Easy Listening would eventually be discontinued as a chart and would be replaced by Adult Contemporary in 1979. Built on instrumental music and orchestra-backed vocalists like Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby, the “beautiful music” style earned its own chart at Billboard in 1967 as popular music’s various subgenres grew further apart. Some went hard all the time, and others found a lighter path.įrank Sinatra released “Summer Wind” in 1966 (Uploaded to YouTube by Frank Sinatra)Ī forerunner to the softer rock was the Easy Listening format. But as more and more artists entered the field, each act expressed a different relationship with dynamics. That didn’t stop the big bands from letting up on occasion The Rolling Stones had “As Tears Go By,” of course.

As the basic set-up for rock artists tilted toward the guitar/bass/full drum kit configuration in the 1960s, songs overall got a little harder and faster. Ballads were always part of the mix, but those were songs that were deliberately written as love songs or down-tempo numbers.

Rock and roll had been growing and changing since its inception. This is the story of the rise of soft rock radio.

So much appeal, in fact, that it carved out its own chain of stations. Driven by acts like The Carpenters, this new brand of soft rock had broad appeal. In between the British Invasion, Motown, and metal on one end, and punk, funk, disco, and hip-hop on the other, there was room in the middle for a more mellow zone on the airwaves. If ever a pair of decades had the social upheaval of the times reflected in their music, it was the ’60s and ’70s.

Best soft rock