In 1948, French composer & engineer, Pierre Schaeffer coined the term musique concrète. To make such music would be to respond to a need." Īccording to a 1998 article in The Wire, Blind Willie Johnson's 1928 single " Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground" could be filed under ambient music, deeming it "a piece of country gospel improvisation, slide guitar with vocal hums and moans, but no lyrics." And at the same time it would neutralize the street noises which so indiscreetly enter into the play of conversation. It would spare them the trouble of paying attention to their own banal remarks. It would fill up those heavy silences that sometime fall between friends dining together. I think of it as melodious, softening the noises of the knives and forks at dinner, not dominating them, not imposing itself. In his own words, Satie sought to create "a music.which will be part of the noises of the environment, will take them into consideration. This he described as being the sort of music that could be played during a dinner to create a background atmosphere for that activity, rather than serving as the focus of attention. History Origins Įrik Satie is acknowledged as an important precursor to modern ambient music and an influence on Brian Eno.Īs an early 20th-century French composer, Erik Satie used such Dadaist-inspired explorations to create an early form of ambient/background music that he labeled " furniture music" ( Musique d'ameublement). Due to its relatively open style, ambient music often takes influences from many other genres, ranging from classical, avant-garde music, folk, jazz, and world music, amongst others.
Nevertheless, it has attained a certain degree of acclaim throughout the years, especially in the Internet age. Īmbient music did not achieve large commercial success, being criticized as everything from "dolled-up new age, to boring and irrelevant technical noodling".
Ambient music may have elements of new-age music and drone music, as some works may use sustained or repeated notes. It saw a revival towards the late 1980s with the prominence of house and techno music, growing a cult following by the 1990s. It was presaged by Erik Satie's furniture music and styles such as musique concrète, minimal music, Jamaican dub reggae and German electronic music, but was prominently named and popularized by British musician Brian Eno in 1978 with his album Ambient 1: Music for Airports Eno opined that ambient music "must be as ignorable as it is interesting". The genre originated in the 1960s and 1970s, when new musical instruments were being introduced to a wider market, such as the synthesizer. Nature soundscapes may be included, and the sounds of acoustic instruments such as the piano, strings and flute may be emulated through a synthesizer. The genre is said to evoke an "atmospheric", "visual", or "unobtrusive" quality. It uses textural layers of sound that can reward both passive and active listening and encourage a sense of calm or contemplation. It may lack net composition, beat, or structured melody. Ambient music is a genre of music that emphasizes tone and atmosphere over traditional musical structure or rhythm.
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