Making Peace With New Age Music
By John Beaudin

"Can you keep a secret?" asked George Kelso, my Program Director at CKXM in Edmonton back in 1986. Looking a little spooked, he whispered, "Our audience is literally dying." A dramatic statement yes but he was scared and for good reason, CKXM-FM, was for the most part the 'Candlelight and Wine' station in Edmonton in other words the target audience was 50+ and on that day it was the 'plus' that Kelso was worried about. In the eighties we also found out the hard way that the aging yuppies who should have been our audience in waiting were not exactly interested in listening to our 101 strings do "Feelings" that demographic was just a little to hip for that. So the clouds parted and a new format was born. Out of desperation and without any research we put together Canada's first multi hour New Age format on commercial radio. The response was overwhelming from all adult demographics. As Will Ackerman founder of the quintessential New Age Label Windham Hill Once said, "for a Genre that's so relaxing it sure gets a lot of people excited".

Though we were only programming 42 hours of actual New Age a week it quickly rescued us from the ratings basement that's commonplace with many 'beautiful music' stations. This was also the era that KTWV The Wave started in Los Angeles playing a similar helping of Enya's Celtic Chants, George Winston's seasonal solo Piano Works and a fusion of Pop Rock and New Age from Swiss harpist Andreas Vollenweider . Though CKXM-FM was the closest to a real New Age outlet in Canada the format became 2nd fastest growing trend (behind the oldies format) in the states in the late 80's-Early 90's spearheaded by impressive ratings from LA's Wave, Chicago's WNUA and KKSF in San Francisco. Canadian act's like pianist Michael Jones, harpist/vocalist Loreena McKennitt and guitarist Don Ross were finally starting to pay the rent and with the Oprah generation of Self Help taking off it seemed like New Age music would be the logical soundtrack for our changing lifestyles.

The mid 80's breathed new life for many who didn't exactly know where they fit in, Vancouver Keyboardist Paul Armitage felt an interesting kinship to Windham Hill's top Pianist "I was aware of George Winston at the time, actually when I went in to audition for my first restaurant gig in 1985 they were playing Winston's 'December' on the Intercom and my first thought was 'hey that sounds like me'(laughing) so I had a strong intuitive hit that I'd get that job, and I did"

The artists under the banner were also some of the most grounded, peaceful well read individuals I'd ever met. Armitage who spontaneously composes everything he does believes it's because the music doesn't only touch the audience there's a huge usually undiscussed fringe benefit in creating it "there seems to be an expanded awareness especially in the last few year's in spiritual communities in the power of sound and the tremendous value in it I've certainly felt that a lot while creating it."

Montana's Philip Aaberg formally of the Windham Hill label who I still consider the best pianist in the genre had spent some time on the road with Peter Gabriel but was more inspired by his formative years of listening to Floyd Cramer on late night country radio. The best of new age always had a touch of that peaceful introspective feel that Philip Aaberg was so good at. Fellow Montanan George Winston who's 'Plains' album included an Aaberg cover, was Billboard Magazines number one new age album of 2000 "Hes the guy who Captures the feel of Montana" Says Winston. "Interestingly people think I've influenced him but truly it's the other way around he influenced me."

So if Philip Aaberg is so good, why is he impossible to find in the record stores? The same could be ask of other 80's trend setters that are hard to find today. Act's Like Latitude, Montreux and John Jarvis all have albums selling on EBAY for $20 U.S. not only because their great but because their all deleted and have either giving up on new age and ran like hell in any other direction or were simply dropped from their labels. Jarvis who after leaving the genre won Grammy's for writing hits with Vince Gill and the Judds spoke frankly from his home in Nashville a few years ago "there was a lot of smoke and mirrors in the early 90's" he says very seriously "everyone thought we were making all this money but really the albums were not selling that well there were only a few acts doing great, I got air-play but certainly didn't get rich ." Sighing he adds "I don't think it's doing very well now a lot of the big labels have given up on it and now commercial radio seems to have let it go" Barbara Taylor agrees she's the Editor of New Age Voice in Atlanta the only North American magazine exclusively dedicated to New Age Music. "I wouldn't say it's exactly flourishing she says laughing out loud "I think New Age music in general is suffering from a lack of public awareness because of limitations of radio and the fact that a lot of smaller stations have been bought out by larger conglomerates." I could relate remember that cushy little New Age gig I had in Edmonton? Well let's just say I was asked to take my pots & Pans and leave after a huge merger and in spite of having the best ratings the stations had ever had at night.

