Elevator Music: A Surreal History of Muzak, Easy-Listening, and Other Moodsong
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Book Overview
It's campy, it's cool, empty, intrusive, trite, and treacly. It's Big Brother singing. Call it what you will -- elevator music, Moodsong (R) easy listening, or Muzak (R). For a musical genre that was supposed to offend no one, it has a lot of enemies.
Musical cognoscenti decry its insipid content; regular folk -- if they notice -- bemoan its pervasiveness; while hipsters and campsters celebrate its retro chic. Mindful of the many voices, Joseph Lanza's Elevator Music sings seriously, with tongue in cheek, the praises of this venerable American institution.
Lanza addresses the criticisms of elites who say that Muzak and its ilk are dehumanized, vapid, or cheesy. These reactions, he argues, are based more on cultural prejudices than honest musical appraisal.
Says Lanza, today's so-called mood music is the inheritor of a long tradition of mood-altering music stretching back to the ancients; Nero's fiddle and the sirens of Odysseus being two famous examples. Contemporary atmospheric music, Lanza argues, not only serves the same purpose, it is also the inevitable background for our media-dominated age.
One of Lanza's premises, to quote Mark Twain, is that this music is "better than it sounds." "This book will have succeeded in its purpose," he writes, "if I can help efface...the distinction between one person's elevator music and another's prized recording."
Joseph Lanza is an author, producer, and music historian. His most recent book is Russ Columbo and the Crooner Mystique.
Musical cognoscenti decry its insipid content; regular folk -- if they notice -- bemoan its pervasiveness; while hipsters and campsters celebrate its retro chic. Mindful of the many voices, Joseph Lanza's Elevator Music sings seriously, with tongue in cheek, the praises of this venerable American institution.
Lanza addresses the criticisms of elites who say that Muzak and its ilk are dehumanized, vapid, or cheesy. These reactions, he argues, are based more on cultural prejudices than honest musical appraisal.
Says Lanza, today's so-called mood music is the inheritor of a long tradition of mood-altering music stretching back to the ancients; Nero's fiddle and the sirens of Odysseus being two famous examples. Contemporary atmospheric music, Lanza argues, not only serves the same purpose, it is also the inevitable background for our media-dominated age.
One of Lanza's premises, to quote Mark Twain, is that this music is "better than it sounds." "This book will have succeeded in its purpose," he writes, "if I can help efface...the distinction between one person's elevator music and another's prized recording."
Joseph Lanza is an author, producer, and music historian. His most recent book is Russ Columbo and the Crooner Mystique.
Format:Paperback
Language:English
ISBN:0472089420
ISBN13:9780472089420
Release Date:January 2004
Publisher:University of Michigan Press
Length:329 Pages
Weight:0.94 lbs.
Dimensions:0.8" x 5.5" x 8.3"
Customer Reviews
5 ratings
fantastic book
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 17 years ago
I loved those beautiful music radio stations back in the 70s and 80s . There was so much background information in this book about the makers of that wonderful music that we all grew up with.I had no idea about . It was interesting reading about the beginnings of MUZAc and the orchestras of that period.They really were very high quality.They were indeed quite artistic and always entertaining.I agree with the author that that type of music did not deserve the criticism it got. There was a lot of prejudice.The muzac today is really the problem as it does invade one's privacy.
"Elevator Music" gave me a BIG L-I-F-T!
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 24 years ago
The author did a marvelous job researching the subject ofpoporchestra easy listening music. He covers in some detail all thegreats who made this style of music so popular during the 1950s, '60s and '70s. The welcome chapter on Beautiful Music stereo FM radio stations of the '70s should have included the name of Bob Chandler, who programmed WGAY Washington, D.C. Bob was the person most responsible for making 'GAY the best station of its kind in the U.S. and the #1-rated station in our Nation's Capital during much of the 1970s. Please note that Time-Life Music has issued a series of Instrumental Favorites featuring all the artists discussed by the author. ( ) Author Joesph Lanza has written the annotations to this series of exquisite recordings.
"Elevator Music" gave me a BIG L-I-F-T!
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 24 years ago
The author did a marvelous job researching the subject ofpoporchestra easy listening music. He covers in some detail all thegreats who made this style of music so popular during the 1950s, '60s and '70s. The welcome chapter on Beautiful Music stereo FM radio stations of the '70s should have included the name of Bob Chandler, who programmed WGAY Washington, D.C. Bob was the person most responsible for making 'GAY the best station of its kind in the U.S. and the #1-rated station in our Nation's Capital during much of the 1970s. Please note that Time-Life Music has issued a series of Instrumental Favorites featuring all the artists discussed by the author...
Joseph Lanza Nails His Subject Matter Impressively
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 24 years ago
Lanza's exploration of elevator music, easy listening and all things moodsong is the definitive book for anyone who has an interest in a very misunderstood genre. As someone very close to the Easy Listening and Mood Music programming that quietly ruled FM radio for much of the 70's, let me tell you... Joseph Lanza nails his subject matter impressively. Whether you consider yourself a Percy Faith, Roger Williams or Mantovani fan... or are just curious about these plush, melodic sounds, "Elevator Music: A Surreal History Of Muzak, Easy Listening and Other Moodsong" makes for enjoyable reading. This isn't a book that seeks to cash in on what someone recently decided to call lounge music but an evenhanded evaluation of fascinating, mostly instrumental adult pop music with melodies that always lingered on.
The Oasis of Muzak
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 26 years ago
Standing apart from the slagheap of so-called histories of "Lounge" music is Joseph Lanza's brilliant "Elevator Music." Lanza has contributed an exhaustively-researched and riveting account of a genre of music too often dismissed by those deafened by the relentless rhythms of today's popular music. Without resorting to the insipid and meaningless exploitation of kitsch nostalgia, the book makes a convincing argument that this music does indeed serve to "elevate" the spirits of its listeners. Rather than being an inescapable aural assault, elevator music has the possibility of being considered as pleasurable foreground, if the listener so chooses, or benign background, as a subconscious presence. One need only walk into Howard Johnson's from the bustle of Times Square to experience the oasis that elevator music creates within that space. Our society would no doubt be much better off if elevator music were more prevalent in its public spaces than the angst-ridden, self-conscious pop and rap that now dominate our daily soundscape.
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