MFSA026: The Rise And Fall Of Beautiful Music

When I was a kid growing up, we would often spend weekends in what we called cottage country. We were a few hours north of the city, and seemingly a million miles from Torontonian suburbia. One of the few FM stations available on the radio dial was 93.1 CHAY-FM. It played elevator music, musak, terribly saccharin instrumental versions of popular songs with soprano saxophones in place of vocals, and plenty of electric pianos and jazz guitars wrapped into a big hairy cheese sandwich. Many moments of peaceful childhood contemplation were interrupted by the wail of that soprano sax. I learned quickly that not everyone has the same taste in music. I now know that people who think better of this music than I do have a name for it. They call it Beautiful Music, and on further investigation it seems that in many cities it ruled the airwaves for many years before its eventual decline. The history of it as a genre is an interesting story. This mix is what I loosely call melodic progressive house. To me, it too is beautiful music. It was mixed live in December of 2014.