Why did Easy Listening die?

[Rabshakeh]

I'd be interested in people's views as to why easy listening as a concept seems to have gone away in the 1980s (barring the 1990s 'revival').

50s - 70s there seems to have been a wide appetite for the stuff. I don't just mean the specific genre Easy Listening ( @Teasing the Korean will no doubt have views) but anything that sounds sophisticated, but sits in the background, whether Henry Mancini, George Shearing, bossa, Yma Sumac, Herb Alpert, whatever Gary McFarland's thing was, Muzak, Beatles with Strings, down on their luck cool jazz guys in the late 60s, Singers Unlimited or whatever. 

Some of this stuff is really great and a lot isn't, but aside from that, you'd think that the concept of Easy Listening would be as permanent as Pop.

The question is spurred by a Christmas period spent listening to either George Shearing or dreary Spotify playlists of music that is clearly made in studios, so-called "audio wallpaper", which is arguably a revival of the old Easy Listening concept.

Edited December 27, 2022 by Rabshakeh

[Rabshakeh]

I should add that I'm aware of some break out hits that certainly were easy listening, like Norah Jones or 80s rock aimed at an older market, which would have played in similar settings to the old easy listening, but that was really just pop hits targeting a middle of the road older demographic, rather than a massive industry in itself.

[Dub Modal]

Some current pop is easy listening to me. Soft synth beats with some 80s retro style mixed in, a la Weeknd & Taylor Swift, maybe some Bieber too. Not much in terms of "bands" in a traditional sense come to mind. 

[JSngry]

Boomer narcissism, that's what killed it.

[Rabshakeh]

2 hours ago, Dub Modal said:

Some current pop is easy listening to me. Soft synth beats with some 80s retro style mixed in, a la Weeknd & Taylor Swift, maybe some Bieber too. Not much in terms of "bands" in a traditional sense come to mind. 

I'm not sure how any of these could be considered easy listening, unless that term is just being used to mean "uninteresting music", which I don't think easy listening music is, necessarily.

[Jack Pine]

It lacks the sophistication, certainly of Gary McFarland or even Muzak, but I would think the current 'Lofi Hip-hop' genera of music could be seen as a contemporary form of easy listening.

 

[Teasing the Korean]

3 hours ago, Rabshakeh said:

I'd be interested in people's views as to why easy listening as a concept seems to have gone away in the 1980s (barring the 1990s 'revival').

50s - 70s there seems to have been a wide appetite for the stuff. I don't just mean the specific genre Easy Listening ( @Teasing the Korean will no doubt have views) but anything that sounds sophisticated, but sits in the background, whether Henry Mancini, George Shearing, bossa, Yma Sumac, Herb Alpert, whatever Gary McFarland's thing was, Muzak, Beatles with Strings, down on their luck cool jazz guys in the late 60s, Singers Unlimited or whatever. 

Some of this stuff is really great and a lot isn't, but aside from that, you'd think that the concept of Easy Listening would be as permanent as Pop.

The question is spurred by a Christmas period spent listening to either George Shearing or dreary Spotify playlists of music that is clearly made in studios, so-called "audio wallpaper", which is arguably a revival of the old Easy Listening concept.

The short answer is that other genres or sub-genres of music essentially filled the "easy listening" void for more recent generations of listeners.  For example, ambient and downtempo electronica for contemporary audiences are the functional equivalent of Jackie Gleason for the WWII generation.

Your question, though, is complicated by the fact that a huge range of music got filed in the "easy listening" section because no one knew where else to file it.  

Edited December 27, 2022 by Teasing the Korean

[Niko]

I guess a lot of traditional easy listening was using 50 piece string orchestras and the like... while nowadays it seems crazy to hire 50 people or more if you're just after a quick buck... So, I'd expect that the new easy listening is some form of electronic music made by people sitting behind their laptops... and that changes the character of the music.

I thought that new Pharoah Sanders Floating Points album had a 1950s sophisticated easy listening vibe to it, partly.

