Music for Airports
Some people put on a little music when they’re talking with someone else, or when they’re eating dinner—just to fill the room with a certain kind of background sound. Ambient music is designed to do exactly that, without needing you to focus on it—and it’s a newer genre than you might think. Consider the examples below, beginning with composer Brian Eno’s effort to make airports less stressful, and then discuss with your team: should we be playing more ambient music and fewer pop songs, podcasts, and YouTube videos when the goal is just to keep away the quiet? Or is ambient music best reserved for liminal spaces—is it, in fact, music for airports?
- Brian Eno | Ambient 1: Music for Airports (1979)
- Hiroshi Yoshimura | Music for Nine Postcards (1982)
- Max Richter | Sleep (2015)
In 1978, lying in a hospital bed, Brian Eno noticed the rain and music too quiet to hear and had an idea: music designed not to be listened to. He set out to make airports less stressful with sound 'as ignorable as it is interesting,' coined a name for it — ambient music — and a whole genre, meant to fill a space without demanding your attention, was born.
Key concepts
- Ambient Music
- Music designed to blend into the environment rather than command focus — 'as ignorable as it is interesting' — filling a space with mood instead of melody you actively follow.
- Music For Liminal Spaces
- Eno made Music for Airports to calm a terminal's anxious atmosphere, so ambient music has a natural home in the in-between places we pass through but don't settle in.
- Foreground Vs. Background Sound
- Pop songs, podcasts, and videos pull attention to the front; ambient music stays in the back — the debate is really about which kind of sound should fill our everyday silences.
- Filling The Quiet
- Many people can't stand silence and reach for noise while eating or talking — the question is whether to reach for engaging content that distracts or ambient sound that soothes.
What to know
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01
Ambient music was purpose-built for liminal spaces: Eno designed Music for Airports specifically to ease a terminal's tense atmosphere, so the genre's very origin ties it to the in-between places this section is about.
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