Ottmar Liebert who was once branded top new age artist of the year by Billboard magazine says he prefers to call his sound Nouveau Flamenco and see's a lot of reasons the formats suffering but agrees the main culprit is radio "I can actually pinpoint exactly what happened" he says with certainty "KKSF in San Francisco was sold for 11 Million Dollars, If you spend that kind of money on something your not going to let some DJ play whatever he wants so consultants came in and tested every song and that's happening everywhere". By test he means asking radio listeners either by phone or in person what they think of a song based on a ten second snippet. Liebert says sometimes this research can truly miss the mark "It's sad people just go in these rooms and vote for a song based on a few second hook and mostly they vote for something they recognize not what they actually like, as a result the same songs win all the time." Liebert thinks it was not only bad news for New Age it killed guitar on Radio Liebert Adds "The Testing in North America says the guitar isn't as popular anymore it's all Keyboards and Sax, think about it there's a lot of Smooth Jazz Sax players out there that's why Smooth Jazz has replaced New Age". Allen Kepler Executive Vice President Broadcast Architecture the leading consultant's in Smooth Jazz in North America looks at testing in a whole new light "there's really not much room to miss anymore because the market is so competitive". Kepler has a point with every station in North America finally getting the importance of making every song count no format can take a chance on just slapping any CD on air. Testing has also changed alot in the last few years Broadcast Architecture prefer to test whole songs as opposed to ten second samples. Interestingly testing has also proven that New Age doesn't carry the weight it did in the 80s.Kepler says"You know I like New Age music it makes a great show a two or three hour show and there a lot of really great stuff, he adds "It still sells pretty good too but it's hard to make it work as an ongoing music flow".

Luckily for Liebert he's still a regular fixture on specialty radio shows. Liebert also has had a very strong fan base since he released his ground breaking debut on Higher Octave records 'Nouveau Flamenco' which has just been re-released with extra track but who's kidding who this is not New Age Liebert is a flamenco artist. He's actually credited by some for the huge resurgence in Spanish guitar ten years ago. Barbara Taylor agrees that Liebert really isn't typically new age but welcome's him in the mix of a genre that seems impossible to define "I agree the genre's kinda fragmented with a mixture of everything what was once known as world is taking on a mix of Ambience and is still called New Age, it's a fusion now of a lot of things, that's why on the cover of our magazine we list the different sub-genre's" Their cover names Celtic, World, Ambient, Space, Electronic, Native American and Avant-Garde as sub groups which brings us to another reason New Age is suffering know one knows what the heck it is because it seems incorporate too many styles. Liebert says he, up to a few years ago had no idea what New Age music was even though he was considered one of the leader of the fold "I actually educated myself in New-Age, a lot of people think it's all John Tesh or Yanni" he says laughing "and you know there's a lot of cool music under the New Age Banner so there's a freedom under the category that you don't have anywhere else, with Jazz for instance if it's not like this or that it's not Jazz, New age can be anything and I like that" He is right but the diversity has not helped bring new fans to the format. It comes down to this anything that doesn't fit anywhere else sometimes gets a New Age tag. In Radio we have a saying "Don't confuse the audience" if a station tries to please everybody the station ends up pleasing nobody. A friend once told me New Age was like horse doo doo all over the road no matter how you look at it it's messy and has to be avoided. Paul Armitage sees the whole thing as a mess and avoids the term all together "I wouldn't classify myself as New Age, I consider it more Classically Oriented, Synthesizer Music or pop Classical". This may seem like a mouth full and a risk to have such an ambiguous moniker but it's a risk that a lot of artist in the genre take willingly to avoid the New Age tag. George Winston being the best known basher of the title "I think New Age is just meditation stuff I have nothing to do with that, they called me Jazz and classical before the New Age tag came along" Winston goes a step farther and claim he's not that familiar with the top shakers under the label "I don't really know Enya's stuff or any of those acts but I love Andreas Vollenweider, I don't care about who's in New Age or Isn't I just know I'm not"

This kicking and screaming against the tag is nothing new I remember hearing it from act's like the late Guitarist Michael Hedges and Windham Hill Boss Will Ackerman. Barbara Taylor says this is something that has to change "a lot of famous artist's like Winston and Enya say they hate the word New Age remember it is a bin in the record stores and their in it and that's where people will look for their stuff and that's not going to change". For a genre built on peace and serenity there sure seem to a lot in fighting so much so it makes the Canadian Alliance party seem like the hari krishna's in comparison. Taylor says "the Sooner we can all get over that part of it, the sooner we can work together, we need to move on to important things like educating people on what it is." One things for sure fighting a tag that won't go away is not helping anyone's career. Know one want's retailer to delete the already tiny New Age bins, it's hard enough to find this stuff in the mega stores. As a new breed of New Age act's Like Windham Hill's Jim Brickman and Toronto Guitarist Jamie Bonk refresh the genre as always it will be us the public who decide who's New Age or if we even care. There is some good news while most adult genre's like Classical, Jazz Country and soundtracks were down in 2000 New Age sales actually went up according to Soundscan as reported by Billboard Magazine so it may be on the up swing in the next few years. Paul Armitage has no doubt and sums it up well "look at what just happened in the U.S with the World Trade Centre" he says speaking quitely "everyone is rethinking who they are and what they truly want most will choose peace and that's what this music is all about no matter what you call it, no matter who plays it, it 's truly peaceful and people need that especially now so it's not going away it's just starting" .