Vocal/Easy Listening

Vocal/Easy Listening is a broad term that encompasses two general categories of music. Vocal, it almost goes without saying, refers to popular music that places the spotlight squarely on the human voice. This includes everyone from classic pop and jazz vocalists like Frank Sinatra and Sarah Vaughan to groups such as the ever-changing Manhattan Transfer and the lightly rocking Carpenters. By definition, Easy Listening is more inclusive as it contains both vocal and instrumental music. Classic lounge crooners like Dean Martin or country-etched singers such as Glen Campbell offer easy listening pleasures for hard-living fans. Instrumental mavens such as Jackie Gleason, Ray Conniff, and Burt Bacharach lay out lush swing and pop-inflected moodscapes that can work as unobtrusive background music or blueprints for romantic conquest, or conjure up imaginary worlds filled with shining space crafts, densely foliated jungles or streamlined convertibles zipping along lightly populated freeways.