Lounge Music Chronology

The earliest form of lounge music sprouted between 1920’s and 1930’s. It was then called light music. As the need arise, it has manifested to music played in hotels, hotel lounges, bars, piano bars and casino bars. The music was to create a sense of relaxation in the ambiance.

Space age pop, exotica and easy listening music were popular around 1950s and 1960s. They are considered as lounge music but during those times, the term lounge has yet to come. Never the less, the concept of lounge music was already applied.

Lounge music basically originated with jazz combined with traditional musical instruments around the world. Exotica sold millions of records in its time through artists Martin Denny, Les Baxter, and Arthur Lyman. Lounge music made a concoction of Latin genres, French music, Polynesian, and other popular music from outside the United States.

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Early recordings seemed like originating in exotic foreign lands but in contrary it was recorded by skilled session musicians in Hollywood. When space exploration was in great interest of the public, space age music mimicked sounds of outer space. In the arrival of stereophonic technology, artist such Esquivel employed spatial audio techniques to create whooshing sounds.

New artists took lounge music to a different level by combining pop and rock. Some of the artists to use this style were Jon Brion, Triangle Sun, Pink Mertini, The Bird and the Bee, the Buddha-Lounge series, and the surrounding regulars of Café Largo. A documentary about three older punk rockers that created lounge-punk band is the movie “The Rise and Fall of Black Velvet Flag (2003)”.

Now a day’s lounge music has further evolved. With the advent of sophisticated keyboards through wider range of sound mimicking, advanced electric drum pads and drum machines, complex guitar effects and the leap with digital mastering, lounge music became more complex. Stereophonic sound has escalated to surround sound, a multi-channel and speaker system that portrays the effect of the listener being surrounded by three or more sound sources.

Today’s lounge music has deeper bass. It resonates widely with stereo, reverberated and lighter sounds. Lounge music is like jazz and house music. It flows with repeated beat and rhythm and is usually instrumental. There will be emphasis of the next measure with the filling of instruments.

The beat may vary to engage tempo shift usually with a rise and fall. Modern lounge music may have a sprinkle of voice fill-in’s usually with a light voice of a female and sometimes a male. The voices are charged with long reverbs and delays to create a floating feeling. The lyrics are usually short, like phrases or words and are repeated in key parts of the song. Nature sounds like the rain, chirps, and ocean waves are still fused.

Synthesized sounds of the keyboard usually give the coldness of the music. The weight is given by deep drum bass. The warm for modern lounge music is given by a guitar with light overdrive and delays. General delay of all components is also noticeable.

With the innovation of new artist, lounge music has incorporated the texture of house music and dubstep music. Deeper sound, beach like setting in the music, echoes and a repetition of a back scattered beat. Yet it has still stood by its nature as relaxing, serene, and a spatial hover that gives the listener a blissful detachment with just a plug and a press of play.

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