New age

            New age is a style in music, which was widely distributed in the 70th  years of the last century. The experts associate it with electronic music, where are presented sounds of the nature and jazz motifs (a special improvisation and bossa nova elements).  New age music is very melodious in spite of well-defined rhythmicity. As a rule, the main subjects of compositions are the problems of self-ego understanding, harmony, space, the world of animate and inanimate nature, environment.  That is why usually, New age is performed only in instrumentally. The vocalism does not mean as much as in pop or rock music. The main principle of this style is harmonicity.
Sometimes folk songs motifs and ethnic music elements are used in New age, it helps to keep style originality and “to win” a big audience.

Initially, New age was used in psychotherapy, some people considered that this style was perfect for relaxation and meditation. Later, New age music was applying for creation of spiritual techniques of relaxation. Nowadays this style is so popular that it felt outside the limits of meditation. First of all, it is connected with the fact that more and more bands prefer to play in New age style, adding its individual features, enlarging this style and the audience.

            New age style is close to such styles as ethnic, ambient, electronic and techno music.  Sometimes, even experts cannot define a boundary and concrete belonging of some band to a definite style. Usually, majority of such bands combine in their songs several styles in time, using main elements of one or another style. Especially, it is very difficult to define if in one melody there are several couplets in electronic arrangement, performed in jazz technique (continuous improvisation), ethnic elements and absolute dissonance. No wonder, that all these styles appeared and were widely distributed (except jazz, it has appeared earlier) approximately in the same time in the 60th - 80th years of the 20th century.

The experts affirm that developing of New age style initiated the renaissance of Gregorian chant. Not only the singing but it revived and supported the interest. Since the end of the 20th century, we can observe activization and demand for canons in electronic arrangement.

            Against to New age styles (there are three main types) we can differentially classify performers of this style. The world known performers Aeoliah, Enya, Loreena McKennitt, Love Orchestra belong to the first style, characterized by dominance of electronic arrangement and not dancing compositions. Sometimes, they say that Enigma band belongs to this style (but expert have not yet defined its belonging to this style). The second type of New age style is music for relaxation and meditation in electronic arrangement. To this type belong such performers as Space, G.E.N.E., Karunesh, Himekami. The third type is melodious calm music. Usually, the performers of this type do not create a variety number of extraordinary melodies but propose different variants and mixes of one, but quiet long melody. It is difficult to define concrete performers in this category. In all probability, we can say that oeuvre of band Vangelis belongs to this type.