ear candy

noun

: music that is pleasing to listen to but lacks depth

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Ear candy made its debut (in print, at least) as the title of a 1977 album by pop singer Helen Reddy. The album has long since faded from the charts, but the term endures and it is now used widely enough to have gained entry into abridged dictionaries. Although "ear candy" is sometimes used critically to describe tunes that are considered "gooey," "sweet," or "saccharine," the people who make the music and their fans find it tasty. As one 90s band member sagely put it, does it really matter if ear candy "isn't about the secret of life"?

Examples of ear candy in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web The Roxy Music co-founder’s gift for ear candy and unusual creative prompts in the studio helped Coldplay create their most musically rich album. —

Al Shipley, SPIN, 6 Oct. 2024 The result is still an album rich with extravagantly detailed arrangements and psychedelic ear candy, like Wilco’s answer to the Beatles’ Abbey Road or Elvis Costello’s Imperial Bedroom. —

Al Shipley, SPIN, 22 June 2024 Still, at the same time, his records were instant headbangers amongst the younger generation and ear candy for clubgoers. —

Carl Lamarre, Billboard, 22 Jan. 2024 Cosmic Slop, Funkadelic A commercial failure at the time of its release, the album’s soulful cartoonish ear candy weaves a tale of corruption, violence, and the mass delusion that dogs the human race. —

Liza Lentini, SPIN, 24 Nov. 2023 See all Example Sentences for ear candy

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'ear candy.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.