Chill out!



 

Lounge music is a description of music popular in the 1950s and 1960s. It is a type of mood music meant to evoke in the listeners the feeling of being in a place—a jungle, an island paradise, outer space, et cetera—other than where they are listening to it.

The range of lounge music encompasses beautiful music-influenced instrumentals, modern electronica (with chillout, and downtempo influences), while remaining thematically focused on its retro-space-age cultural elements. The earliest type lounge music appeared during the 1920s and 1930s, and was known as light music.

Contemporaneously, the term lounge music also denotes the types of music played in hotels (the lounge, the bar), casinos, and piano bars.

 
Café del Mar opened its doors for the first time on June 20th in 1980 in the Balearic island of Ibiza. The concept was simple, to put music to the sunsets. In the early days Café del Mar was a prominent meeting point among the locals and an origin of inspiration for artists and authors. By 1990´s it had become the most popular destinations in Ibiza.

Around the world Café del Mar is possibly the most renown by the annual chillout compilations. The first official Café del Mar compilation was released in 1994 after an overwhelming demand by the fans. It was a global success and resulted in much respected series that as of today has been sold in millions.

Besides the albums, the fans may hear the Café del Mar sound at the licensed franchises that have expanded to 11 different locations around the world, as well as at Café del Mar live events taking place in various venues.
After 31 years Café del Mar mar still stands as the most respected music & lifestyle brands in the world while growing each year.

Chill-out music (sometimes also chillout, chill out, or simply chill) is an umbrella term for several styles of electronic music characterized by their mellow style and mid-tempo beats — "chill" being derived from a slang injunction to "relax."

Chill out music emerged in the early and mid-1990s in "chill rooms" at dance clubs, where relaxing music was played to allow dancers a chance to "chill out" from the more emphatic and fast-tempo music played on the main dance floor.

The genres associated with chill-out are mostly ambient, trip-hop, nu jazz, ambient house, New Age and other sub-genres of downtempo. Sometimes the easy listening sub-genre lounge is considered to belong to the chill-out collection as well. Chill out as a musical genre or description is synonymous with the more recently popularized terms "smooth electronica" and "soft techno" and is a loose genre of music blurring into several other very distinct styles of electronic and lo-fi music.

 

sources: Wikipedia, Cafe del Mar official web