I am always amazed when I look in the news archive from the 1980s and see just how prominent the new age music genre was at that time  (for instance see this article from 1987; Critics pan it, public buys it). Many artists had incredible success and a large number of dedicated labels were funded. It truly was the golden age of New Age music.

Today I have been looking for articles from the 1990s – and wow, the golden age was not meant to last. In 1992 Billboard published an article that was featured in the Anchorage Daily News. It reads:

A new age appears on the horizon for new age record labels, as a number of imprints depart from their traditional instrumental marketplace for forays into rockabilly, R&B, rock’n’roll and other genres.

Executives from such labels as Music West, Private Music, and Windham Hill Production, in particular, have taken roster diversity to heart, citing economic necessity and label maturation as key reasons for the apparent trend.

In other words; the labels had become wealthy in the late 1980s, but their market was shrinking and they had to adapt or die. We all know what happened… To quote mr. Sam Sutherland of Windham Hill Productions; “New Age was a classic boom-to-bust story”.

Read the article here.