New Age Music
The genre of calm, tranquil music known as New Age emerged from several conflicting trends in popular music in the 1960s and 1970s. It originated on one level from the electronic music (some-times referred to as "space music") of the late 1960s. Itself a nascent musical form, electronic music was embraced by groups like Tangerine Dream, and incorporated into the music of progressive rock groups such as Pink Floyd and Yes. On another level, and slightly after the popularization of electronic music, New Age music grew out of the dissatisfaction of some musicians with the pervasive influence of technology in contemporary music. These musicians made an attempt to return to simpler ways of making music, and began writing and recording peaceful, unobtrusive pieces, mainly for acoustic guitar and piano. These two trends, paradoxically, combined to form what would be known as New Age music; in addition, the style was informed by other established genres like jazz and classical music, and by various forms of ethnic music, particularly Celtic. As a result of New Age's disparate roots, listeners, fans, and critics have always had difficulty in defining it, and record company executives have had similar difficulties in labeling and merchandising New Age recordings.
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