How to Listen to Lounge Music
While "lounge music" conjures up images of Wayne Newton or the Rat Pack performing in Las Vegas, it also includes modern artists such as Buster Poindexter or novelty acts like Lounge Against The Machine. The swinging style periodically resurfaces in new forms such as downtempo. So take five at the piano bar and swing with the beat, daddy-o.
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Instructions
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Creating the Lounge Lifestyle
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Develop an attitude of richness over riches, of swankness, suaveness and strangeness to set yourself apart from the horde of uniformity. This is a paraphrase of the First Manifesto of the Cocktail Nation, as written by the Millionaire of the lounge music group, Combustible Edison.
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Find or create the proper lounge atmosphere. Set up an overall theme, such as Polynesia or outer space, while blocking out the outside world by covering windows and removing inside clocks. Enhance this theme through undulating drapes and sensuous textures, such as silk or velour throw pillows.
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Place yourself and your fellow listeners in close proximity to one another, so you can carry on conversations. You want to schmooze as much as you swing.
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Eat and drink only what you can carry in your hands. Food items should take the form of canapes and appetizers, while drinks should be some form of cocktail. When you do go for a full meal, make it a steak and Scotch.
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Dress the part. Men should wear polyester or sharkskin suits and try to copy the style of Frank Sinatra or Dean Martin. Women should wear dresses with tight skirts and try to copy the style of either Jacqueline Kennedy or, at the other extreme, Marilyn Monroe.
Listening to the Music
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Collect the works of several lounge artists, ranging from classic vocalists such as Dean Martin, Bobby Darin and Tony Bennett to bandleaders such as Louis Prima. Include modern groups such as Love Jones, Pink Martini, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy and the Brian Setzer Orchestra.
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Set the volume at a comfortable level for easy listening. Lounge music isn't about breaking your eardrums, although groups such as Lounge Against The Machine play music that was originally intended to do so.
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Listen for an exotic sound with white-bread overtones. While lounge music often has African, Indian or Polynesian rhythms, most of it is recorded by professional American musicians, not by tribesmen, rajahs or island natives. This kind of lounge music is often called exotica.
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Look for an absence of the elements of such genres as country, blues, or rock 'n' roll. Lounge music is intended to be free of the elements of most popular music, other than the swinging elements of big band and be-bop jazz.
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Tips & Warnings
To satirize lounge music and the lounge lifestyle, study the episodes of "Saturday Night Live" featuring Andy Kaufman as the abusive lounge singer Tony Clifton and Bill Murray's vocal rendition of the theme from "Star Wars."
