Easy Listening
Also known as mood music, orchestral pop
A broad mid-century umbrella for polished, soothing pop and orchestral recordings, easy listening sits between radio-friendly comfort and light arrangement craft. The label is flexible, but its center of gravity is clear: elegant melodies, warm production, and music meant to glide rather than strike.
Origins and context
The genre took shape in North American mid-century popular music, especially around radio, orchestral pop recording, and the broader market for polished instrumental and vocal music in the 1950s and 1960s.
How to listen
Start here
- Theme from "A Summer Place" - Percy Faith & His Orchestra
- Spanish Flea - Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass
Mood
- Calm
- Polished
- Warm
- Unobtrusive
Best for
- Background listening
- Late-night radio
- Retro-pop exploration
History
The label took shape in the 1950s and 1960s around a broad market for orchestral pop, mood music, and radio-friendly instrumental albums. AllMusic places easy listening among the major genre groupings and notes that it became a home for arrangers and conductors such as Percy Faith, Mantovani, Herb Alpert, and Ray Conniff; Spotify and Apple Music similarly describe Percy Faith as a key figure in helping create the genre, while Herb Alpert’s biography links his easy-listening success to the early 1960s rise of The Tijuana Brass. Rather than a tightly bounded scene, easy listening was more of a listening function and production style that crossed into lounge, orchestral pop, and adult-oriented radio. Its best-known records leaned on clean arrangements, familiar tunes, and a calm, decorative polish, the kind of music that could brighten a lobby, a living room, or a late-night radio hour without asking for much of the listener’s focus.
Notable artists
- PFPercy Faith
- HAHerb Alpert
- RCRay Conniff
- MMantovani
- HMHenry Mancini
Essential listening
- 1
Percy Faith
- 2
Herb Alpert
- 3
- 4
Explore connected genres
Sources and further reading
- Easy Listening Music Genre Overview
- Spotify
Percy Faith was one of the most popular easy listening recording artists of the 1950s and 1960s.
- Percy Faith artist page
- Herb Alpert artist page
- Lounge Music Genre Overview