New Age is a style of music in which the general mood and atmosphere are meditative and calming.
New Age is a style of music, meaning it can be in any genre. Style in music refers to how it sounds while the genre refers to the structure, and instrumentation. for example you can have a classical piece of music in the style of rock music.
All genres can be considered a style too, the line between Style and Genre gets too thin sometimes that they can even overlap.
New Age is defined by its feelings and atmosphere rather than by structure and instruments. A new age piece can be acoustic or electronic or a combination of both. The variety of new age music is from classical to chill house pieces.
The borders of the new age are so blurry, that there are no definite characteristics to define this style. But we can mention these qualities for the new age music:
Artistic inspiration and optimism in the piece.
Ambient feeling atmosphere.
Smooth melody.
Slow and steady rhythm.
Smooth harmonic transitions.
World music characteristics.
New Age music is mostly used for meditation and relaxation. The ambient atmosphere and the positive feeling in the music make it suitable for meditating.
There are several styles and genres that can be considered as the alternative names for the new age, or as its sub-genres.
Environmental
Healing
Meditation
Nature
Relaxation
Travel
In some sources, even Bio Music is considered a subgenre of the new age.
There are many artists whose repertoire is an important part of new-age music. Among them we can name:
Enya
Kitaro
Yanni
Era
Vangelis
Jean-Michael Jarre
If you have had a rough day, new-age music is one of the best ways to organize your mind and bring peace into your mind. You can also listen to this style while doing something that needs focus, like reading a book. Of course, in that case, it is preferable to listen to instrumental new age music.