Martini Lounge
tagStarted c. 1954Peak 1958–1964Last big hit c. 1965
Located in 1 route
Martini Lounge is lounge music with extra wink: cocktail-culture glamour, sly tempos, bachelor-pad arrangements, and a little kitsch curled around the rim. Vibrating bongos, vibraphone, brass stabs, exotic touches, or spoken-word cool can all appear, but the unifying mood is stylishly amused adults-at-play.
History
This lane grew out of the same postwar nightlife ecosystem as lounge music generally, but it became especially associated with the mid-century imagery of bars, cigarettes, color film, and sophisticated leisure; Dean Martin, Esquivel, Arthur Lyman, Robert Maxwell, Peggy Lee, and Sammy Davis Jr. supplied reference recordings, and later revival culture turned the style into shorthand for retro cocktail chic.
Defining artists
Essential listening
Sources
- Wikipedia, “Lounge music”
- Museum of Broadcast Communications, “Easy Listening/Beautiful Music Format”
- The Cambridge History of Twentieth-Century Music, “Other mainstreams: light music and easy listening, 1920–70.”