Elevator Music: A Surreal History of Muzak, Easy-Listening, and Other Moodsong; Revised and Expanded Edition [Paperback]

Joseph Lanza (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 26, 2004

It's campy, it's cool, empty, intrusive, trite, and treacly. It's Big Brother singing. Call it what you will -- elevator music, Moodsong ® easy listening, or Muzak ®. For a musical genre that was supposed to offend no one, it has a lot of enemies.

Musical cognoscenti decry its insipid content; regular folk -- if they notice -- bemoan its pervasiveness; while hipsters and campsters celebrate its retro chic. Mindful of the many voices, Joseph Lanza's Elevator Music sings seriously, with tongue in cheek, the praises of this venerable American institution.

Lanza addresses the criticisms of elites who say that Muzak and its ilk are dehumanized, vapid, or cheesy. These reactions, he argues, are based more on cultural prejudices than honest musical appraisal.

Says Lanza, today's so-called mood music is the inheritor of a long tradition of mood-altering music stretching back to the ancients; Nero's fiddle and the sirens of Odysseus being two famous examples. Contemporary atmospheric music, Lanza argues, not only serves the same purpose, it is also the inevitable background for our media-dominated age.

One of Lanza's premises, to quote Mark Twain, is that this music is "better than it sounds." "This book will have succeeded in its purpose," he writes, "if I can help efface...the distinction between one person's elevator music and another's prized recording."

Joseph Lanza is an author, producer, and music historian. His most recent book is Russ Columbo and the Crooner Mystique.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this entertaining book, Lanza ( Fragile Geometry: The Films, Philosophy, and Misadventures of Nicolas Roeg ) treats background music as a serious art form, tracing its evolution and arguing that there is more to the world of engineered sound than Muzak (whose inventor he calls the "unsung hero of the electronic age") and other types of canned music. Lanza places movie soundtracks, mood music, space-age music and "lite" radio all in the realm of indirect listening, along with numerous popular performers from Lawrence Welk and Ray Conniff to the Swingle Singers and the Norman Luboff Choir. Many contemporary composers work in this sphere, maintains the author, who also includes 18th-century composers such as Vivaldi, Telemann and Boccherini, because he considers their music "feathery." Lanza covers his subject in such an engaging manner that one could almost be lulled into accepting his analysis that "Muzak and mood music are, in many respects, aesthetically superior to all other musical forms" because "they emit music the way the twentieth century is equipped to receive it." Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Lanza's book takes "Dentist chair music" lightly, claiming for it a history extending back to Orpheus, who "used" music for his own purposes. Music was first used in elevators in 1922, Lanza claims, to sooth passengers fearful of the new machines. Background music is now a pervasive element of modern technological culture. Lanza thinks background music is often good music. As an underappreciated necessity, it makes our world more pleasant and agreeable. While no deeper than "101 Strings" or "Mystic Moods Orchestra" fare, Lanza's book may make readers feel better about the amalgamation of tastes demanded by the fact that 90 million people listen to Muzak daily. For large popular collections.
- Bonnie Jo Dopp, formerly with Dist . of Columbia P.L.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 344 pages
• Publisher: University of Michigan Press; Rev Exp edition (January 26, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0472089420
• ISBN-13: 978-0472089420
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,014,298 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Joseph Lanza, who writes mostly about film and popular music, is perhaps best known for his pioneering book ELEVATOR MUSIC: A SURREAL HISTORY OF MUZAK, EASY-LISTENING, AND OTHER MOODSONG. He followed that up with THE COCKTAIL: THE INFLUENCE OF SPIRITS ON THE AMERICAN PSYCHE. Subsequently, he concentrated less on cocktails and more on the intoxicating and sometimes sexually conflicted charm of crooners in RUSS COLUMBO AND THE CROONER MYSIQUE. He then savored the mystical delights of vanilla milkshakes and the sweet pop songs they connote in VANILLA POP: SWEET SOUNDS FROM FRANKIE AVALON TO ABBA. His latest book boasts a more risqué flavor: PHALLIC FRENZY: KEN RUSSELL AND HIS FILMS.

