Young played jazz saxophone and studied composition in California during the 1950s, and subsequently moved to New York in 1960, where he was a central figure in the downtown music and Fluxus art scenes. He then became known for his pioneering work in drone music (originally called "dream music") with his Theatre of Eternal Music collective, alongside collaborators such as Tony Conrad, John Cale, and his wife, the multimedia artist Marian Zazeela. Since 1962, he has worked extensively with Zazeela, with whom he developed the "Dream House" sound and light environment. Beginning in 1970, he studied under Hindustani singer Pandit Pran Nath. Perhaps Young's best known work is "The Well-Tuned Piano", an ongoing, improvisatory composition begun in 1964 and performed throughout subsequent decades.