The term "ambient music" was first coined by Brian Eno in the mid-1970s to refer to music that can be either "actively listened to with attention or as easily ignored, depending on the choice of the listener" (Eno, who describes himself as a "non-musician" termed his experiments in sound as "treatments" rather than as traditional performances). Eno coined the term in an essay to distance his work from elevator music and Muzak, it is more often similar to mood music or an ambient background in movie and radio sound effects. (source: Wikipedia)