Healing
Also known as healing music
A wellness-oriented New Age subgenre built around soft, soothing, and often nature-inflected sound, with its modern profile taking shape in the 1970s and 1980s.
Origins and context
The term is documented as a New Age subgenre and a use-oriented category that emerged from meditational, holistic, and wellness settings rather than from one single geographic scene.
The sound
Characteristics
- Gentle keyboard improvisations
- Soft acoustic instruments
- Woodwinds
- Percussion
- Natural sounds
- Ambient textures
History
In documented music-history sources, healing appears less as a sharply bounded genre than as a New Age subgenre or marketing category. AllMusic describes healing albums as music designed to help the listener heal through gentle sound, and places the style within New Age alongside relaxation and meditation categories. The modern shape of the style took form in the 1970s and 1980s, when artists such as Steven Halpern began releasing music specifically for relaxation and healing, and when labels and shops helped build a market for it through health-food stores, yoga studios, and metaphysical bookstores. Other key early figures include Deuter, whose work moved from experimental roots into New Age and healing-oriented recordings.
Notable artists
- SHSteven Halpern
- DDeuter
- D&David & Steve Gordon
Essential listening
- 1
Steven Halpern
- 2
Deuter
- 3
- 4
Explore connected genres
Sources and further reading
- allmusic.com
AllMusic treats healing as a New Age subgenre and says healing albums are designed to help the listener heal through gentle music.
- Steven Halpern artist biography
- Apple Music
Apple Music says Steven Halpern’s 1975 debut Spectrum Suite is credited with kick-starting the New Age music movement.
- Apple Music
Apple Music says Deuter’s early 1970s work helped establish the genre’s broader New Age lineage, and later releases included Reiki-oriented material.
- New Age Music Genre Overview
- Relaxation Music Subgenre Overview