What is Lounging?
> Lounging is another word for leisure or leisure time spent free from employment, running a business, household chores, stress, and any other active activity that you can think of.
What is Lounge Music?
> Lounge music can specifically be referred to a form of "hip" (not "hip-hop") generally easy listening music that was popular during the 50's and 60's, yet distinct from what was "pop rock" of that era. This is considered to be the golden age of lounge music. At this time, while pop rock music was more popular with younger folks, lounge music was more popular with older folks. Typically, teenagers of the time would listen to pop rock, while their older siblings or parents would listen to lounge. However, the phrase lounge does not appear in textual documentation of the period, such as Billboard magazine or long playing album covers.
While some of the lounge music during this period was truly slow, easy listening, a lot of the music was uptempo, with the distinction being sometimes being blurred. While pop music was a generally country, blues, or rock and roll, lounge music was generally anything that wasn't strictly of those genre (or a mix of them), but that still was meant for popular consumption (and indeed, was popular with most folks who weren't interested in that pop music.)
A good deal of lounge music was pure instrumental (i.e., no main vocal part, although there could be minor vocal parts.) Sometimes, this music would be theme music from movies or TV shows, although such music could be produced independently from other entertainment productions. These instrumentals could be produced with an orchestral arrangement, or from an arrangement of instruments very similar to that found in jazz, or even rock and roll.
Another subset of lounge music was exotica, showcasing music that was popular outside the USA, such as various Latin genres (e.g., Bossa Nova, Cha-Cha-Cha, Mambo), Polynesian, French, etc. Such music could have some instruments exaggerated (e.g., a Polynesian song might have various an exotic percussion arrangement using bongos, and vocalists imitating wild animals.) Many of these recordings were portrayed as originating in exotic foreign lands, but in truth were recorded in Hollywood recording studios by veteran session musicians. One of the exotica subgenres could be called space music, which attempted to give the feeling of zooming into outer space, which is an activity that had high public interest at the time. For more information please refer to (Wikipedia: Lounge Music )
Poofbags.com Lounge Tracks Top List: (Week 9/03)
- Gorillaz - El Manana/ Demon Dayz
- Jack Johnson - Inaudible Melodies/ Brushfire Fairytales
- Maroon 5 - Secret/ Songs About Jane
- Remy Zero - Fair/ Garden State OST
- The Postal Service - Against All Odds/ Wicker Park OST
- Sneaker Pimps - Spin Spin Sugar/ Becoming X
- Soul Position - Share This/ 8 Million Stories
* Don't forget to visit Poofbags.com for updated lounge lists... cheers.
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