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4 minutes in, some of these saxophone lines are wearing on me.
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12-22-2021 11:40 AM
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Kenny G
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Jazz stopped being Pop music in the late 40's when BeBop became popular. When it was Swing music and people could dance to it, it was Pop music.
Last edited by ChazFromCali; 10-04-2022 at 01:46 AM.
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I have a playlist I like to send to friends who ask why I like Jazz. Even choosing accessible pieces it becomes a genre that requires a lot of explaining. Not many modern listeners just hear it and love it. Even my own Jazz journey has required education and active listening.
Put on someone like Sturgill Simpson and people can get into that from the first beat (I love Sturgill by the way). It's not a dig on modern jazz, but I think it has become a "listening man's" music rather than something an average person can get into. That all seemed to happen about the time Jazz got really good (to me) from early to post bebop. It's all good though, nobody has to like what I like.
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Jazz isn't popular because it's hard. It's hard to play and it's work to listen to. And the songs are either unfamiliar originals or now-unfamiliar standards which were the music of the grandparents and great-grandparents of most of today's would-be clubgoers. Jazz has arted itself out of an audience.
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In what possible world could jazz remain popular for decades? Nothing else of the swing era has remained popular, so why should the music? Each generation wants something new. They don't want to listen to the music of their older siblings, let alone their grandparents and great-grandparents.
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I’m continually surprised at how popular various types of jazz seem to be. Maybe I keep my expectations incredibly low haha
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Originally Posted by Litterick
I don't agree that nothing else from the swing era has remained popular. It depends on local/national culture of course, but gipsy jazz/swing has considerable popularity here in France (also in the chansons it influenced) and let's not forget about the classical music from that era.
I'm not entirely certain about the exact period (years), but judging from the designs of (among others) the Campus Five disc sleeves the graphic design language from that time has never lost popularity either.
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Originally Posted by Cunamara
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I wonder if 'multitasking' has something to do with not wanting to do much more than having back ground 'white noise'to fill in or give the brain a gentle massage.Or a simple diversion.I say 'white noise jazz therapy' performed here
(insert venue location) as you sip your Martini, or something.Maybe i am just figuring out why my old brain is to tired to try to figure out or remember anything uh well anything.rambling just rambling.sorry
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Originally Posted by EarlBrother
And indeed, if it's hard work for me to listen to something and figure out what there is to enjoy about it then I usually disconnect. Switch channels, be it on the radio or in my mind if I happen to be at a live music event. I'm not ashamed to admit that, why would I spend the effort if I don't even know that I'm going to enjoy the music the same way as all the music I already enjoy?
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Because it doesn't want to be. Any genre that want to reach a wider audience need to reach out to said audience, make a effort to make itself approachable, give the audience an in. Jazz is content gatekeeping its bubble
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Originally Posted by RJVB
But none of the music of the period is a popular as pop music, for good reason: young people do not want to listen to old music.
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Some thoughts about it
1. Our definition of jazz is narrower than it might be. There is a lot of improvisation in music which is labeled "rock". So, we accept So What (two chords) as Jazz, but we don't accept an odd-meter Grateful Dead jam with as many or more chords. Or Steely Dan. Smooth Jazz -- reviled by some. Pop music with solos: pop music. Kenny G? Of course, in saying this I'm using an imprecise definition of "jazz" too.
2. If I go to a nice restaurant and they have music, it may well be jazz, even narrowly defined. Same for piped-in music in various places. It's not all that unpopular. SF Jazz has been sold out, or close, the times I've been there.
3. Some jazz I hear locally is inaccessible to me. If it's great, it's going over my head. But not in NYC. I think it's hard music to play well and people like it when it's played well. I wonder if it has something to do with the goal. If the musicians have the major goal of playing interesting, intellectually oriented music that requires strict attention to appreciate (I know, this is a charicature) that's one thing. If the goal is to play something that will feel good to most people and get them moving -- tapping their feet, swaying, dancing, I think more people like it.
Ex: The other day I played a neighborhood outdoor party where a lot of people brought little kids. We played an energetic version of Donna Lee and had these little kids dancing to it. They seemed to like jazz well enough. Wayne Shorter is a genius, but would the kids have been dancing?
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Why Isn't Jazz Popular?
You mean why isn't jazz more popular? That's simple, it's a niche genre. Too bad :-)
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People don't understand jazz, or they pretend they understand.
Listening to jazz music requires interest and dedication to this time.
I don't mean 'jazz' to dance.
Jazz music is primarily instrumental music, and there may be a reason for that.
Can jazz compete with pop songs at all?
Several years ago, recordings of pop artists with jazz soloist artists appeared in Poland with the aim of popularizing jazz music on a larger scale.
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No art music is popular. That's why there are 2 kinds of music: art music and popular music. Lol!
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Originally Posted by Jimmy Smith
Classical music - permanent (historical), mostly Germanic composers
"Folk music" - transitory (everything else), jazz, pop, c&w, rock, blues
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Originally Posted by Jimmy Smith
I don't like such divisions. It is not that simple and obvious.
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Jazz is not popular because it is respectable.
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Originally Posted by Litterick
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I agree that it's a player's music; hard to play, hard to listen to. I mean, Kenny G isn't hard to listen to (and that's a huge reason why he went so big), but some here probably wouldn't even consider him jazz (I do).
When most people say "I like jazz too", they are likely talking about the music pumped into Panera Bread lol. And that's fine. But we (as in this forum) need to remember that we are the weird ones: we are musicians for starters, which makes us very different from the listening public. And for those of you who are jazz players, even more so.
Every once in awhile some amalgamatio of jazz still reaches great popularity: Harry Connick Jr, Micheal Buble, Kenny G, even Brian Setzer Orchestra. But I'm betting most people here wouldn't consider any of that jazz. I do. And it's POPULAR jazz.
Sometimes I think people LIKE being unliked by the masses, because they think it makes them "better" or "smarter" or "have more integrity" somehow, which is of course utter nonsense. It's just an attitude of superiority bred by the exact opposite: insecurity. Punk rock was like that. Jazz seems to be the ultimate at that, if we're talking about forumites.
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I read an interview with one of the Doors, who said that the solo section of Light My Fire was their attempt to imitate Coltrane.
And, Jim/Roger McGuinn of the Byrds said the same thing about his solo on 8 Miles High. Coltrane-influenced. That btw, may have been the first so-called psychedelic solo. It was very outside sounding and it was all over the radio. Everybody heard it and I assume some were influeced by it.
Improvised music, over changes, with a direct tie to the history of mainstream jazz.
But, we don't consider either one of those songs to be "Jazz". If we allowed the word to be used (sure, who's "we"?) then Jazz would be more popular.
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Originally Posted by AllanAllen
Ham Radio
Today, 05:39 PM in Everything Else