Art Collage JANG: 74. New Age Music: 1. General, ACJ Music Academy

How are you?

Following the last week, I am going to start my 74th lecture.

From this week, I will start new music genre, “New Age Music” which will last for 12 weeks, following the “History of Rock” lectures that I had for 12 weeks.

Today's lecture is the first lecture of “New Age Music”, which is a summary of the contents of “74. New Age Music: 1. General” introduced on February 4th, 2017.

New Age music is one of the musical genres intended to create artistic inspiration, relaxation and optimism. It is used as music to listen while doing yoga, massage, meditation, reading, etc. as a method of stress management to evoke a state of ecstasy rather than trance or to create a peaceful atmosphere at home or other environments, and is also linked to environmentalism and New Age spirituality.

New Age music includes “acoustic music” using flute, piano, acoustic guitar and various types of non-Western acoustic instruments, and “electronic music” using electronic instruments. Vocals were very rare in the early days, but they are becoming more common, especially in songs with Native American, Sanskrit-, or Tibetan-influenced chants, and songs based on mythology such as Celtic legends.

New Age music was influenced by artists of various musical genres. Jazz clarinetist Tony Scott's album "Music for Zen Meditation" released in 1964 is considered the first New Age record. Paul Horn, a jazz player who started New Age music with the album "Inside" released in 1969, is one of the important pioneers in the field. "Spectrum Suite", an album released in 1976 by Steven Halpern, an American New Age musician, is one of the important pieces that started New Age music movement.

Music for Zen Meditation, Tony Scott
(1964)

New Age music is defined not by the instruments and genres used to make music, but by the emotions when making it.

New Age artists range from solo players or ensembles using classical instruments such as piano, acoustic guitar, flute or harp to electronic instrument players or Oriental instrument players such as sitar and tabla.

One of the two typical definitions related to New Age music is it is the music with an ambient sound created to aid in relaxation or spiritual training such as yoga and meditation. It should have a repetitive form without sudden and loud chord change and improvisations that can interfere with meditation, and instrument players prefer this definition to vocal musicians. Sounds that affect unconsciously are also used in New Age music, and the sounds of animals and nature are included. Representative artists who create New Age music used for such healing or meditation include Irv Teibel, Paul Horn, Deuter, Steven Halpern and Paul Winter.

Paul Winter

Another definition is to focus on practicality, which refers to the music sold in the New Age music section of record stores, which is the range of music classified as New Age by retailers who are less interested in a clear distinction of musical styles. Since the music belonging to this definition can include almost all types of music, it is a definition that considers marketing rather than a music category.

New Age music is a comprehensive genre, and artists included in New Age music are included in other genres, and they themselves often refer to their own style as a different genre.

For other terms used in place of the term New Age music, Kay Gardner calls the original New Age music as Healing Music or Women's Spirituality. Paul Winter, who is considered a pioneer in New Age music, refuses to use the term and prefers Earth Music.

Kay Gardner

The term Instrumental Music or Contemporary Instrumental includes artists who do not use electronic instruments in their music, such as pianist David Lanz. Also, musicians like Yanni and Bradley Joseph use keyboards in their music to perform with orchestras, but use this term.