The Easy Trilogy III : Help! I'm obsessed by New Age music ....

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

... it's just so damned tuneless.

I used to think that this was due to ineptitude. That they wanted their panpipes to sound as beautifully melodic as, say, Gheorghe Zamfir, but that they didn't have the genius to do it.

But now I'm starting to realize that this music is the polar opposite of Easy Listening. Where EL strives to grab the listener with great melody, NA wants to be completely affectless. The goal is to produce a music which is totally relaxing. One that can't even disturb the listener through a seductive melody or fascinating sound. It seeks to repel the listener as much as attract. This also differentiates it from ambient music which is designed to provide affective moods, and have moments of interest which can be noticed.

― phil, Monday, 17 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

That's an interesting idea - New Age music is a hi-fi equivalent of a wind chime.

― John Barlow, Wednesday, 19 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

i think this thread is too interesting to go unanswered (as i've been thinking a lot about new age music these days in relation to ambient), but i realize this morning i have nothing to say on the subject.

i seem to remember a large thread from this past fall where we tried to define what differentiated new age from ambient.

― jess, Wednesday, 19 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

New Age music is a hi-fi equivalent of a wind chime.

I thought that was the idea. You know who likes new age music is Richard-San.

― dleone, Wednesday, 19 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Is this the one, jess?

phil is STBO by the way (or, more charitably, OTM).

― zebedee, Wednesday, 19 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

damn I have just remembered that the Times' hateful editorial about wind chimes was the last thing I wrote about on my website, thirteen bloody months ago

― Robin Carmody, Wednesday, 19 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.