The New Age Music Guide: Profiles and Recordings of 500 Top New Age Musicians [Paperback]

Patti Jean Birosik (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Defining New Age music as music that "encourages personal empowerment, earth connectedness, space consciousness, and interpersonal awareness," Birosik has assembled a quick, handy reference guide to the genre. Entries are arranged alphabetically by artist, with each entry offering a list of New Age recordings and labels, a generally short descriptive paragraph, and specification of one or more of 16 subgenres (e.g., New Age Solo, New Age Jazz, New Age Meditation, etc.). Separate appendixes contain descriptions of these subgenres paired with artist listings and New Age record labels, addresses, and phone numbers. While descriptive entries tend to be on the thin side and much knowledge of terminology is assumed, Birosik meets her stated object of providing "a guide to facilitate the location and purchase of New Age music." Small labels and lesser-known artists are covered adequately. Price as well as usefulness will make this an attractive purchase for all types of libraries where interest warrants.
- David M. Turkalo, Social Law Lib., Boston
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Collier Books (December 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0020416407
• ISBN-13: 978-0020416401
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,089,481 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars PART "SURVEY" BOOK AND PART DISCOGRAPHY, THIS BOOK IS STILL WORTH OBTAINING, December 23, 2009

By 

Steven H. Propp (Sacramento, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The New Age Music Guide: Profiles and Recordings of 500 Top New Age Musicians (Paperback)

This book was published in 1989 at the crest of the "New Age" movement in music; of course, within a few years after this, sales of New Age Music dropped (significantly, at about the time that most "New Age" labels started getting more into "smooth jazz" and lost the original "spiritual/inspirational" focus of the music), so this book now inevitably seems more like "nostalgia" than "cutting edge."

Still, there is a lot of music from that period and earlier that still sounds excellent! And this book is still an excellent reference for New Age Music prior to 1989.

500 artists are profiled, who are listed alphabetically. Lists of artists are also provided, subdivided into categories such as "East/West" (e.g., Kitaro), "Meditation Music" (e.g., Aeoliah), "Space Music" (e.g., Constance Demby), "World Music" (e.g., Cusco), etc. Representative albums by each artists are listed, along with a brief (usually one single-column paragraph) description.

Reading through the book, you'll probably (like me) find that there were a lot of artists that you MISSED, and might want to go "catch up" on.