[Teasing the Korean]

4 minutes ago, Niko said:

I guess a lot of traditional easy listening was using 50 piece string orchestras and the like... while nowadays it seems crazy to hire 50 people or more if you're just after a quick buck... So, I'd expect that the new easy listening is some form of electronic music made by people sitting behind their laptops... and that changes the character of the music.

Yes, there was a booming postwar economy that allowed for the creation of some very adventurous albums.  That plus the fact that record labels had to quickly create hi-fi LP catalogs, and a few years later, stereo catalogs.  

[Dan Gould]

Not getting the definition of "Easy Listening" and particularly what would separate it from "MoR" radio formats.  Setting aside whatever TTK may label as "classics" of either genre, to me the label above "uninteresting music" covers both Easy Listening and everything (I think) that ever got programmed on an MoR station.

[Rabshakeh]

I agree with the points on lo fi hip hop. "Beats tapes" to work to, etc. I think that circa 2022 there are some very clear analogies to the old easy listening industry. The so-called 'audio wallpaper' phenomenon of generic music produced to fill algorithmic streaming niches being the best example.

But I'm particularly interested in what sparked the 'dying time' in Easy Listening in around 1975-1980. Why did adults suddenly turn off the idea of glossy sophisticated background sounds, and switch to e.g. soft rock and disco, and why did soft rock and disco not 'easify' as earlier youth genres had done? Why did all that happen at precisely the point in which aging demographics and more conservative social and musical trends might have led one to expect more easy listening, rather than less?

I think that the first glimmerings of a return of the easy listening 'concept' might have been in the 1990s (alongside the revival in the older stuff) with the emergence of new forms of non-pop music "genres": light vocal jazz, ECM, and the marketing niche of 'world music', all of which were designed to appeal to mature adult audiences looking to show off their sophistication. But for the period 1975-1995, the equivalent demographic seemed to have been instead listening to pop, rock and 'urban contemporary'.

2 minutes ago, Dan Gould said:

Not getting the definition of "Easy Listening" and particularly what would separate it from "MoR" radio formats.  Setting aside whatever TTK may label as "classics" of either genre, to me the label above "uninteresting music" covers both Easy Listening and everything (I think) that ever got programmed on an MoR station.

I'm not really sure of the definition of MOR, but always saw it as an adjective for boring or mature versions of pop or rock, whereas Easy Listening was sort of its own, omnivorous, genre. You don't tend to see an MOR section at record shops, whereas Easy Listening often did, even in my younger days.

17 minutes ago, Teasing the Korean said:

Yes, there was a booming postwar economy that allowed for the creation of some very adventurous albums.  That plus the fact that record labels had to quickly create hi-fi LP catalogs, and a few years later, stereo catalogs.  

So, do you think that the collapse of Easy Listening as a genre reflected the late 1970s oil crisis linked collapse of the record industry? 

28 minutes ago, Jack Pine said:

It lacks the sophistication, certainly of Gary McFarland or even Muzak, but I would think the current 'Lofi Hip-hop' genera of music could be seen as a contemporary form of easy listening.

Some of it is very sophisticated! Assuming you're including the likes of Dilla, it is hard to think of a more sophisticated production job! 

[Dan Gould]

7 minutes ago, Rabshakeh said:

 

 

I'm not really sure of the definition of MOR, but always saw it as an adjective for boring or mature versions of pop or rock, whereas Easy Listening was sort of its own, omnivorous, genre. You don't tend to see an MOR section at record shops, whereas Easy Listening often did, even in my younger days.

No, Middle of the Road was a radio programming philosophy, not a category in record stores. It, IMHO, put what I think of as "Easy Listening" at the forefront. Think of the scene in Good Morning Vietnam when the staff is discussing programming, as well as who should be brought in for a concert.

(This maybe why I am not getting the definition of Easy Listening as distinctive in any particular way - but have you considered that the dying out of Easy Listening that you perceive came about by the domination of Muzak in commercial spaces?)