Recently, Mr. Lanza told the following to Contemporary Authors: "Around the time I revised ELEVATOR MUSIC, I wrote VANILLA POP, where I celebrated the clean-cut, sparkling, and R&B-free sounds of the fifties, sixties, and seventies by such recording artists as the Lettermen, Claudine Longet, and the Carpenters. Blender, an indie-rock magazine, said that I wrote about this music with 'contagious enthusiasm.' Then, in 2007, I went from vanilla to tutti-frutti with PHALLIC FRENZY: KEN RUSSELL AND HIS FILMS. As in my 1989 book FRAGILE GEOMETRY: THE FILMS, PHILOSOPHY, AND MISADVENTURES OF NICOLAS ROEG, I wrote to accommodate the director's style, unraveling Russell's life and work as a picaresque adventure that merges the sublime and the vulgar. Sight and Sound's review said that 'biographer and subject are beautifully matched.' I was so happy to finally meet Ken Russell in New York City. He even reviewed the book for the London Times and called it 'a near-neo-novel with gothic and surreal overtones.' So, on the surface, my subjects might seem quite eclectic, but all of my books are about a secular search for a creative spirit, whether it be through sweet music, rollercoasters, or obsessive cinema."

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Oasis of Muzak, November 29, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Elevator Music: A Surreal History of Muzak, Easy-Listening, and Other Moodsong (Paperback)

Standing apart from the slagheap of so-called histories of "Lounge" music is Joseph Lanza's brilliant "Elevator Music."  Lanza has contributed an exhaustively-researched and riveting account of a genre of music too often dismissed by those deafened by the relentless rhythms of today's popular music.  Without resorting to the insipid and meaningless exploitation of kitsch nostalgia, the book makes a convincing argument that this music does indeed serve to "elevate" the spirits of its listeners.  Rather than being an inescapable aural assault, elevator music has the possibility of being considered as pleasurable foreground, if the listener so chooses, or benign background, as a subconscious presence.  One need only walk into Howard Johnson's from the bustle of Times Square to experience the oasis that elevator music creates within that space. Our society would no doubt be much better off if elevator music were more prevalent in its public spaces than the angst-ridden, self-conscious pop and rap that now dominate our daily soundscape.

18 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Joseph Lanza Nails His Subject Matter Impressively, February 22, 2000

By 

Phil Stout - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Elevator Music: A Surreal History of Muzak, Easy-Listening, and Other Moodsong (Paperback)

Lanza's exploration of elevator music, easy listening and all things moodsong is the definitive book for anyone who has an interest in a very misunderstood genre. As someone very close to the Easy Listening and Mood Music programming that quietly ruled FM radio for much of the 70's, let me tell you... Joseph Lanza nails his subject matter impressively. Whether you consider yourself a Percy Faith, Roger Williams or Mantovani fan... or are just curious about these plush, melodic sounds, "Elevator Music: A Surreal History Of Muzak, Easy Listening and Other Moodsong" makes for enjoyable reading. This isn't a book that seeks to cash in on what someone recently decided to call lounge music but an evenhanded evaluation of fascinating, mostly instrumental adult pop music with melodies that always lingered on.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Elevator Music" gave me a BIG L-I-F-T!, June 12, 2000

By 

Roy B. Quady - See all my reviews

This review is from: Elevator Music: A Surreal History of Muzak, Easy-Listening, and Other Moodsong (Paperback)

The author did a marvelous job researching the subject ofpoporchestra easy listening music. He covers in some detail all thegreats who made this style of music so popular during the 1950s, '60s and '70s. The welcome chapter on Beautiful Music stereo FM radio stations of the '70s should have included the name of Bob Chandler, who programmed WGAY Washington, D.C. Bob was the person most responsible for making 'GAY the best station of its kind in the U.S. and the #1-rated station in our Nation's Capital during much of the 1970s. Please note that Time-Life Music has issued a series of Instrumental Favorites featuring all the artists discussed by the author. ( ) Author Joesph Lanza has written the annotations to this series of exquisite recordings.