Does anyone actually listen to jazz?

Student Lounge College Life
1

<p>Is anything wrong with me? I was just thinking about this because I like to listen to this stream sometimes:</p>

<p>Jazz</a> Wyoming Program Guide</p>

<p>(which happens to be right now). One day, I noticed 2 things about it that made it seem funny to me. </p>

<ol>
<li><p>It's from Wyoming. </p></li>
<li><p>It's run by a University. That makes me wonder if anyone actually LISTENS to it. Most of my friends listen to rap or rock (it's funny, the people that like rap are ok with rock, but the people that like rock seem to hate rap), and I find that.. I have to listen to that when I don't have my iPod handy, and it doesn't bother me in the least really.. it's music. </p></li>
</ol>

<p>However I can't feel as if there's nobody out there that likes the music lol. I know, I've got to be wrong. Anyone? XD</p>

2

<p>No, you’re not alone and there is nothing wrong with you. You just like a genre in which the majority on your campus does not listen too.</p>

<p>I fully enjoy the blues and listen to Herbie Hancock, Miles Davis, and B.B. King.</p>

<p>As of now my Ipod hosts a wide range of genres ranging from showtunes, chamber music, hip-hop, folk rock, electropop to alternative rock. I’m currently trying to get some Top 40 songs on it also.</p>

3

<p>I have a friend who listens to jazz. When I ride in his car he blasts the volume. I’ve come to dislike jazz.</p>

4

<p>I listen to Brazilian jazz (Bossanova) if that counts. I love it.</p>

5

<p>Jazz was always considered as a temporary type of music, a pop genre for about 10-20 years. Combined with dance bands, swing and ragtime, it was just an off branch, and was just on a path to rock n roll. That’s why it isn’t that big anymore. It had a phase, while other music-hillbilly/country, rock etc; have remained popular.</p>

6

<p>Jazz seems to have reached a bit of a dead end since the 70s fusion artists and subsequent reaction by traditionalists like Wynton Marsalis. People still listen to jazz, lots of people in fact, but it’s progressively fading in popularity.</p>

<p>Not sure what tiff is talking about…Jazz was hugely popular for around fifty years and has very little relation to rock n roll music. Considered a temporary type of music? Er, by whom? </p>

<p>Jazz is certainly one of the great products of American culture…artists like Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Charlie Mingus will remain major figures in any discussion of 20th century music for many years to come.</p>

<p>Oh yeah and bossa nova is great. All bow before Joao Gilberto.</p>

7

<p>I really like Jazz, especially Smooth Jazz and Acid Jazz. It’s probably because I would always go places with my grandfather when I was a little kid and he always listened to Jazz stations in the car. </p>

<p>A lot of young people just aren’t into jazz though, or most instrumental music only for that matter. I love instrumental music because so many times people ruin a good song with their bad singing.</p>

8

<p>Jane of Leidon.
*** are YOU talking about? Read “American Popular Music: From Minstrelsy to MP3” by Larry Star and Christopher Waterman before making such a stupid claim. You obviously are very very very ignorant of the history of music. We have a program intergrated with the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame, and I would bet they have a much better understanding of jazz culture than you do, so I am more inclined to be receptive to their recollection of music history and the temporary popularity of jazz. Many musical scholars, including our music general/history department and professionals at the Rock n Roll hall of fame, have considered jazz a temporary phenom, which was soon replaced by swing music, R&B and rock n roll. If you seriously don’t know that jazz influenced rock, you are living in a hole. It’s laughable, to be honest. Jazz sales/radio play dipped significantly after the brief jazz era of the 1920s and 1930s. When the GD hit, many blands downsized, and after the recording strike by the music union, recording on “sheet music” stopped, meaning new music/“unwritten” music, such as hillbilly and crooners rose. Frank Sinatra got big because his band wasn’t allowed to record in 1943-1944, and radios couldn’t play those songs, so he pioneered the singers role in music. Obviously music such as jazz, which is an offshoot of ragtime and dance bands, had very little lyrical content, and singers were not considered artists, meaning they were free to record during the strike.</p>

<p>To not see how jazz played a role in rock n roll is pathetic. Where do you think guys like Elvis had the idea of implementing guitars, bass and drums? Hillbilly typically used only one acoustic guitar. Combining the instruments of jazz with the popularity of singers, sprinkle a bit of R&B influence, you get rock n roll. Wow, you must not know what music is if you didn’t think jazz is connected directly to rock n roll. Why do you think guys like Duke Ellington were so influence to rock musicians?</p>

