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Why most people don't like jazz

dyske.com

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Re: Why most people don't like jazz

#81

Post by philwelch »

ecoffey wrote: post #44

I thought I was the only one who didn't pay attention to lyrics. My friend and I kinda of resemble that dynamic. He loves some of the shittiest songs (imo) because of interesting lyrical content, where as I totally ignore them. If I like them it's because of how they were sung not because of me diving through looking for "meaning". That's why after all these years Pinback is still one of my favorite bands. Their voic…

"He loves some of the shittiest songs (imo) because of interesting lyrical content, where as I totally ignore them. If I like them it's because of how they were sung not because of me diving through looking for "meaning"."

Yes, this. One of the reasons I love metal is because a great metal vocalist like Dickinson or Dio just plain sounds awesome, no matter what he's going on about.

Re: Why most people don't like jazz

#82

Post by maxklein »

I absolutely hate the instrumental nonsense that a bunch of music school graduates are producing this day, but I love jazz. Play Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Satchmo, Anita O'Day, Peyroux, even Diana Krall. This is what Jazz was initially defined as - jumping up and down the scale on a trumpet and wearing old Egyptian costumes is not Jazz for me.

Re: Why most people don't like jazz

#84

Post by njharman »

keyist wrote: post #6

An interesting corollary is that jazz musicians tend to not have as striking an image when it comes to their marketing. Compare what you first visualize when you hear the names KISS or Flava Flav versus say Brad Mehldau or Keith Jarrett. EDIT: This is probably due to jazz musicians taking themselves more seriously and wanting to be known more for their music than anything else. If a jazz artist enlisted Dir En Grey's…

You're cherry picking. Sun Ra, Herby Hancock (he's jazz, no?) and there's plenty of "boring"/non-striking artists across most genre's.

Re: Why most people don't like jazz

#85

Post by jerf »

raganwald wrote: post #68
jerf wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"By this logic, English-language opera (yes, it exists) ought to be doing well in America." We call them "musicals". They're doing OK. If you want to argue that a "musical" is an "opera plus some stuff added to make it more palatable to visually-oriented Americans" I'm not going to argue.

I was under the impression that a musical is a spoken word play where the actors break out into song and dance on a regular basis, whereas in an opera the singers rarely dance or speak. If that is the case, the difference between musicals and opera is more than just the language. and actually supports the author's point that American culture needs visual stimulation (the dance) and words they can easily understand (t…

I confirm that that was pretty much my point in the last paragraph. (No offense meant or taken in this post, just confirming.)

Re: Why most people don't like jazz

#86

Post by araneae »

swannodette wrote: post #61

The state of music commentary on this thread is low enough to be insulting and pretty much validates the article. I find it humorous that a website that draws people dedicated to abstract thought can have such a mediocre understanding of music and music history. Do yourself a favor, find a piece of music that you think you don't like. Sit down and listen to it 50 times without distraction so that you know all the cha…

For most people, music is entertainment, just like literature, art, television, etc. It seems like you (and the author of this article) take it much more seriously than that. That's fine for you, but I think what many of us are expressing is that it's silly to claim that you're superior because of it. Musical skill is certainly to be admired, but condescension isn't.

Re: Why most people don't like jazz

#87

Post by mattm »

philwelch wrote: post #65

I have this same argument with my girlfriend all the time--not about jazz, per se (which I haven't gotten into) but about the general topic of music vs. lyrics. Some of my favorite songs I still don't know all the lyrics to, but she knows them by heart even though she zones out during the guitar solos. And her favorite songs, I listen to the basic instrumental loop and get bored with it. There are ways to learn to li…

I've noticed this as well.

In general it seems women listen to lyrics more while men pay attention to the instruments more.

Re: Why most people don't like jazz

#89

Post by nerme »

bryanh wrote: post #50
dan_sim wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're so right. Jazz musicians are boring. Worst than that, I hear them complain every time that "the crowd was not in it". So, they don't even try to be less boring, they blame their clients for it. Way to go jazzmen!

This brings up a great point. Great jazz players are horrible marketers. Oddly enough, I think some of their "practice" time could be better put to use spreading the word or pounding the pavement.

I think they understand their market just fine. You're just not in that market, so you don't notice.

It is niche music, there is no doubt about it. The jazz festival circuit seems to be doing just fine, albeit, most of the popular festivals are outside of the US. Heck, most of the really good older jazz musicians moved to Europe 30 years ago, anyways.

Re: Why most people don't like jazz

#90

Post by adrianh »

fnid2 wrote: post #11
snitko wrote: post #3

It's not the problem of lyrics vs words in the first place. It's a problem of lack of musical education. Give a person a guitar or a piano and within a year she starts paying attention to the composition and performing skills. And her tastes may change dramatically too. So in a sense, I consider "listening to words" not as an alternative point of view, but rather a lack of musical training. Sure, words may simply be…

I didn't start listening to lyrics until I was in my mid twenties and I have no musical talent or education. When I heard The Beatles Imagine was banned in some places, I thought, "Why? It's just a song." And then years later I actually listened to it and understood. One of my girlfriends told me, "I've started listening to jazz, I really like it!" So for her birthday, I got her "Kind of Blue" and she hated it. Shock…

"Imagine" is a song by John Lennon, during his solo career, not a Beatles song.
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