 | New Age music: Encyclopedia II - New Age music - Significance
New Age music - Significance
Music labeled New Age often is intended to represent a vision of a better future, expresses an appreciation of goodness and beauty, even an anticipation, relevant to some event. Rarely does New Age music dwell on a problem with this world or its inhabitants and is generally apolitical; instead it offers a peaceful vision of a better world. Since most of the music is instrumental, rather than vocal, these interpretations are often left to the listener's imagination. Often the music is celestial themed when referring to the titles of New Age albums.
Ennio Morricone wrote the entire score for the movie Mission to Mars, and while the credits flash the song All the Friends is played in a New Age orchestral style. In addition to the name "New Age", some composers and listeners refer to the music as "Space music". An interesting connection to make here is with other composers interested in metaphors of space, but with contrasting aesthetics such as Karlheinz Stockhausen, Sun Ra, and even Parliament/Funkadelic. In all cases, notions of space are related to salvation in one way or another.
The titles of New Age music are often illuminating, because the words used by the artists attempt to convey their version of truth, in a few short words. On listening to the music, one may understand the idea within the title. Examples of titles: Bond of Union, Sweet Wilderness, Shepherd Moons, Animus Anima.
One of the biggest misconceptions of New Age Music is that it only deals with a the New Age Movement, it's beliefs and related themes. In fact, this is not true. Only a small portion of New Age Music is associated with New Age as a movement or similar beliefs. New Age Music is often describe as music used to relax, contemplate, and enjoy.
A few examples of artists and record labels related to New Age music include: Tangerine Dream, Solomon Keal, Abandoned Toys, Vangelis, Jean-Michel Jarre, Constance Demby, Ashra, Steve Roach, Windham Hill Records, Real Music, Space For Music, New Albion, Narada, Innovative Communications, Cue Records, Neu Harmony, Private Music and Groove Unlimited.
Other related archives1960s, 1970s, Age of Aquarius, Ashra, Brian Eno, Category:New Age albums, Category:New Age music, Dreams, ECM, Ennio Morricone, Enya, Gaelic, Ghana, Grammy, Gregorian Chant, Hair, Jean-Michel Jarre, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Krautrock, LaMonte Young, Latin, List of new age / new instrumental musicians, Mike Oldfield, Mission to Mars, Narada, New Age, New Age Movement, New Age Music, New Albion, Parliament/Funkadelic, Private Music, Ray Buttigieg, Solomon Keal, Steve Reich, Steve Roach, Sun Ra, Tangerine Dream, Terry Riley, Tony Conrad, Tubular Bells, Vangelis, West African, Windham Hill Records, World music, acoustic guitar, ambient, ambient music, celestial, classical music, electronic, ethnic music, instrumental, meditation, prog-rock, record label, score, trance music, world music
 Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Significance", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki |
