Welcome to the forum 
On the basis of your suggestion, I skipped straight to the Discogs ‘search recent lists’ page, found 27 lists that include the word ‘balearic’ in the title, had a look through a few of them, and found virtually no unifying themes [edit: virtually no unifying themes between the various lists, I mean - perhaps they simply all sound good to the various compilers when on an e…] 
(‘swedish Balearic prog’?? ‘Finnish Balearic’?!)
Seems to be literally all things to all men…
Would seem churlish not to link to Bill’s article about this very subject…What is Balearic? – DJ History
Although many of these records were mainly European and often English, they’d remained a mystery to many of the travelling British contingent – mainly because they were all soulboys for whom the idea of listening to music made by white people, especially white English people, was anathema.
Thanks. That was very informative - and funny.
The idea behind Balearic is that any record could be made to work on a dancefloor provided it had the right feel (that fantastically nebulous word that means one man’s Funkadelic is another man’s Dana International). But it’s also because the idea of a bearded misery guts from Wigan who had never been further south than Macclesfield calling himself a Balearic DJ was intrinsically funny (it still is).
Absolutely right. Unless you’re from Wigan.
Getting my time-traveling machine out now.
I think i need a Lexicon 200 based playlist
’ work on a dancefloor’ is the key for me when I use the term Balearic. The wishy-washy ‘chill out’ (to use a hideous 90s term that made the mainstream) is not what I’d be meaning.
Names and their meanings change over time - for example, R’n’B means very different things in the context of the 1950s compared to the 1970s, and both have a very different meaning to 1990s R’n’B.
For me, the term ‘Balearic’ applies to an approach to dance music (music that got played by certain DJs in certain settings) as opposed to a defined genre - an eclectic mix of stuff that wouldn’t have been cool enough or genre-specific enough for clubbers in metropolitan centres like London or NY (but which, in the right setting and when listening with open ears, actually sounded pretty good). I think the eclecticism is what some people are referring to (as per Bill’s article) when they try to claim that people like Levan or Mancuso were ‘Balearic’. But the sort of eclecticism that would appeal to the dancefloor of an easy-going club in southern European in the 1980s was a very different thing to the sort of eclecticism that would have worked within a well established club culture in NY.
That’s my take, fwiw
Reading thru’ this topic, eclecticism and good vibes definitely seem like big parts of being Balearic to many who know a lot more about it than I do.
Good point about the changing meanings of various labels applied to various genres - and the changes within the genres themselves. Must drive Tories mad! Drives me pretty mad as a language wonk but it does keep things interesting. And it’s just a general feature of history.
To respond briefly to @Spider and what “works on the dancefloor.” Obviously, different music will work differently on different floors. Surely, we’ve all see some track that sparked up wild moves one week in one venue fall on its face as a miserable flop the next week somewhere else.
Speaking for myself, I always prefer music that invites or allows one to dance rather than “makes you dance.” Allows for a pretty eclectic range, although not every invitation is accepted - and in my time I’ve been fairly genre-specific.
There’s something about the EAR in the middle of BalEARic that I find fascinating.
It’s not “Ba-lear-ic”. It’s “Bal-e-aric”.
Isn’t that the music that’s actually played in Ibiza?
Or What-an-EAR-ache? Ball-in-the-REAR-ache?
No agreeing on what it is or even how to pronounce the word!
Strength thru’ diversity!
The “official” Balearic Top 25, from a show that @GrimsbyRiviera did with Phil Mison on Ministry of Sound radio in 2007:
1 Tullio de Piscopo – Primavera (Stop Bajon) (Bagaria, 1984)
2 William Pitt – City Lights (Public Sound, 1986)
3 Elkin & Nelson – Jibaro (CBS, 1986)
4 Chris Rea – Josephine (Magnet, 1985)
5 Herb Alpert – Rotation (A&M, 1979)
6 Manuel Goettsching – E2-E4 (Inteam, 1984)
7 Mandy Smith – I Just Can’t Wait (Cool & Breezy Jazz Mix) (PWL, 1987)
8 Dizzi Heights – Would I Find Love (Parlophone, 1986)
9 Art Of Noise – Moments In Love (Island, 1983)
10 It’s Immaterial – Driving Away From Home (Virgin, 1986)
11 Carly Simon – Why (WEA, 1982)
12 Sebastien Tellier – La Ritournelle (Lucky Number, 2005)
13 Donna Summer – State of Independence (WEA, 1982)
14 Laid Back – Fly Away/Walking In The Sunshine (CBS, 1983)
15 Kate Bush – Running Up The Hill (EMI, 1985)
16 Cure – Lullaby (Fiction, 1989)
17 Linda Di Franco – TV Scene (WEA, 1985)
18 Flash & The Pan – Walking In The Rain (Epic, 1978)
19 Izit – Stories (ffrr, 1989)
20 Fleetwood Mac – Big Love (Arthur Baker Remix) (Warners, 1987)
21 Double – The Captain Of Her Heart (Polydor, 1985)
22 The Beloved – The Sun Rising (WEA, 1989)
23 Enzo Avitabile – Blackout (EMI, 1986)
24 Mike Francis – Features Of Love (Concorde, 1985)
25 Richie Havens – Going Back To My Roots (Elektra, 1980)
Looks like I’m adding another Donna Summer album to my wishlist! Never heard that one before.
I have absolutely no memory of this happening 
They do say that if you can remember Balearic, you weren’t really there…
I’ll send you the MP3 for your archives.
going back to the original question about muddy / echoey productions, this simple minds one off the b-side of ‘don’t you forget about me’ has that in spades and might be the most balearic thing they did?
Drenched in reverb, and muddy vocals:
My idea of Balearic. Something to soundtrack long shots of sparkling seas and small fishing boats, with lots of camera glare. Fade out and cut to Judith Chalmers on a sun lounger by a hotel pool.
recently covered with style -
