Easy Listening, MOR, or "Grown-Up Music"

"Rock and roll music was (and still is, to some
degree) basically considered for kids and teens,"
recalled Pamela Foster.
"And I think to the over-30 crowd, rock and roll was
still looked down upon, although there was SOME
acceptance in small circles. There was a common phrase
during the late '60s, 'Never trust anyone over 30.' It
seems rather quaint and ironic now, doesn't it? For
many, if not most of the executives, DJs, record
company presidents, promoters, and distributors, who
WERE at least 30 or older, pretty much determined what
the under-30 crowd listened to!"
"Now most older and elderly people that I know of
listened to what was then called 'Beautiful Music
Stations.' "

These were mostly instrumental music formats that were
popular on American radio from this decade, the 1960s
through the 1980s. Other interchangeable terms for
this format are "easy listening", "mood music",
"Muzak", and "elevator music". Beautiful music is also
considered a category of MOR (Middle Of the Road).
Many of this genre's artists are also interchangeable
within these formats.

Beautiful music was basically soft, soothing all
instrumental background music for stores, with
commercial breaks consisting only of shopper
announcements. This practice was known as
"storecasting" and was very common on the FM dial in
the 1940s and 1950s.

In the early 1960s, the FCC (Federal Communications
Commission) adopted a standard for transmitting and
receiving stereo signals on a single channel of the FM
band. In addition to stereo sound, FM broadcasting had
a clearer sound and better resistance to interference
than AM, thus being ideal for the beautiful music
format.

Perhaps the first true beautiful music station in the
U.S. was KIKL in Dallas, Texas. During the 1950s and
'60s, the station was well known for seamlessly
blending one song into another using specially
designed instrumental bridges, and for "Think It
Over", a popular feature in which the announcer softly
and smoothly read a proverb or word of wisdom, did a
short pause, then said "Think it over."

Upon KIKL's success, Gordon McLendon (he of the "Top
40" format with Todd Storz ) started up his own
beautiful music station in San Francisco, KABL
(pronounced "cable", as in "cable car". Get it?). In
1963, Martin Taylor created a custom-designed
beautiful music station, WDVR-FM in Philadelphia. It
became not only a HUGE local success, but also the
first big success in FM broadcasting. WDVR became a
refuge for mature listeners who were driven away by AM
radio's rock and roll programming (the devil's
music!). This station perfected the beautiful music
formula and set the standard.
Other pioneers of this genre included WPAT-AM/FM
(Paterson, New Jersey, servving the New York market),
WJBR-FM (Wilmington, Delaware), and WQMR-AM/WGAY-FM
(Wshington, DC).

Some group station owners created their own "in-house"
format distribution system and several tape
syndicators offered easy listening music formats on
reel-to-reel tape and other formats (until the 1980s;
industry consolidation and ratings decline reduced the
audience).
Many programmers put together their own set,
eventually adding vocal songs, generally one every 15
minutes. Many stations had a ratio of 80%
instrumental-20% vocal mix, others did 90%
instrumentals, and some were entirely instrumental.
Generally, beautiful music recordings were newly
orchestrated arrangements of songs of the time,
available from the major record labels. When the
record companies cut back on releasing this material,
the format syndicators had custom recordings produced
for them, performed by many different orchestras
worldwide. These new custom recordings were usually
instrumental versions of current or recent rock or pop
hit songs (This was to give more mass appeal without
"selling out". Some longtime listeners weren't happy
with this!)
During the month of December, many of these stations
played a marathon of Christmas songs, particularly on
Dec. 24th (Christmas Eve) and 25th (Christmas Day).
This concept was later carried over to radio stations
of other genres.

Some beautiful music stations made a successful
transition into adult contemporary formats, using more
vocals (into the 1980s); over time, the instrumentals
were elimated completely. Some stations changed their
former call letters to drop the identity of an
"elevator music" station.

