Music Sound

Soft rock, also referred to as lite rock, easy rock, and mellow rock, is a style of music which uses the techniques of rock and roll to compose a softer, supposedly more ear-pleasing sound for listening, often at work. Soft rock is usually sung with higher-pitched vocals, and the lyrics tend to be non-confrontational, focusing in very general language on themes like love and relationships. The genre tends to make heavy use of pianos, synthesizers and sometimes saxophones. 'Soft rock' is an ambiguous term used for popular music as well.

Soft rock began in the early 1970s with bands like Bread and Fleetwood Mac. It became hugely popular later in the decade. By 1977, some radio stations, like New York's WTFM, had switched to an all-soft-rock format. [1] Around that same time, Chicago, which had previously been a jazz-rock band, switched to soft rock and reached their biggest commercial successes. Even Led Zeppelin, considered by some to be standard bearers of hard rock, flirted with the genre at the time in songs like 1979's "Fool in the Rain".

Other bands/singers who have recorded a considerable number of songs considered soft rock include: Air Supply, America, Phil Collins, Céline Dion, Gloria Estefan, Every Little Thing, Whitney Houston, Elton John, Carole King, Gordon Lightfoot, Bette Midler, Steve Perry, Savage Garden, Seals and Crofts, Eric Serra, Carly Simon, Rod Stewart, James Taylor, and Wilson Phillips.

In the early 1990s, soft rock began to be known as "adult contemporary".

Rock and roll | Rock genres

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