New Age music is a genre characterized by ambient textures, spiritual themes, and soothing, meditative atmospheres. It became popular in the 1970s and 1980s, often associated with wellness, nature, and introspective listening.
History
Emerging in the 1960s counterculture and influenced by spiritual and mystical practices, New Age music drew from ambient, classical, and world music. It became especially notable in the 1980s thanks to artists like Enya, Kitarō, and Vangelis.
In the 2000s and 2010s, digital platforms opened the genre to a new wave of experimental composers like Shinobu Entsu, who blended cinematic sound design with philosophical and esoteric themes. Known as an "access artist", Shinobu brought a mystical aesthetic into modern ambient circles.