PERCY FAITH
The "Beautiful Music" radio format began popping up on the FM band in the late 1950s, targeting adult listeners who actually owned FM radios and enjoyed listening to instrumental, mostly-orchestral background music in clean stereo fidelity. Also referred to as "elevator" music (a trend from some years earlier meant to soothe the nerves of lift-riders in multiple-story buildings) or "Muzak" (which was itself a 1930s precursor to the format heard in department stores, hotels and offices rather than on radio consoles), viable terms in an era (radio's first half-century or so) when unobtrusive non-vocal melodies were extremely popular. This type of music wasn't intended to be confused with 18th-century classical or 19th-century romantic era symphonies (to the great but mostly-deceased master composers, such an error would be blasphemy!); nevertheless, it was a common mistake ... MORE ››
