TranceAddict Forums (www.tranceaddict.com/forums)
- Music Discussion
-- Difference between chillout, ambient, and lounge?

Difference between chillout, ambient, and lounge?

Ive been wanting to ask this question for a long time but never did because I didnt want to seem like such a noob, oh well. So what is the difference?

Ambient music is more like soundscapes, environmental noises, some melodies. It's very slow, has some to hardly any percussion and is sometimes a bit on the surreal and abstract side. Some famous ambient producers include Brian Eno, Steve Roach, Tangerine Dream and The Orb.

Chill music is sometimes used as an umbrella term for a lot of the slower electronic stuff that is almost geared more for listening than dancing. It is more uplifting than ambient, and more melodic and structured. There's countless chill compilations out there and Jose Padilla and Lenny Ibizarre are known as two of the best chill DJs out there. Both are from Ibiza, with it's own brand of chill music, as found in many of the Cafe del Mar and Cafe del Sol CDs. Chill music can include downtempo, trip hop, acid and nu jazz. It also is used as a term when some producers make chill mixes of trance tunes.

Lounge music is very similar to chill out, but lounge music tends to be a bit more on the dancier and jazzier side than ambient or chill music. It includes acid and nu jazz, more traditional jazz music like cool jazz, deep house and jazz'step (mixture of jazz and drum n' bass). LTJ Bukem and Mark Farina do a lot of this stuff, and check out Blue Six, Thievery Corporation or Weekend Players for some loungier stuff. Many releases on the label "Naked Music" are lounge.

well what's the difference to you man? everybody might have differing opinions as far as ambient and chillout.

ambient as in just melodies, with no base line, or chillout as just chilled or slowed down trance tracks???

lounge has been referred to as "deep house" and other types of house at times... even housey-jazzy stuff has been referred to lounge at times...

i'm sure you'll get differing opinions... i'm not sure any one is correct or wrong.

>JM<

quote:

Originally posted by Spirit5 Ambient music is more like soundscapes, environmental noises, some melodies. It's very slow, has some to hardly any percussion and is sometimes a bit on the surreal and abstract side. Some famous ambient producers include Brian Eno, Steve Roach, Tangerine Dream and The Orb. Chill music is sometimes used as an umbrella term for a lot of the slower electronic stuff that is almost geared for more for listening than dancing. It is more uplifting than ambient, and more melodic and structured. There's countless chill compilations out there and Jose Padilla and Lenny Ibizarre are known as two of the best chill DJs out there. Both are from Ibiza, with it's own brand of chill music, as found in many of the Cafe del Mar and Cafe del Sol CDs. Chill music can include downtempo, trip hop, acid and nu jazz. It also is used as a term when some producers make chill mixes of trance tunes. Lounge music is very similar to chill out, but lounge music tends to be a bit more on the dancier and jazzier side than ambient or chill music. It includes acid and nu jazz, more traditional jazz music like cool jazz, deep house and jazz'step (mixture of jazz and drum n' bass). LTJ Bukem does a lot of this stuff, and check out Blue Six, Thievery Corporation or Weekend Players for some loungier stuff.

your right on the money

from what i've noticed the difference on TA is


chillout is what people call slowed down remixes of trance tracks...

ambient is what people call trance remixes that use the word ambient...not real ambient which is as spirit5 said minimal soundscapes

and lounge is what people say when they usually want deep house

Expecting Ishkur to come up soon



Well, here's my definition:

Ambient: Just a term that Brian Eno invented. It basically is music that would envelop the listener without drawing attention to itself.

Chillout: The term to discribe the new musical styles in the 90's and mid 90's, that are meant for relaxation. This is music made by contemporary producers in the electronic music scene.

Lounge: A public waiting area

quote:

Originally posted by Spirit5 Ambient music is more like soundscapes, environmental noises, some melodies. It's very slow, has some to hardly any percussion and is sometimes a bit on the surreal and abstract side. Some famous ambient producers include Brian Eno, Steve Roach, Tangerine Dream and The Orb. Chill music is sometimes used as an umbrella term for a lot of the slower electronic stuff that is almost geared more for listening than dancing. It is more uplifting than ambient, and more melodic and structured. There's countless chill compilations out there and Jose Padilla and Lenny Ibizarre are known as two of the best chill DJs out there. Both are from Ibiza, with it's own brand of chill music, as found in many of the Cafe del Mar and Cafe del Sol CDs. Chill music can include downtempo, trip hop, acid and nu jazz. It also is used as a term when some producers make chill mixes of trance tunes. Lounge music is very similar to chill out, but lounge music tends to be a bit more on the dancier and jazzier side than ambient or chill music. It includes acid and nu jazz, more traditional jazz music like cool jazz, deep house and jazz'step (mixture of jazz and drum n' bass). LTJ Bukem and Mark Farina do a lot of this stuff, and check out Blue Six, Thievery Corporation or Weekend Players for some loungier stuff. Many releases on the label "Naked Music" are lounge.

i think this is the first time i see one of your essays that actually means something, and that appears to be 100% correct

quote:

