Space music is an umbrella term used to describe music that evokes a feeling of contemplative spaciousness, and is particularly associated with ambient, new age and electronic music.
Space music ranges from simple to complex sonic textures, often (though not exclusively) lacking conventional melodic, rhythmic or vocal components. It typically evokes a "continuum of spatial imagery and emotion", beneficial introspection, attentiveness for deep listening, subtle trance effects called "spacey" (defined by the Compact Oxford Dictionary as "drifting and ethereal") and psychoacoustic spatial perceptions, particularly sensations of flying, floating, cruising, gliding or hovering.
Space music is used by individuals for both background enhancement and foreground listening, often with headphones, to enable states of relaxation, contemplation, inspiration and generally peaceful expansive moods. It may promote health through relaxation, atmospherics for bodywork therapies and effectiveness of meditation. Space music appears in many film soundtracks and is commonly played in planetariums.
An eclectic form of music, produced almost exclusively by independent labels, space music occupies a small niche in the marketplace, supported and enjoyed by a relatively small audience of loyal enthusiastic listeners.
