One of the most common questions that we receive is about our format, the kind of music we play. We say we play “ambient music”. Well, what exactly is our definition of “ambient music”? It turns out this is not a simple question to answer.
The problem we find is that ambient music is so diverse and covers so much ground that a sentence or two just cannot cover it. So, for lack of a simple definition that fits all types poorly, we’ll instead give you some detailed information and hope this helps clarify.
“Ambient music is beatless.”
One of the most common characteristics of ambient music is beatlessness, meaning music with no percussion, whether drums, hand percussion, electronic, or otherwise. This probably alone covers a large swathe of ambient music, but it has a couple of problems:
- It excludes so-called “tribal ambient” music made by artists such as Steve Roach, a very large category of ambience.
- Some types of ambient dub are so downtempo and/or mellow that they fall into the realms of ambience and should not be excluded.
- It does not help with gray areas, such as in modular music, where it is common to hear a percussive sequence that is neither completely percussion nor completely tonal, somewhere in between. When does it stop being percussion and start being a sequence?
By itself, beatlessness neither guarantees nor defines ambient music. But undeniably, beatless music is a huge part of the ambient world.
“Ambient music is ignorable.”
We can thank Erik Satie, and to a lesser extent Brian Eno, for this notion, which is that music should be as listenable as ignorable (we simplify this to say that ignorability is the key). We find this definition of ambience to certainly sometimes fall into the larger category of ambient music. But we also find the notion that ambience must also be “furniture music” to be restrictive and missing the mark.
Why? Well for one thing, not all furniture music is ambient music. Muzak, for example, was designed explicitly to be ignorable but is hardly ambient to our ears.
Further, there are many kinds of clearly ambient music that are not in any way ignorable, in the sense that they would be not so suitable as music for background listening. A few examples:
- Tribal ambient
- Space music
- Piano ambient
- Vocal ambient
“Ambient music does not have sequences.”
We’ve heard this occasionally as well, but we simply do not agree. Artists like Thom Brennan, who are clearly ambient in our minds, employ sequences in great quantity and to great effect. But how “sequencey” is too much?
This comes down to a matter of aesthetics. Our approach is to basically ignore the fact that sequences are present and instead focus on all the other attributes of the music, when assessing whether a given track is ambient or not. If those qualify, then the track qualifies.
“Drone music is not ambient.”
Another qualitative statement that ultimately comes down to personal preference. For us, drone music checks all the ambient boxes. Just like any other kind of music, drones run the gamut from pure beauty all the way to harsh sine waves. Part of the mission our station is to find the drones that we think enhance our listeners’ experiences.
“Noise is not ambient.”
While it is true that there is noise music that is not ambient, the opposite is also true for some noise music. We call this “ambient noise” and certainly think it qualifies as ambience to consider for the station. Noise music must be very listenable in order for us to play it, however.
Things that we find cannot play.
With all this said, there are indeed a few things that we exclude from the station simply on the basis of our own personal taste that others might say are partly ambient. Rather than try to include rules to cover those cases, we’ll simply list a set of exceptions:
- Club oriented music, or any music where a 4-on-the-floor kick predominates, really isn’t our bag. Ambient dub is as clubby as we get, and it has to be really ambient for us to consider it.
- Any drone music that does not evolve. It may accomplish the artistic intention but it must also be enjoyable by an audience.
- Black metal drone a la Sunn O))). Just too much.
- Music with lyrics. We love good vocal ambience but if it includes verses then it’s really too far into other genres for us.
- Music with speaking. It can certainly qualify as ambience but for us the words distract too much from the music. Certain exceptions apply (Neil Armstrong quotes, etc.)
- Unlistenable sounds. If it triggers tinnitus or makes the cat climb the walls, it’s not suitable for our station.
Hope this helps!