Originally posted by Spirit5 Ambient music is more like soundscapes, environmental noises, some melodies. It's very slow, has some to hardly any percussion and is sometimes a bit on the surreal and abstract side. Some famous ambient producers include Brian Eno, Steve Roach, Tangerine Dream and The Orb. Chill music is sometimes used as an umbrella term for a lot of the slower electronic stuff that is almost geared more for listening than dancing. It is more uplifting than ambient, and more melodic and structured. There's countless chill compilations out there and Jose Padilla and Lenny Ibizarre are known as two of the best chill DJs out there. Both are from Ibiza, with it's own brand of chill music, as found in many of the Cafe del Mar and Cafe del Sol CDs. Chill music can include downtempo, trip hop, acid and nu jazz. It also is used as a term when some producers make chill mixes of trance tunes. Lounge music is very similar to chill out, but lounge music tends to be a bit more on the dancier and jazzier side than ambient or chill music. It includes acid and nu jazz, more traditional jazz music like cool jazz, deep house and jazz'step (mixture of jazz and drum n' bass). LTJ Bukem and Mark Farina do a lot of this stuff, and check out Blue Six, Thievery Corporation or Weekend Players for some loungier stuff. Many releases on the label "Naked Music" are lounge.

If I wrote a real response, this is what it would look like.

quote:

Originally posted by paranoik0 i think this is the first time i see one of your essays that actually means something, and that appears to be 100% correct

Thanks, well I never said I was correct in all of my responses to everything considering most of the time it's subjective, how I feel or think, not a clear cut "this is the way" answer. I do that on the DJ Booth area but i'm not always right either, that's a little more objective there. I know a lot about music, well especially electronic music, but I never said I knew everything because I don't...I have trouble getting to my points sometimes I will admit, I'm the same way in real life haha, thats why some of my answers are so long. So sometimes I just don't talk unless I know what I'm going to say ahead of time, because sometimes I can say some pretty crazy shit...online or in real life...guess i'm a bit of a loser who has nothing better to do than write essays on TA haha...

quote:

Ambient music is more like soundscapes, environmental noises, some melodies. It's very slow, has some to hardly any percussion and is sometimes a bit on the surreal and abstract side. Some famous ambient producers include Brian Eno, Steve Roach, Tangerine Dream and The Orb.

Ambient music in the strictest sense of the word has no melody, harmony or any kind of constant or cyclical rhythym. Its noise basically. An example of this would be Controlled Bleeding - Part One.

If you ever get the chance to listen to it, it is basically a 'sound collage' of various background noises and recordings including: the sound of whirring industrial fans, crickets, (what sounds like) whales humping, water flowing etc. etc.

Ambient music is meant to reflect the sound of the natural environment which is often quite random and chaotic but pleasant sounding anyway. Listen to rain pattering on a windowpane or leaves rustling in the wind. They are quite pleasant sounds which you can listen to for hours almost and yet have no real structure or pattern. Ambient music is kind of shooting for the same thing although it doesnt always aim to be pleasant sounding. It can be quite nasty sounding as in the case of MZ.412 and Nurse With Wound - both of them use alot of drone instruments, feedback and clamouring sounds to create darker moods.

Sometimes the lines between ambient music and popular music get blurred and it has also taken on board synthesis and not just sampling. So you get the likes of Eno and The Orb and Global Communication creating songs which use synthesizers to generate droning sounds and so forth.

Alot of the work by The Orb and Global Communication is still ambient music since the essense of it is still there - its freeform, doesnt have a constant rhythym, doesnt have any periodic structure and just flows from one sound to the next - just like any kind of natural incident sound.

Chillout and lounge are different in the sense they have different roots - in these cases musical roots. But as mentioned before, the lines kind of blur and you get hybrids of all of them.

Chillout has become, as already mentioned a kind of blanket term for laidback downtempo electronic music and some styles of dub, new age and world/ethnic music. I dont know, I always thought of Smoke City and Air as chillout music. You know. Music that you kick back and chill out to.

Some examples of Chillout would be Kaya Project - Rise Above and The Egg - Lost at Sea. Both those songs have a definite structure, constant rhythym and melody but then I think thats because this type of thing started as music first, then incorporated ambient, incidental sounds later.

Whereas The Orb to me seem to start with incidental sound, and added musical elements later. Does this make sense?

Lounge in a similar way but I think more with a jazzy influence. Dont know much about that last one though as its not something I find myself listening to alot of.

What they all have in common though is that they are all generally relaxed in terms of musical structure, although sometimes, in the case of chillout, relaxed in mood also. And all of those styles tend to shoot for a more natural, evolving kind of sound.

Nice guys, thanks!

quote:

Originally posted by Spirit5 Thanks, guess i'm a bit of a loser who has nothing better to do than write essays on TA haha...

that's all you needed to say

To further what has been said, I think people tend to call something "chill-out" if it's more conventional. A lot of the Balaeric chill-out compilations feature tracks with pianos, guitars, strings etc. This isn't a rule or anything, merely an observation.

quote:

Originally posted by JM ambient as in just melodies, with no base line, or chillout as just chilled or slowed down trance tracks???

thats not what ambient means. ambience is sourrounding space or environment. ambient music is a kind of music which creates an atmosphere that surrounds you, no rhythm, purposeful melodies, etc are nesesary to create ambient music. thats my take on it anyway..

Powered by: vBulletin
Copyright © 2000-2021, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.