicher
  • Earl Grant
  • Joe Harnell
  • Horst Jankowski
  • Bradley Joseph
  • Henry Mancini
  • Peter Nero
  • Emile Pandolfi
  • Roger Williams

• Guitarists with high deployment in easy listening
  • Laurindo Almeida
  • Francis Goya
  • Earl Klugh

• Pianists with high deployment in easy listening
  • Antônio Carlos Jobim
  • Bradley Joseph

• Easy listening vocal groups
  • The Laurie Bower Singers
  • The Ray Charles Singers
  • The Mike Curb Congregation
  • The Doodletown Pipers
  • The Anita Kerr Singers
  • The Lettermen
  • The Living Voices
  • The Geoff Love Singers
  • The Norman Luboff Choir
  • The Johnny Mann Singers
  • The Perry La Marca Singers (see Parfait Records)
  • Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66
  • The Fleetwoods^{[citation needed]}

• Vocalists with high deployment in easy listening
  • Ed Ames
  • Perry Como (later material)
  • Eydie Gorme
  • Robert Goulet
  • Engelbert Humperdinck
  • Jack Jones
  • Steve Lawrence
  • Al Martino
  • Johnny Mathis
  • Matt Monro
  • Anne Murray
  • Kenny Rogers
  • James Taylor
  • Roger Whittaker
  • Andy Williams

• Vocalists with some deployment in easy listening
  • Tony Bennett
  • Glen Campbell
  • The Carpenters
  • Perry Como (earlier material)
  • Nat King Cole
  • Vic Damone
  • Sammy Davis Jr.
  • Doris Day
  • John Denver
  • Neil Diamond
  • Dean Martin
  • Olivia Newton-John (earlier material)
  • Daniel O'Donnell
  • Barbra Streisand
  • Jerry Vale
  • Bobby Vinton
  • Mel Gibson (The Singer) - The Album: "Weakness In A Man"

[edit] Radio stations playing easy listening music

Easy listening formatted radio stations in the United States  view • talk • edit
By call sign	KAHM  · KHOY  · KILJ  · KIRK  · KKWK  · KLUX  · KMFY  · KNXR  · KRTR  · KVSV  · KWXY  · WAVV  · WBAQ  · WBNL  · WCVU  · WEZS  · WEZV  · WGCY  · WHLC  · WHRR  · WJEJ  · WJIB  · WKLI  · WKTZ  · WLRR  · WMUU  · WMVK  · WOAB  · WOEZ  · WOON  · WPLM  · WSFB  · WSPZ  · WTPB  · WWOK  · WYEZ  ·
By city	Albany, NY  · Beloit, KS  · Birmingham, AL  · Boonville, IN  · Boston, MA  · Boston, MA  · Gibson City, IL  · Grand Rapids, MN  · Greenville, MS  · Greenville, SC  · Greenville, SC  · Hagerstown, MD  · Highlands, NC  · Honolulu, HI  · Jacksonville, FL  · Kansas City, MO  · Laconia, NH  · Laredo, TX  · Macon, MO  · Marco, FL  · Maynardville, TN  · Milledgeville, GA  · Mount Pleasant, IA  · Murrells Inlet, SC  · North Myrtle Beach, SC  · Ozark, AL  · Palm Springs, CA  · Perryville, MD  · Portsmouth, OH  · Prescott, AZ  · Quitman, GA  · Robstown, TX  · Rochester, MN  · Rockford, IL  · Solana, FL  · Woonsocket, RI  · See also Smooth Jazz

[edit] See also

• Smooth jazz

[edit] External links

• Beautiful instrumentals easy listening,mood music conversations Beautiful Instrumentals Online Discussion/Appreciation Yahoo Group !
• Escape Radio Channel 78 by XM Satellite Radio Beautiful Instrumentals and classic vocals. XM Satellite Radio Channel 78 via subscription across America and Canada.
• Easy Listening Stereo Light,easy,beautiful,vocal & instrumentals from yesterday and today. Easy listening internet radio.
• Beautiful Music Radio Beautiful insturmentals and classic vocals. Beautiful music internet radio.
• Easy Living Radio The original light,easy,beautiful music internet radio station on Live365.com.
• Humboldt 101 Easy listening vocal and instrumentals on the internet from the Northern California.
• FAIR Radio Easy listening from FAIR Radio, internet radio station on Live365.com.
• Ace Holiday Artist that re-creates 1960's easy listening genre with newly composed songs. Uses vacuum tubes and multi-track tape for authenticity of sound. *Listen Here MP3 (free to public).