Why most people don't like jazz
221–230 of 235 posts
Re: Why most people don't like jazz
#222Earlier quoted context omitted.
Wynton Marsalis says "When the music stopped being about dancing, people stopped listening." I never completely bought it, but I like the sentiment anyway :-)
Ok I've done Lindy Hop for like 5 years now and I think I sort of understand the meaning behind that statement. When you dance to music you really, really need to listen to the music and where it goes. I notice that good dancers listen to the music and change what they're doing accordingly. If the music is high energy, they dance with high energy. If there is a break in the music, they hit it a break in the dancing (…
Frankie & Johnny (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqscpuCogRE) for the lyrics -- dancers have an opportunity to re-enact the affair and its deadly conclusion. The strong bass line provides a great rhythm for pulsing.
Splanky (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUSijeq4xGU) because there are so many instruments that you can choose "to be".
Cow Cow Boogie (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9AfqVIxEzg) because of the way it undulates. The solos that break up the song, but unite it at the same time. The song cries out for changes in height, rhythm, and speed.
Re: Why most people don't like jazz
#223Earlier quoted context omitted.
Wynton Marsalis says "When the music stopped being about dancing, people stopped listening." I never completely bought it, but I like the sentiment anyway :-)
Dance music is alive and well, it just doesn't sound like jazz anymore. Being a type of music that emphasizes the here and now (that is, the dance floor), why should the music producers use production techniques and instruments of a bygone era? Also, if we're looking at the big picture of "the story of american music", disco very much comes from the same lineage as jazz.
Please don't tell this to the 150+ people who came out to the (Swing) dance I threw with the Dixieland Express. Nor to the scores of dancers that will be attending the Hot Jazz Jubilee in a few weeks.
The downfall of jazz as a genre for dancing began with an arbitrary dance tax. It continued with the era of "The Twist", which encouraged people to dance by themselves, and continued on into the disco era, which did more of the same. The Swing Revival of the 1990s helped bring brain-share to jazz (albeit of a neo-Swing flavour) again.
Partner dancing to jazz music is alive and doing very well. If you don't believe it, Google up Lindy Hop in your city.
Re: Why most people don't like jazz
#224Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, I share that syndrome, though it depends on the artist. I'm convinced the reason that there are so many passionate haters of Coldplay out there is because they're focusing on the lyrics, which are totally vague and, IMO, just written as another component of overall aesthetic. On the other hand, I can't listen to Bob Dylan or Eminem [1] without hearing the lyrics, because in their case the music is really just th…
There's a lot of music having lyrics that seem engineered to be ignorable, making me think that the artist only intended them to be placeholders, either because they wanted the voice to be a freer instrument, or just because the genre format demanded lyrics. Aside from the obvious case of scat-singing, examples that come quickly to mind are Frank Zappa, Presidents of the USA, and Rob Zombie. I lot of the lyrics on Ki…
Regarding your last line (which you maybe just meant as an aside), I'm a huge fan of all the artists I mentioned, so I hope I didn't give the impression that I think any of them are on some higher plane than the others. Just that I like them for different reasons.
Re: Why most people don't like jazz
#225Earlier quoted context omitted.
I went out to see Roy Haynes/Roy Hargrove the other night, and he basically said the same thing on stage. Looking out into an audience of mainly dead silent white people, he said something to the extent of: 'I remember when I was playing in Spain some years back with Joe Henderson and Chick Corea, and man the audience gave us no love back. But at the end of the concert a couple thousand of them all put up their light…
I hate it when people shout and yell and scream and whistle at concerts :( I'm there to hear the music, not listen to myself and other people's voices. I know that probably makes me sound like I'm a bit stuck up, or an old fogie, but honestly, I go to concerts to listen to music. That can't be that wrong.
When I moved to Seattle after college, one of the things that drove me nuts was how lame audiences were at music shows. A band would play a song and call for audince participation. They'd work hard to get people to clap along, or sing a chorus or something. If they really worked at it, they might get 1/3rd of the audience to join in, but as soon as the band went back to playing, the audience participation would die out.
A friend had a band who ended up with a gold record for their first album and a top 40 single. Most of their local shows were at 21 and over clubs. I asked him how he liked playing all-ages shows. He said the audiences were filled with pogoing teenagers which he found a lot more fun than playing to a bunch of still, stonefaced hipsters.
I agree, it can be annoying to have people near you singing so loud that you can't really hear the band very well, but really, if getting any sense that you aren't alone in the audience is a turn-off, save your money and buy a CD.
Re: Why most people don't like jazz
#226The 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…
It's interesting that you use Lady Gaga as an example, because before she got famous, she was a...jazz musician!
Re: Why most people don't like jazz
#227I don't really care for the article. All I have to say is listen to more Dave Holland Quintet.
Re: Why most people don't like jazz
#228I remember readng this a long time ago. About that time I've also read this wonderfully amusing piece from Pat Metheny about Kenny G: http://www.jazzoasis.com/methenyonkennyg.htm
This is a hell of a crucifixion :)
Re: Why most people don't like jazz
#229Earlier 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.
No way - operatic singing techniques are fundamentally different from other kinds of singing, and much harder work physically. Next time in you're in the shower or wherever you can sing, do a chorus of some song you like. Then take a deep breath and instead of using your throat as you do when you talk, use your abdominal muscles to push the air out of your lungs while you sing, such that you can feel the notes resona…
My point is that musicals fill the niche operas used to fill. Technical details are of interest to me personally but not relevant to my point. I really, really hate labeling a type of music by the physical techniques used to generate the sound, I think it's a terrible way to think about the scene. (Though I aggressively concede that I seem to be in the minority on that view.) To me, your point is basically equivalent to saying that classical-style music with saxophones in the orchestra just isn't classical music anymore; I am sure you would disagree with that characterization and I'm not saying it's objectively true, but it's not part of how I think about musical classification.
Re: Why most people don't like jazz
#230I'm a musician myself who used to play jazz. The problem with jazz is that is considered by the people who listen to it like "pure art" when it is just a style of music. Jazz (and classical) is elevated higher than other form of music and music teachers will expect a good musician to play jazz. If jazz lovers would stop thinking at themselves as "higher educated" and jazz would go back to the people who want enjoy a…
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