Instrumental mood music has surged in popularity in recent years, tapping into a widespread demand for subtle background noise and sonic escapism. The rise of artists like the Texan three-piece Khruangbin — who have garnered rave reviews, huge headline shows, and over a billion Spotify streams, and spawned numerous popular playlists titled “Khruangbin vibes’”and subreddits full of people seeking out similar artists — underlines the heightened visibility of atmospheric instrumental music in mainstream culture.
This trend reflects broader shifts in how we consume and interact with music in the digital age. While instrumental music has always served various functions across cultures and time periods — from Brian Eno’s ambient experiments to jazz lounges to classical concert halls — its current prominence in streaming algorithms and social media reveals new patterns in our listening habits.
Khruangbin have undoubtedly led this contemporary wave, rising in stature and enjoying mainstream success with a sound that relies on light, funky percussion and twangling cowboy guitar. Their 2024 album A La Sala flushes with warm guitar tones, softly shuffling drum patterns, and lashings of bright reverb that swell together to create a gentle soulfulness that, at its best, can have an intensely pure and grounding effect on the listener.
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Other artists on this spectrum include the multi-instrumentalist Daniel Kadawatha’s project Arc De Soleil, the Latin-flecked horse-riding guitar duo Hermanos Gutierrez, the Indian-Australian global funk fusion outfit Glass Beams, and UK acts like the saxophone-wielding producer Venna and the West African jazz-funk group Kokoroko. All these artists have honed unique sounds that fall under the broad umbrella of mood music, and they’ve each managed to grow larger fan bases than most instrumental acts have typically been able to amass in the past.
The sounds these musicians cultivate have become the go-to backdrop for various moments in daily life — chilled mornings and lounging afternoons, dinner parties and drinks with friends, romantic evenings, and sunny balcony drinks at the start of a holiday. The appeal of this particular brand of mood music partly comes down to its versatility; this is music that can hum away smoothly without demanding center stage, but it’s also complex and rich enough that listeners can tune in more actively when they choose to. This dual nature — accessible yet sophisticated — distinguishes these artists from more generic background music.
The rise of mood music tells us a lot about how our relationship with media is evolving. The elevation of these sounds speaks to our growing need for constant stimulation, regardless of whether or not we’re engaging with it in a meaningful or intellectual way. Social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram have encouraged a widespread process of passive media consumption that, according to the journalist Julia Bragg, “has essentially caused our brains to be unable to focus on longer videos or material… oftentimes, we utilize many different types of technology at one time, such as scrolling through your phone while simultaneously listening to a podcast or watching a lecture. Our brains can only selectively and successfully pay attention to so much at one time.”
The increased visibility of mood music correlates with changes in how streaming platforms curate and present music. Alexis Petridis’ recent review of Liz Pelly’s book Mood Machine in The Guardian explores how Spotify “shifted its focus from ‘music enthusiasts’ to what it calls ‘lean-back consumers,’ effectively the kind of people who would once have turned the radio on in the morning and left it burbling in the background all day.”
Playlists have been built to target these listeners, promoting “chill vibes” and “slow mornings” and leading to the rise of a vague genre of ambient, subtly electronic music that’s been dubbed “Spotifycore” (Petridis describes this as “the sonic equivalent of a CBD gummy”).
It’s important to distinguish between artists like Khruangbin and Glass Beams — who bring genuine artistry and cultural fusion to their work — and the more generic, algorithm-driven “Spotifycore.” However, both exist within the same streaming ecosystem, and their simultaneous rise reveals how platforms shape our listening habits.
Some observers worry these trends reflect shortened attention spans. Psychologists like Dr. Gloria Mark report that the median attention span is now just 47 seconds, and social media platforms have certainly changed how we engage with media. Yet the popularity of instrumental mood music might equally suggest that people are actively seeking respite from information overload — choosing music that provides atmosphere without adding to cognitive burden.
In an interview with NME, south London saxophonist Venna — the architect of lounging, sun-drenched jazz-hip-hop concoctions that are the perfect background playlist for a relaxed social situation — highlighted the therapeutic dimension of this music: “People really find a spiritual kind of healing from it… People have messaged me saying, ‘This has helped me get through this’, or ‘I normally have anxiety in the mornings and I listen to your project and it helps me start my day.’”
And the creation process provides its own relief. Venna added that making “Sun, Moon & Herbs” during the height of the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests was “like a therapy session… we don’t have to think about what’s going on right now, because in this room right now, we’re safe.”
There’s scientific support for the restorative power of background audio, with clinical psychologist Jenna Carl writing in HuffPost that “background noise may be used in an attempt to distract from or avoid unpleasant emotions and thoughts.” But she also notes potential downsides: “If you find yourself always distracting from or avoiding unpleasant thoughts, that can reinforce the anxiety that’s behind the thoughts.”
This observation suggests a balanced approach to musical engagement. Sometimes we need music for deep listening, sometimes for ambient comfort, and sometimes for emotional processing. Rather than viewing this trend as either purely positive or negative, we might recognize it as part of music’s ever-evolving role in human life.
Content shared from consequence.net.