Sophisticated Lounge
tagStarted c. 1962Peak 1965–1972Last big hit c. 1973
Located in 1 route
Sophisticated Lounge is the urbane, cosmopolitan pole of lounge, leaning toward refined harmony, discreet orchestration, and a “continental” finish rather than kitsch or exotic novelty. Bossa sway, film-theme lyricism, soft strings, and elegantly phrased vocals or instrumentals are typical.
History
The style emerged as lounge absorbed high-end film music, Bacharach-style adult pop, and Brazilian harmonic elegance into a more upscale after-hours language; Henry Mancini, Jack Jones, Antônio Carlos Jobim, Astrud Gilberto, Sérgio Mendes, and Matt Monro all occupied parts of this terrain, and their records helped define the sound of late-1960s metropolitan chic in lounges, cocktail bars, and television sophistication.
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.”