Elevator music : a surreal history of Muzak, easy-listening, and other moodsong / Joseph Lanza.

Format:

• Book

Author/Creator:

• Lanza, Joseph.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

• Muzak (Trademark).
• Environmental music--History and criticism.
• Music, Influence of.
• Music--Psychological aspects.
• Environmental music.

Physical Description:

xii, 329 pages ; 21 cm

Edition:

Revised and expanded edition.

Place of Publication:

Ann Arbor : University of Michigan Press, [2003]

Summary:

Noted music historian Joseph Lanza seriously appraises an American musical tradition.

Contents:

• 1. Probing the Jell-O 1
• 2. Lullabies from Heaven and Hell: Mood Music's Antiquity 6
• 3. The "Canned" Avant-Garde 14
• 4. Umbilical Chords: The Birth of Muzak 22
• 5. The Push-Button Ballroom: Mood Music and Early Radio 31
• 6. Ghosts in the Elevator 38
• 7. Emotional Archives: Background Music in the Movies 55
• 8. The Moodiest Years on Record 67
• Mermaids After Midnight 71
• Cathedralized Classics 79
• Sizzle & Suds 91
• Keyboards by Candlelight 95
• Supermarket Symphonette 103
• Gregorian Cocktail 112
• Mai-Tai Melodies and the World of "Queasy Listening" 119
• That Sex-Behind-the-Gauze Sound 128
• 9. World Music Originals: The 101 Strings and the Mystic Moods Orchestra 133
• 10. Walls Talk! 148
• 11. "Beautiful Music": The Rise of Easy-Listening FM 167
• 12. Violins from Space 183
• 13. Metarock 194
• 14. Elevator Noir 208
• 15. Who's Hearing Things? 216
• 16. The New Sound of 1984 222
• Afterword: Channeling the Phantom Band 230.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 305-315), discography (pages 243-304) and index.

ISBN:

0472089420

OCLC:

54662605