Today, there are only a few beautiful music stations
still on the air; some non-commercial ones are around,
but there are also a few commercial stations that are
doing well in areas with large retiree populations.
And of course, there's the Internet and satellite
radio!

Some of this genre's biggest stars include:

The Instrumental Stars

101 Strings Orchestra (Isn't there always a string
orchestra on a beautiful music station?), Floyd
Cramer, Percy Faith, Ferrante and Teicher, Hollyridge
Strings, Mantovani, Lawrence Welk, and Henry Mancini,
among others.

The Singers (Many, if not most of the following are
often also played on easy listening, MOR, and adult
contemparary stations): Rosemary Clooney, The Ray
Charles Singers (Not THAT Ray Charles), Nat King Cole,
Ray Conniff Singers, Johnny Mathis, Barbra Streisand,
and Andy Williams are examples.

Lounge music is music played in the lounges and bars
of hotels and casinos, or at stand-alone piano bars.
The performers generally include a singer and one or
two other musicians, who play or cover songs composed
by others, especially Tin Pan Alley-era pop standards.
(Laid-back or down tempo electronic music can also be
called lounge. Did you know that The Beatles performed
as a lounge act in Hamburg, Germany?)

Lounge music, as most people know it, commonly refers
to a form of "hip" easy listening music that was
popular during the 1950s and '60s, yet was distinct
from what was "pop rock" of that era. Pop rock was
more popular with younger folks and teens, and lounge
music was more popular with their older siblings or
parents. But the phrase "lounge music" wasn't used at
this time. The instrumentals of this genre were called
exotica; The vocals were simply called "pop". The term
"lounge" emerged in the late 1980s as a label of
endearment by young adults whose parents had played
this music.

Some of the lounge music during this time was slow
easy listening, but a lot was also uptempo. Lounge
wasn't strictly country, rock, or blues, nor a mix of
them.

A good part of lounge music was totally instrumental
(There could be minor vocal parts). Sometime it would
be theme music from movies or TV shows.

A sub-genre of lounge was swinging music (yeah, baby,
yeah!), which was a schmaltzy continuation of the
swing jazz era of the 1930s and '40s, but with more
emphasis on the singer. Jackie Gleason (Yes, THE
Jackie Gleason), Wayne Newton, Louis Prima, and the
legendary Rat Pack are a prime example. They performed
mainly at featured lounges in Las Vegas casinos.

The Rat Pack was the epitome of grown-up 1960s "cool"
and male bonding (Did you know that this was started
by Humphrey Bogart? He was the group's leader until
his death), consisting of singers Frank Sinatra, the
undisputed leader, Dean Martin, his second-in-command,
Sammy Davis Jr., sometimes the comic foil, comedian
Joey Bishop, and actor Peter Lawford. The main nucleus
were Frank, Dean, and Sammy, but the five sometimes
appeared together or often worked as duos, trios, or
quartets in movies, TV shows, and of course, Vegas.

There were a few female mascots, such as actresses
Shirley MacLaine (who also worked with them in several
movies) and Angie Dickinson (who did, too), but this
was basically a guy's club (Swingin', smokin', boozin'
and broads! Ca-Ching Ca-Ching! Ring-A-Ding-Ding!). JFK
(John F. Kennedy) was a Rat Pack wannabe, but had to
curtail his association, due to his political life
(And advice from brother Robert) and shall we say, a
group member's other connections.

There would be later falling-outs within the group and
a few reunions, but for a moment in time, these five
crazy cats ruled!

Exotica was another sub-genre of lounge; international
instrumentals were the main focus here (The Bossa
Nova, Mambo, Cha-Cha-Cha, French, and Hawaiian, among
others, are examples). Many of these recordings were
portrayed as originating in exotic foreign lands, but
actually were recorded in Hollywood studios by veteran
session musicians.
Another sub-genre was space age pop music, which
attempted to give the feeling of zooming into outer
space (There was high public interest in space
exploration at this time.)

