Easy listening

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.

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 1960s and 1970s. 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

• 1960s easy listening
  • Herb Alpert
  • Burt Bacharach
  • Ray Conniff
  • Percy Faith
  • Antonio Carlos Jobim
  • Quincy Jones
  • Bert Kaempfert
  • James Last
  • Guy Lombardo
  • Henry Mancini
  • Mantovani
  • Lawrence Welk