{"id":823,"date":"2021-07-04T17:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-07-04T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev.nysmusic.com\/2021\/2021\/07\/04\/summer-reading-easy-listening-acid-trip-an-elevator-ride-through-60s-psychedelic-pop\/"},"modified":"2021-07-04T17:00:00","modified_gmt":"2021-07-04T17:00:00","slug":"summer-reading-easy-listening-acid-trip-an-elevator-ride-through-60s-psychedelic-pop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.nysmusic.com\/2021\/2021\/07\/04\/summer-reading-easy-listening-acid-trip-an-elevator-ride-through-60s-psychedelic-pop\/","title":{"rendered":"Summer Reading- Easy-Listening Acid Trip: An Elevator Ride Through \u201860s Psychedelic Pop"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

With his 2004 book,\u00a0Elevator Music<\/em><\/a>,\u00a0Joseph Lanza<\/a>\u00a0laid out a lovingly comprehensive history of the much-maligned, mood-altering musical genre also known as Easy-Listening.\u00a0 Lanza\u2019s treatise was ballsy in that it made the entirely logical connection between the background music pumped into shopping malls, restaurants and, yes, elevators, and the soothing experiments of ambient artists like Brian Eno and The Orb.\u00a0Now with\u00a0Easy-Listening Acid Trip<\/em><\/a>, Lanza is digging deeper into a very specific niche of moodsong. He is showing how the psychedelia-informed hits of The Beatles<\/a>, Donovan, The Rolling Stones, The Doors, Procol Harum, Jefferson Airplane and others inspired easy-listening arrangers to reinterpret them as instrumentals that were sometimes more surreal than the originals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"easy-listening<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

But first, a quick primer on easy-listening music. Easy-Listening was a style most popular in the \u201850s \u2013 \u201870s, when large orchestras recorded lush instrumental versions of the vocal standards of the \u201830s and \u201840s and, ultimately, the hits of the day. The most obvious trademark was their soaring string sections.  It was something that gave name to some of the idiom\u2019s most popular artists, like the 101 Strings and the Percy Faith Strings, which also launched one of the most popular formats on FM radio. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Easy-Listening was an outgrowth of\u00a0Muzak<\/a>\u00a9, a patented brand of scientifically modeled background music that originated in 1934. The Muzak Corporation created thousands of hours of music that was deployed into offices, shops and the like to alter mood \u2013 to either increase the pace and productivity of workers\/shoppers or, as with NASA astronauts and bored suburban housewives, to calm and reduce stress.\u00a0 The music was programmed into playlists designed to \u201clift\u201d the spirit of the listener (hence, the term Elevator Music). And though these works were designed to be lightweight, inobtrusive sonic wallpaper, it\u2019s important to remember that they were crafted by many of the best arrangers, conductors, engineers and session musicians in the business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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