Lounge music and musicians had a revival in the 1980s
and '90s in popular culture. It was featured in the
first "Blues Brothers" movie, and was the focus of
"The Fabulous Baker Boys" and "Swingers."
Comedians Andy Kaufman (as Tony Clifton), Bill Murray
and the duo of Will Ferrell and Ana Gasteyer (the
latter three on "Saturday Night Live") have all
parodied lounge acts or singers.

There are modern lounge acts today (such as Big Bad
Voodoo Daddy) that are winning over new fans.
Ring-A-Ding-Ding!

Easy Listening Music features simple, catchy melodies,
soft, laid-back songs, and occasionally "dance
numbers".
Some singers, such as Andy Williams, Jack Jones,
Engelbert Humperdinck, and Eydie Gorme were considered
very compatible with this style, while some pop
vocalists such as Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Tom
Jones, and Mel Torme were considered too "jazzy" or
swing-oriented for this format (Bing Crosby's too
jazzy?).

Beautiful music is a sub-genre of easy listening; It's
similar to lounge, but lounge is much more
jazz-oriented and dependent on musical improvisation.
It's also almost always orchestrated and is more
analogous to classical. Easy listening is also known
as "mood music", "MOR", and the derogatory terms
"Muzak" or "elevator music" (It's really not; it just
seems that way).
It's incorrectly used when applied to soft rock,
smooth jazz, or new age music.

Adult contemporary music is a form of easy listening.
Some top artists of this genre include: Burt
Bacharach, The Boston Pops, Paul Mauriat, Billy
Vaughn,, Earl Grant, Horst Jankowski, Peter Nero, The
Fleetwoods, Ed Ames, Perry Como, Robert Goulet, Al
Martino, Glen Campbell, Vic Damone, Sammy Davis Jr.,
Dean Martin, Jerry Vale, and Bobby Vinton.

Most of these artists, among others, were
interchangeable with the "beautiful music" playlist.

MOR (Middle Of the Road) is a general term covering a
number of musical styles. It's not technically a
genre. It's not cutting edge; it's generally a strong
melody and frequently used vocal harmony techniques
and arrangements involving orchestral instruments.
This music is rarely aggressive or abrasive.
(Beautiful Music is a form of MOR.)

This was a format designed for almost "across the
board" appeal; You'll often hear this format in
doctors' offices, stores, and other public places. And
ironically, this has largely replaced what was once
referred to as "elevator music or muzak" only to now
be considered muzak itself.
Some of the musical styles of MOR include:
Easy Listening, traditional pre-rock and roll pop
music,orchestral ballads, Broadway and show tunes,
light jazz, soft rock, and sometimes new music that
has a nostalgic sound

The term MOR has come to mean "sell-out" in some music
circles; to them, this refers to those artists who
were originally innovative and cutting edge, but
"progressed" to more tried and true pop or blandness
(For example, remember how Elton John was at the
beginning of his career and through the '70s? Compare
his former songs to more recent work.)

Some MOR artists include:

Pat Boone, Bing Crosby (finally!), Frankie Laine,
Patti Page, Dionne Warwick, and many of the already
abovementioned that would also fit into this format.

Elevator Music is the gentle, often bland instrumental
arrangements of popular music designed for play for in
shopping malls, grocery stores, when you're "on hold"
using the phone, cruise ships, airports, and
naturally, elevators. It's also known as "piped
music", "muzak", "bland", or "lift music" (a U.K.
term).

The Muzak Corporation is probably the best-known
supplier of this music. (The name has become
synonymous with very bland music.)

"With the possible exception of lounge music, all of
these formats will put you to sleep within 15-20
minutes", said Pamela Foster. "I recall trying to
listen for an entire day to a 'beautiful music'
station. I didn't make it past 15 minutes before I
zzzzzzzzzzzz!" I also tried to do an entire day of MOR
and Easy Listening. Bored stiff; At least I lasted for
a half hour before I became zzzzzzzzzzzz!"
"Even discussing this subject...ZZZZZ!!!"

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