background music
Americannoun
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music, often recorded, intended to provide a soothing background, usually played over loudspeaker systems in public places, as railway stations or restaurants.
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music composed specifically to accompany and heighten the mood of a visual production, as a movie.
Etymology
Origin of background music
First recorded in 1925–30
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The tariffs have largely been background music as investors weigh the artificial-intelligence build-out and inflation.
From MarketWatch • Jun. 3, 2026
Herrmann, Hitchcock’s musical alter ego, also wrote the underscore, or background music.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 24, 2026
Our expert content team has a way of sprinkling soothing magic on all of our Sleep Stories through the narrator's cadence to the background music to get people to lull to sleep.
From Salon • Nov. 8, 2024
He went on to play the song Wichita Lineman by Glen Campbell, a song Wright regularly used as background music for his show.
From BBC • Jun. 2, 2024
If any student objects to background music, you should not use it.
From "Music and the Child" by Natalie Sarrazin
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
