I always say that listening to (and making) ambient music is equally about getting lost, as it about getting found. Love these articles and thanks for the mention of cc!
I thought it would be interesting to add a voice of one of those “faceless studio musicians”, and I promise I do not have a chip on my shoulder about it :-) I have a multifaceted, diverse career, and one of the things I do is publishing soothing solo piano music through a accompany that has a lot of success with passive listening playlist placements. My experience with this line of work is very different than I thought it would be. First of all, the more familiar I am with those playlist, the more I appreciate the artistry and refinement of the music they feature. It is not easy to get on those large playlist, and Apple Music and Spotify editors have pretty exquisite ears for melody, texture, sonic depth and balance. Of course, recording this kind of music all day every day would quickly get boring, but it is a good challenge now and then to make something that is beautiful without drawing attention to itself.
Also, there is a sense of purpose that success on passive listening playlists brings. I take comfort in knowing that my music tangibly helps people rest, focus, or practice mind-body connection. Is the artwork generic? yes. Does that label do anything to promote me as an artist? No. It never said it would. But it does get my art into places where lots of people use it, like a substance, to calm down, and I don’t think it’s a bad thing .
Thanks for your viewpoint! It's very interesting to read and I agree with some parts of it. My own perspective may be biased by the fact that I curated those kind of lists for many years and I'll take the compliment for the exquisite ears... but yeah, well, I'd definitely still prefer Peaceful Piano over any mainstream top 40 radio station.
I’ve run into the conundrum of attempting to define ambient for myself basically every week as I scan around for new records “within” the genre for my newsletter. Eventually, I settled into a similar mindset as Flow State mentioned: you know it when you hear it.
I like to think of it as a much looser umbrella term, personally—one that embodies atmosphere and texture above all else (and generally without words and unfocused on beats or beatless).
Genre can become so hyper-specific that it ends up making me feel closed off from hearing something new, especially when it comes to more experimental and unconventional music that doesn’t cleanly fit into a mold. I don’t know, it may not be an ideal approach, but I suppose I just get by on vibes at the end of the day.
I do think if our usage of a genre term becomes too loose and fluid, it essentially risks becoming meaningless and useless.
For me personally, it doesn't matter too much as I don't focus on ambient music – I chose to focus on experimental music, which is another pretty much useless term but wider and not really a genre.
What I mean is that I am interested in the margins and fringes of many genres, including ambient, and I am also very interested in what is usually framed as "ambient/experimental", that very special corner of the ambient world.
Certainly there is a risk of diluting the genre or making the term irrelevant by widening it too loosely. That’s why to me it’s more useful when categorizing music to consider overlapping and complementary genres, which could be subgenres of ambient or more specific genres of their own occurring in tandem with ambient.
For example, ambient jazz (a genre I know you’re fond of!) is a blend of ambient and jazz, with all the complexities that accompany that marriage (in my opinion, it’s firstly a subgenre of jazz than a sub genre of ambient, generally, but depends on the record). Still, it has a place within ambient overall and I wouldn’t feel wrong recommending an ambient jazz record to someone looking for something ambient.
Ambient jazz is essentially a form of jazz, it's not jazzy ambient. Both can be interesting areas to explore – and sometimes there's overlap too! (I'm thinking about that Ulla & Perila record from last year.)
I think we just need to be aware what the function of a genre term is – it's not as helpful for artists as it is for listeners, and it's also not a statement about quality.
You know it when you hear it
I always say that listening to (and making) ambient music is equally about getting lost, as it about getting found. Love these articles and thanks for the mention of cc!
Ooh, I love that. Reminds me of Rebecca Solnit's A Field Guide to Getting Lost, which I've just read and finished.
Love her, need to read this one.
I thought it would be interesting to add a voice of one of those “faceless studio musicians”, and I promise I do not have a chip on my shoulder about it :-) I have a multifaceted, diverse career, and one of the things I do is publishing soothing solo piano music through a accompany that has a lot of success with passive listening playlist placements. My experience with this line of work is very different than I thought it would be. First of all, the more familiar I am with those playlist, the more I appreciate the artistry and refinement of the music they feature. It is not easy to get on those large playlist, and Apple Music and Spotify editors have pretty exquisite ears for melody, texture, sonic depth and balance. Of course, recording this kind of music all day every day would quickly get boring, but it is a good challenge now and then to make something that is beautiful without drawing attention to itself.
Also, there is a sense of purpose that success on passive listening playlists brings. I take comfort in knowing that my music tangibly helps people rest, focus, or practice mind-body connection. Is the artwork generic? yes. Does that label do anything to promote me as an artist? No. It never said it would. But it does get my art into places where lots of people use it, like a substance, to calm down, and I don’t think it’s a bad thing .
Thanks for your viewpoint! It's very interesting to read and I agree with some parts of it. My own perspective may be biased by the fact that I curated those kind of lists for many years and I'll take the compliment for the exquisite ears... but yeah, well, I'd definitely still prefer Peaceful Piano over any mainstream top 40 radio station.
I’ve run into the conundrum of attempting to define ambient for myself basically every week as I scan around for new records “within” the genre for my newsletter. Eventually, I settled into a similar mindset as Flow State mentioned: you know it when you hear it.
I like to think of it as a much looser umbrella term, personally—one that embodies atmosphere and texture above all else (and generally without words and unfocused on beats or beatless).
Genre can become so hyper-specific that it ends up making me feel closed off from hearing something new, especially when it comes to more experimental and unconventional music that doesn’t cleanly fit into a mold. I don’t know, it may not be an ideal approach, but I suppose I just get by on vibes at the end of the day.
I understand where you're coming from.
I do think if our usage of a genre term becomes too loose and fluid, it essentially risks becoming meaningless and useless.
For me personally, it doesn't matter too much as I don't focus on ambient music – I chose to focus on experimental music, which is another pretty much useless term but wider and not really a genre.
What I mean is that I am interested in the margins and fringes of many genres, including ambient, and I am also very interested in what is usually framed as "ambient/experimental", that very special corner of the ambient world.
Certainly there is a risk of diluting the genre or making the term irrelevant by widening it too loosely. That’s why to me it’s more useful when categorizing music to consider overlapping and complementary genres, which could be subgenres of ambient or more specific genres of their own occurring in tandem with ambient.
For example, ambient jazz (a genre I know you’re fond of!) is a blend of ambient and jazz, with all the complexities that accompany that marriage (in my opinion, it’s firstly a subgenre of jazz than a sub genre of ambient, generally, but depends on the record). Still, it has a place within ambient overall and I wouldn’t feel wrong recommending an ambient jazz record to someone looking for something ambient.
Agree!
Ambient jazz is essentially a form of jazz, it's not jazzy ambient. Both can be interesting areas to explore – and sometimes there's overlap too! (I'm thinking about that Ulla & Perila record from last year.)
I think we just need to be aware what the function of a genre term is – it's not as helpful for artists as it is for listeners, and it's also not a statement about quality.