Edited December 27, 2022 by Dan Gould

[Teasing the Korean]

27 minutes ago, Rabshakeh said:

So, do you think that the collapse of Easy Listening as a genre reflected the late 1970s oil crisis linked collapse of the record industry? 

I'm not so sure that easy listening "collapsed" during that time.  It morphed into other things, MOR and disco, for example.  But the big budgets afforded to many obscure 1950s albums had become a thing of the past.

20 minutes ago, Dan Gould said:

No, Middle of the Road was a radio programming philosophy, not a category in record stores...

"Easy Listening" and "Beautiful Music" were also radio programming philosophies.  Easy Listening became a retroactively created descriptor.  Albums that we now call Easy Listening were typically classified as "Popular" on 1950s-early 60s record label inner sleeves.  The earliest examples of easy listening would have resulted from arrangers simply following their instincts of what makes a good instrumental arrangement of a pop song.  They were not self-consciously making easy listening records.

And it became very unwieldy.  The idea of filing an album like Les Baxter's The Passions in the easy listening section made no sense.

Edited December 27, 2022 by Teasing the Korean

[Rabshakeh]

9 minutes ago, Teasing the Korean said:

"Easy Listening" and "Beautiful Music" were also radio programming philosophies.  Easy Listening became a retroactively created descriptor.  Albums that we now call Easy Listening were typically classified as "Popular" on 1950s-early 60s record label inner sleeves.  The earliest examples of easy listening would have resulted from arrangers simply following their instincts of what makes a good instrumental arrangement of a pop song.  They were not self-consciously making easy listening records.

Weren't there Easy Listening charts in music publications like Billboard until the 1970s?

[Jack Pine]

9 minutes ago, Rabshakeh said:

Some of it is very sophisticated! Assuming you're including the likes of Dilla, it is hard to think of a more sophisticated production job! 

 

Incidentally in my estimation Dilla stands outside and well above what is currently going under the category of Lofi Hiphop, also Madlib and a few others who informed the style, much respect to all of them, it has devolved since those early days though I think.

 

[Rabshakeh]

Edit: I just looked it up and it turns out it still exists. It changed its name to "Adult Contemporary", which I think fits what people are saying above.

The Wikipedia quotation is:

"Over the years, the chart has gone under a series of name changes, being called Easy Listening (1961–1962; 1965–1979), Middle-Road Singles (1962–1964), Pop-Standard Singles (1964–1965), Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks (1979–1982) and Adult Contemporary (1983–present)."

Interesting in itself.

[Teasing the Korean]

1 minute ago, Rabshakeh said:

Weren't there Easy Listening charts in music publications like Billboard until the 1970s?

I don't know the years, but it became a demographic trend.  Popular music for people too old to listen to the Beatles.  The market sorted itself out.

[Rabshakeh]

1 minute ago, Jack Pine said:

Incidentally in my estimation Dilla stands outside and well above what is currently going under the category of Lofi Hiphop, also Madlib and a few others who informed the style, much respect to all of them, it has devolved since those early days though I think.

I'm with you there, then.

There's always a risk when your genre starts with the geniuses.

[Big Beat Steve]

46 minutes ago, Rabshakeh said:

I'm not really sure of the definition of MOR, but always saw it as an adjective for boring or mature versions of pop or rock, whereas Easy Listening was sort of its own, omnivorous, genre. You don't tend to see an MOR section at record shops, whereas Easy Listening often did, even in my younger days.

 

That's (also) because Easy Listening acquired a sort of "cult" niche status in some circles long, long ago - not because it was taken all too seriously by record collectors (but rather had an "easygoing" fun aspect to it). And this even applied to the generation that you might lump in with your "younger days". One example I remember was that at what actually were R'n'R (i.e REAL pre-Beat(les) era R'n'R) record hops back in the 90s where other (more or less related or contemporary) 50s/60s genres got played too, the typical Elvis 60s movie score tunes (starting with "Viva Les Vegas" and the like) were commonly refered to as "Easy Elvis". 😄

As for the basic definition (and excluding the TTK approach which has its points) I somehow tend to agree with Dan Gould's coarse-brush working definition of "uninteresting music" which WOULD put Easy Listening and MOR in the same bag. As people outgrew overproduced, overblown string-section orchestra instrumental music of the 50s and 60s and went on they (or the next listener generation) often ended up (in the 70s) with MOR artists that were neither flesh nor fowl (to the rock audience anyway, and to quite a lot among the pop audience too).