<p>It is not even close to how popular it was in the 1920s. To act like it is a continual trend is to illustrate a complete lack of understanding of the evolution of music. There may be a couple of big names, but top to bottom, jazz is not mainstream or really that popular anymore. </p>

<p>You have no idea what you are talking about. Anyone with knowledge about music history would laugh at your claim that it is a popular genre. Jazz preceded the Swing Era, R&B and rock n roll. It is not in any stretch of the imagination mainstream. Sure, there are a few notable muscians, but jazz is not even close to being as popular as it was in the 1920s and 1930s. </p>

<p>Sorry to rant, but I absolutely hate it when people on here act like they know something, when they clearly never studied a given topic. Even briefly. Next time don’t act like you know something, when you clearly have never taken the time to read about a given topic. Your comments end up looking stupid and unsubstantiated.</p>

9

<p>tiff, you’re an idiot. My favorite jazz, Coltrane, Coleman, Davis, etc., is from the 1950’s and 60’s, when rock and roll was getting big. Your claim that as popular music, as in what was played on the radio, jazz was a trend may have SOME merit, but to say that jazz isn’t its own well defined genre, that it’s only the predecessor of rock, is completely absurd. Read more than one book before making such stupid claims. Maybe your ‘program integrated with the rock and roll hall of fame’ is a bit ignorant about JAZZ - a completely different genre?</p>

10

<p>Last time I visited the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame they seemed to be ignorant of just about everything outside of Bob Dylan.</p>

11

<p><em>tosses one thought in</em></p>

<p>I wonder if part of the downturn in the popularity of Jazz as a genre is due to the lack of exposure; in the Bay Area there is <em>1</em> Jazz station that plays really old/out there stuff, and nothing else. From what I’ve seen, there are few if any left in the country, and those tend to play 80s/rock/hick music anyway (KKSF had this obsession with Norah Jones and michael mcdonald) </p>

<p><em>shudder</em> </p>

<p>It makes sense though, you rarely see jazz (and when you do, it tends to fall towards ‘easy listening’ with lyrics). There’s no message to be had, eg rap: 99% of the songs mention going to the club, getting drunk, and having sex. Rock: extreme love or extreme hate, Country: Love, dumped, or their car. XD</p>

<p><em>runs away with his gross generalizations</em></p>

12

<p>Tiff -
Er, I think I made it pretty clear that the popularity of jazz is declining. “Progressively fading in popularity,” I said. </p>

<p>I mean, I know you read a book and everything, but from what you’ve said here your understanding of jazz and American music in general seems simplistic. History isn’t a straight line and the idea that jazz ended in the 1930s is absurd - many would argue that its greatest era came in the 50s and 60s with Miles Davis, Coltrane, Monk, Mingus, etc. etc.</p>

<p>And it’s Jan of Leiden, not Jane of Leidon, thanks.</p>

13

<p>OP:</p>

<p>I feel your pain. But it’s a lot worse over here. Try finding people who are absolutely devoted to classical music (who aren’t artists)…It’s nearly impossible. Every time I meet someone and tell them of my admiration for classical music, they say: “Oh, what instrument do you play?”</p>

<p>And when I tell them I don’t play one, I get this unusual stare, then “Oh…”</p>

14

<p>Some people in this thread need to take a chill pill. Please ask your psychiatrist for one; he will know exactly what you mean. You do have a psychiatrist, right?</p>

<p>Jazz is wonderful. Don’t be one of those people who listen to “Itunes top 100.” Whatever that might be, it sounds sad enough. If you stumble upon some pretty alpine floret growing at the edge of an untodden precipice, will you not enjoy its beauty just because it’s hidden from the common gaze?</p>

15

<p>What do they call rock nowadays? Isn’t emo one of the modern variations? heh.</p>

16

<p>I love jazz. Anyone who’s truly a fan of music likes jazz, in my opinion.</p>

17

<p>I know plenty of people who enjoy jazz.</p>

<p>I myself enjoy jazz whenever I happen to hear it, and from my limited experience, it’s usually best in person (i.e. at a concert or a showing or whatever you call it).</p>

<p>However, because I’ve had a laughably pathetic degree of exposure, I myself cannot call myself somebody who “listens” to jazz.</p>

18

<p>Buddy Rich - [Swingin’ New Big Band #08] West Side Story Medley</p>

19

<p>I used to listen to T-Square and Casiopea a lot. And then there are metal bands that incorporate jazzy elements like Cynic, Atheist, and Diablo Swing Orchestra, which I also enjoy.</p>

20

<p>Jazz is incredibly broad genre… seems like some on here have far too narrow a view.</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>qft, all 3 paragraphs</p>