This presentation gives a brief insight into New Age Music.

1. NEW AGE MUSIC

2. WHAT IS NEW AGE MUSIC?
A genre of music intended to create:
• Artistic Inspiration
• Relaxation
• Optimism.

3. WHAT IS IT USED FOR?
• Yoga
• Massage
• Meditation
• Reading as a method of stress management
• To create a peaceful atmosphere in their home

4. HOW IS IT MADE?
• Electronic forms
• Sustained synth pads or long sequencer-based runs
• Acoustic forms
It features instruments like
• Flutes
• Piano
• Acoustic Guitar
• Non-Western Acoustic Instruments

5. HOW IS IT MADE?
• Vocal arrangements were initially rare
Now it features
• Native American
• Sanskrit
• Tibetan-influenced chants
• lyrics based on mythology such as Celtic legends.

6. WHERE DID IT COME FROM?
• A religious or spiritual movement that developed in
Western nations during the 1970s.
• The movement is characterized by a holistic view of
the cosmos, a belief in an emergent Age of Aquarius
• Emphasizes on self-spirituality and the authority of
the self, a focus on healing (particularly with
alternative therapies), a belief in channeling, and an
adoption of a "New Age science"

7. WHERE DID IT COME FROM?
• After the political turmoil of the 1960s, many
activists in North America and Europe became
disillusioned revolutionary political ideologies.
• Some began searching for a new system that gave
special weight to consciousness, ecology, personal
and spiritual development, community
empowerment, and global unity

8. HOW DID IT EVOLVE?
Pioneers included
• Pink Floyd
• Brian Eno
• Kitaro

9. HOW DID IT EVOLVE
• On Valentine's Day in 1987, Los Angeles rock radio
station KMET changed to a full-time new-age-music
format with new call letters KTWV, branded as The
Wave
• Management told the station employees to refer to
The Wave as a "mood service" rather than a "radio
station".

10. HOW DID IT EVOLVE
• DJs stopped announcing the titles of the songs to
maintain an uninterrupted mood,
• Listeners had to call a 1-800 phone number to find
out what song was playing.
• News breaks were re-branded and referred to as
"wave breaks".

11. HOW DID IT EVOLVE
• Most major cable television networks launched new
age channels like "Soundscapes" on Music Choice.
• By 1989, there were over 150 small independent
record labels releasing new-age music
• New-age music was carried on hundreds of
commercial and college radio stations in the U.S.,
• Over 40 distributors were selling new-age music
through mail-order catalogs.

12. SUB GENRES
• Neoclassical New Age
• Space Music
• Andean New Age

13. FUSION GENRES
• Celtic Fusion