And extending the definition (or looking at the question of how long Easy Listening and its target audience has actually been around), wouldn't the sweet or Mickey-Mouse bands of the 30s be the Swing Era equivalent of Easy Listening?

Edited December 27, 2022 by Big Beat Steve

[Teasing the Korean]

16 minutes ago, Big Beat Steve said:

As for the basic definition (and excluding the TTK approach which has its points)

Just curious, how do you perceive the TTK approach?  

[JSngry]

 

[Big Beat Steve]

@TTK:

As an approach that makes "mere mortals" (who do not usually tread where you move permanently 😉) aware of recordings and records that do deserve a second look and listen, even if they would still not fall into everyone's area of core interest from then on. But interesting enough to explore them further and add to one's own awareness. Such as in the case of your Bachelor Pad Mid-Century Modern music (some of which no doubt would fall into the Easy Listening category too, and some of which, when following up your posts and/or recommendations, can be approached from a new listening angle).

Edited December 27, 2022 by Big Beat Steve

[Dan Gould]

38 minutes ago, Rabshakeh said:

Edit: I just looked it up and it turns out it still exists. It changed its name to "Adult Contemporary", which I think fits what people are saying above.

The Wikipedia quotation is:

"Over the years, the chart has gone under a series of name changes, being called Easy Listening (1961–1962; 1965–1979), Middle-Road Singles (1962–1964), Pop-Standard Singles (1964–1965), Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks (1979–1982) and Adult Contemporary (1983–present)."

Interesting in itself.

Easy Listening's closest relative in radio was stations playing "Soft Adult Contemporary" such as MELLO-105 where I had my first (and last) full time radio gig in the mid-90s.  Soft A/C distinguished itself by playing pre-disco Streisand, Neil Diamond, certain singer-songwriters of the 70s-80s, The Carpenters (which to me epitomizes "Easy Listening" as a genre) and one or two Sinatra tunes - I think Stranger in the Night was one of them - with two tunes an hour from the current Adult Contemporary hot 100 list. They also played instrumentals from the Mike Post songbook especially Law & Order themes. 

My point being that Adult Contemporary as an inheritor of the Easy Listening mantle is not really accurate in terms of radio formats. Adult Contemporary was Toni Braxton and Michael Bolton and a good large heaping of Kenny G's worst.  I don't think it can be identified as descended from Easy Listening, whatever that is, the same way that Soft Adult Contemporary could be.

[JSngry]

On my Robert Farnon Pandora channel, they keep pumping me a big log of Hollyridge Strings cuts, all of which I enjoy immensely, especially the Bech Boys covers. I thought they only did Beatles covers, but as it turns out, no, they did more than that.

9 minutes ago, JSngry said:

 

See, Boomer vanity would not allow for this being an actually very good interpretation of the song.

[Teasing the Korean]

11 minutes ago, JSngry said:

See, Boomer vanity would not allow for this being an actually very good interpretation of the song.

That Percy Faith album is very cool, one of the few Percy Faith albums that I own!

15 minutes ago, Big Beat Steve said:

@TTK:

As an approach that makes "mere mortals" (who do not usually tread where you move permanently 😉) aware of recordings and records that do deserve a second look and listen, even if they would still not fall into everyone's area of core interest from then on. But interesting enough to explore them further and add to one's own awareness. Such as in the case of your Bachelor Pad Mid-Century Modern music (some of which no doubt would fall into the Easy Listening category too, and some of which, when following up your posts and/or recommendations, can be approached from a new listening angle).

I would concur with your assessment!  In other words, I tend to go for easy listening that is not necessarily easy listening!