Elevator Music: A Surreal History of Muzak, Easy-Listening, and Other Moodsong - Hardcover

Lanza, Joseph

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312105401 ISBN 13: 9780312105402

Publisher: St Martins Pr, 1994

Synopsis

Acclaimed author Lanza presents an informative and entertaining historical view of background music, from its beginnings in 1922 by a former Army general to alleviate the fears of passengers in the new-fangled "elevators," through its evolution from "lite" FM to New Age to movie soundtracks. Photos.

About this title

About the Author:

Joseph Lanza is currently writing an impressionistic history of romantic pop ballads. He has served as an independent consultant for Time Life Music and was executive producer for the two-disc collection Music for TV Dinners (Caroline Records). His most recent book is about the legendary crooner Russ Columbo.

From Kirkus Reviews:

Philosophy and history of American background music by pop- culture historian Lanza (Fragile Geometry, 1991--not reviewed). Lanza focuses on a variety of different types of what he calls ``moodsong,'' from commercial Muzak through the sugary strings of Mantovani and the purling choruses of Ray Coniff on to '80s ``new age'' sounds. He is unabashed in his admiration for all of these styles, asserting that they are ``in many respects, aesthetically superior to all other musical forms.'' He traces the history of so- called ``functional music'' to the work of avant-garde artists of the early 20th century such as Erik Satie, who sought to wed art with the innovations of the machine age, and early heroes include Muzak's inventor/originator, General George Owen Squier, who studied the effect of music on productivity and mood. Lanza is most interesting in analyzing the psychology of Muzak programming, showing how the company developed a schedule based on the time of day, so that, for example, ``the breakfast hours offered cheery sunrise melodies and caffeinated rhythms.'' The book's midsection is a listener's guide to the golden age of easy listening, with descriptions of cocktail-conductor Jackie Gleason, the bubbly champagne music of Lawrence Welk, and the swooning voices of the Anita Kerr singers. In closing, Lanza addresses philosophical issues in Muzak; the possible evil effects of background music; the phenomena of '70s ``lite'' music and ``metarock''; and the adaptation of rock songs to the Muzak aesthetic. Still, however mightily he may argue that ``elevator music...is essentially a distillation of the happiness that modern technology has promised,'' Lanza fails to convince that the ``easy listening'' creators were really more than schlockmeisters with a commercial bent. (Eight pages of b&w photos--not seen) -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: St Martins Pr
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 0312105401
• ISBN 13: 9780312105402
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 280