Personal Interpretations

Continuing the thoughts of just what is new age music and why so much good music can get such reallly bad press, here are a selection of items, posted by r.m.n. readers, which just go to show the passion we have for a very hard to categorise type of music!

Date: 18 Apr 1997
Posted by: Jennifer Avalon (Avalon412@aol.com)

ORIGINALITY AND MUSIC

We have been so pidgeon-holed into formulas and categories that we have forgotten the uniqueness of music as listeners and performers. There are so many ways to enjoy music, whether it be a beautiful instrumental piece, or a sensitive lyric. Both matter, and have their place.

It is our responsibillity as listeners and performers to push the boundaries of this wonderful art form that we know as music. Otherwise, we are doomed to stay in a revolving circle. Whatever your genre is, embrace it, understand it, support it, but also accept it as a creature that evolves. It can experiment, and progress into another level. That is the beauty of art and music, and how to make it stay fresh.

We are on the crest of an incredible age of expansion of music. Many artists are starting to form their own labels out of necessity, so that they can express their creative freedom. Through tools such as the Internet, it is possible for the link between artist and listener to become smaller. Although I do see a place for record stores, if they continue to not support new forms of music and different sounds, there will be no choice for the listener but to find new avenues to finding new viewpoints and new expressions.

The world is a place that constantly evolves....humanity demands new ideas, new understandings, for its ears, and its mind. Whatever your taste is, there is always new ways to say it. I reach out to all the artists...don't be afraid...people do care, and people are listening. For the listeners, I believe we are entering a new stage where the variety of sound is going to be just incredible. The choices you will have will be numerous, but at least you will have the choices.

New music or new expressions have always come through the independent sector. They break the mold, they force the changes that the major record companies eventually listen to. The artists and the listeners have the power to decide what is eventually available, and what will eventually be embraced.

So stay original....somebody is listening,

An artists who cares, Jennifer Avalon.

	http://www.AviatorRecords.com	

Date: 3 May 1997
Posted by: Judy Worth (jworth@execpc.com)

There's a thread going on in r.m.n currently which poses the question "What is New Age Music?". I think everyone has a slightly different definition of what exactly it is but I like one person's definition from that thread which simply states, "I don't see a special philosophy attached to new age music. Only a sonic mirror to human emotions ..." I've always believed that music - no matter what genre it falls into is in it's simplest form, audible emotion.

As far as it having something to do with the New Age Movement... While there are some artists who are open about living by the philosophies presented by that movement, the vast majority of the artists whose music gets lumped into this genre positively can't stand that association. There is a certain stigma that goes along with being labeled as a New Age artist and it's a stigma that many artists have had to fight. I am a composer and if my music were in a store, it would be in the New Age bins. No doubt.

At one point, I had a confrontation with my ex-mother-in-law. She went to buy me a couple of the CDs I had asked for Christmas one year and then came back and told me she would not buy them simply based on the fact that they were in the New Age bin. I was stunned! I finally turned her thinking around when I reminded her of the comments she had made on the beauty of some of the music she had heard in my house. I then reminded her that I too am a strong Christian and I asked her what she would do if my music ever landed in the New Age bin. Would that suddenly make me a believer in New Age philosophies? No.

The association of New Age MUSIC to New Age Spirituality has caused problems for those companies marketing this music. The problems arise from people like my ex-mother-in-law. Additional problems arise from the number of people who believe that New Age music is really just another form of elevator music. I've managed to educate a few people who believed this but there are SO MANY who believe this! Lately the preferred term for this type of music has become Contemporary Instrumental which is just as broad of a description but it doesn't carry that unwanted stigma along with it. I would like to see that change take place on the record bin labels but who knows when or if that will happen.

	http://www.tcc-usa.com/markworth

Date: 30 April 1997
Posted by: Alan Meece (aka Eric Mystic) (eameece@global.california.com)

I would like to post my definition of New Age Music in general. Of course, as with all definitions, it will be inaccurate and some will disagree. That's ok.

To define New Age Music we must do something that many forget or don't want to do today, and that is to define "New Age". New Age Music arose out of the New Age cultural trend.

The "New Age" as I see it is a spiritual quest beyond scientific and spiritual dogma. "New Agers" are those interested in pursuing that quest without being limited by such dogmas.

Examples of scientific dogmas are: everything can be understood by the scientific method, everything has an objective, physical explanation, and all phenomena can be understood within our current ideas of physics, etc. These "everything" and "all" statements are limiting, whereas the New Age is open to possibilities beyond these limits. That of course does not mean new agers should believe any wild idea that comes along; although some do. Nor does it mean we should be free to think anything we want; whether good or true or not.

Examples of spiritual dogma are: my religion is the only way to truth and salvation; those who don't follow that path are wrong and/or doomed to eternal damnation. You must stick to one traditional path; never explore others. Whatever my guru says is the truth. Eastern or Western religions are the only way. Spirituality and mind-power alone is the only way to abundant life and success; political and material concerns should be ignored (admittedly some new agers accept this last dogma). The New Age is also interested in the approach of unity within diversity. Whereas the old age was based on world conquest by European men, the new is interested in the possibilities of world peace and brother/sisterhood through global understanding and respect for the Earth and all her people.

Now that we have an idea of what "New Age" means; what is New Age Music? It is fundamentally a type of music that helps or inspires people on the new age spiritual path-- even if such a listener does not identify with "new age" movements. Since the definition of new age is open spiritual quest, then one does not have to have any particular belief to appreciate music that comes out of this quest, nor does one have to accept the ideas of new agers in order to appreciate (or even compose) new age music.

There are many types of new age music that facilitate this purpose in many different ways. Among these are:


Relaxing - Helping the listener to reduce stress and gain greater harmony with their being.

Ambience - Giving the listener a subtle atmosphere within which it is easier to do creative work or to get through the day without losing touch with the more meaningful aspects of life.

Mystical - Helping the listener through the suggestive experience of music to explore realms beyond ordinary reality and states of consciousness. This includes musical versions of psychedelic as well as "natural" or meditative/trance means of doing this.

Imagination and Creativity - Opening the listener to new possibilities of form and feeling that are not limited by old cultural modes. This includes new musical forms that are spiritually inspiring, as well as the mystic traditions and potentials from other world cultures.

Earth Spirituality - Helping the listener to open to the spirituality within nature and other living beings, and to Earth as Gaia-- the Great Mother.

Personal Discovery - Helping the listener to get in touch with his/her own dreams and visions and the deeper realities within him/her. Helping listeners to open to psychic and spiritual dimensions and to beings from those realms.

Therapeutic - Allowing the listener to heal through soothing balms and rhythms and revelations, or through positive feelings and new age spiritual ideas.


New Age music is, as I see it, predominantly (but not exclusively) instrumental. It aims toward an aesthetic expression that has wholeness and sensibility, as opposed to music that is dissonant, completely physical and/or jarring. It fulfills the deepest and oldest purpose of music; as an aid to worship of the sacred and to following a spiritual path.

	http://www.deepideas.com/kkup/ericm.htm





 Index | Back to "What is new age music?" | Last Page