Editing Easy listening (section)

==Reception==
The magazines ''[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]]'' and ''[[Record World]]'' featured easy listening singles in independently audited record charts. Generally 40 positions in length, they charted airplay on stations such as [[WNEW-FM]], New York City, WWEZ, Cincinnati, and [[KMPC]], Los Angeles. ''Record World'' began their listings January 29, 1967, and ended these charts in the early 1970s. ''Billboard''{{'}}s Easy Listening chart morphed into the [[Adult Contemporary (chart)|Adult Contemporary chart]] in 1979, and continues to this day.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Hyatt|first1=Wesley|title=The Billboard Book of Number One Adult Contemporary Hits.|date=1999|publisher=Billboard Books|location=New York City|isbn=978-0-823-07693-2}}</ref>

During the format's heyday in the 1960s, it was not at all uncommon for easy listening instrumental singles to reach the top of the charts on the [[Billboard Hot 100|''Billboard'' Hot 100]] (and stay there for several weeks).<ref>{{Cite magazine|url=https://www.billboard.com/artist/walter-wanderley/chart-history/hsi/|title=Walter Wanderley Summer Samba (So Nice) Chart History|magazine=Billboard|access-date=December 16, 2017}}</ref>

Beautiful music, which grew up alongside easy listening music, had rigid standards for instrumentation, e.g., few or no [[saxophone]]s (at the time, the saxophone was associated with less refined styles such as jazz and [[rock and roll]], although [[Billy Vaughn]] was an exception to the rule), and restrictions on how many vocal pieces could be played in an hour. The easy listening radio format has been generally, but not completely, superseded by the [[soft adult contemporary]] format.<ref name="formatguide">[http://www.nyradioguide.com/formats.htm#liteac Radio Station Format Guide] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060327164156/http://www.nyradioguide.com/formats.htm |date=March 27, 2006 }}</ref>

According to the ''Continuum Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World'', "The public prominence and profitability of easy listening [in the postwar years] led to its close association with the so-called '[[The Establishment|Establishment]]' that would eventually be demonized by the rock [[counterculture of the 1960s|counterculture]]."<ref>John Shepherd, David Horn (eds.) (2012). ''Continuum Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World Volume 8'', p. 194. {{ISBN|1441148744}}.</ref> In ''[[Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies]]'' (1981), rock critic [[Robert Christgau]] said "semiclassical music is a systematic dilution of highbrow preferences".<ref>{{cite book|last=Christgau|first=Robert|author-link=Robert Christgau|year=1981|title=[[Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies]]|publisher=[[Ticknor & Fields]]|isbn=0899190251|chapter=The Guide|chapter-url=https://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/bk-cg70/guide.php|access-date=March 30, 2019|via=robertchristgau.com}}</ref>