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What is new age music?
An often vague, blanket term used to describe a wide variety of music types. It is usually characterized as instrumental, electronic, and with a penchant for audio experimentation used to achieve an "ethereal" or "contemplative" state. In truth, New Age music has used every musical instrument and technique, and it is difficult to pin any one album or group into the New Age category, and some people are loath to be grouped as New Age listeners, as the term occasionally has pejorative connotations.
The genre has become almost--and perhaps unfairly--synonymous with the "New Age" movement and its focus on the spirit, metaphysical holism and the environment.
The genre itself is relatively young, getting its first real start in the 1960s and '70s with groups like Tangerine Dream, and that band's alumnus Klaus Schulze. Later groups and individuals that some might classify as New Age are Kitaro, Deuter, Mark Isham, Patrick O'Hearn, Clannad, Enya, Ray Lynch, Jean-Michel Jarre, and many others.
1.) "She's such a flake; she listens to that New Age music."
2.) "I love New Age music."
3.) "I'd prefer that you call it 'Progressive' music rather than 'New Age music.'"