WHY JAZZ IS NOT POPULAR LIKE POP MUSIC
First, we’ll
see why most people like pop music. ‘Pop’, is ‘popular’ music that appeals to a
broad spectrum of people of all age groups, especially those between eight and
nineteen.
We will also get
to understand why there are so many pop music listeners and so few that allow
themselves to listen to Jazz or Western classical music or Hindustani and
Carnatic classical music.
Most people aren’t
into music. That’s the sad truth. Most people can do without music
during their daily lives. They are nescient to music; it’s of no significance
to them. They do not know, nor do they want to know about music. Music to many
is like aural wallpaper, like elevator music or shopping mall music. The
general listener sort of eavesdrops and overhears a tune which can be listened
to without paying it too much attention.
Those who are
superficially into music, like their music for what they expect music to do for
them: some like music that will make them dance. Others like their music to
bring on nostalgia, or make them happy.
So why is pop popular, and why is other music not popular?
Pop is good songs - Pop music is
usually simple accessible music with words. People
respond well to music that has both melody and lyrics. Catchy melodies are the
hook and lyrics or words make it easy to connect meaning to songs.
Simple rhythms
-- In addition to lyrics, pop music has rhythmically simple and steady
beats, the beat may be fast or slow, and go dum-dum-dum-dum; but then, that’s
what makes listeners feel they’re part of the music.
The simple appeal
of pop music. The strong beat and the lyrics make pop easy to listen to. It
is easy fleeting music. Pop music is not for thinking about, pop listeners
don’t want to intellectualise their music. By and large there are no surprises
in pop, that’s why among the many genres of music, American Country music is
popular, because it ticks all the boxes: good lyrics, simple melodies, simple
rhythms, and simple logical harmonies.
Music videos -
People are also suckers for visual gratification. People love to gape at
music videos. Pop music world-wide, is typically promoted by picturising a song
where a video or a movie visually supports the song - creating visual cues
along with the melody. This visual entertainment adds another mode of
connecting to pop music and lyrics.
To all
generalisations there are exceptions - some pop songs are more complex than
others, they have interesting chord progressions and harmonies, but these songs
are less popular. The more mature music lovers, usually beyond the 13 to 19 age
group that pop is aimed at, appreciate these songs. These songs are also
appreciated by those who are open to listening to other kinds of music.
Since this
piece is about why people listen to pop and not jazz, we will focus on jazz and
not on classical music though we love and listen to classical music too.
What’s with jazz? Jazz is a highly technical art form
that is more complex than simple. Jazz is very often instrumental - there are
no lyrics or words to relate to, only tunes, and that too tunes with harmonic
complexity and quite a bit of dissonance.
Jazz is characterized by improvisation, and an inimitable sound: a swinging rhythm, complex chords, harmonies and chord progressions, pitch deviation (when a musician intentionally leaves the scale but still makes strange but
beautiful music), blue notes (certain notes in the scale that
are flattened. Blue notes are called blue for the feeling they give that touch
our souls),
and dissonant notes (jazz, western classical and even rock music as
well as in Carnatic classical music make use of dissonance, that is, sounds that sort of clash with each other.
In Carnatic music dissonances are called ‘vivadi’' and skilled musicians use these to enhance a raga's charm).
Jazz is
improvisation – To listen to Jazz is also to listen to great
technical prowess by the musician and to revel in the creativity of the
musician while s/he improvises and innovates on the spot. Jazz musicians use a
melody and chord progression of a song as a guide for their improvisation,
creating variations and new interpretations of the music.
In Jazz, each
piece/tune is full of twists and turns, a story with beginning, a middle
and end that travel and take the listener on a journey of exploration and
discovery.
Jazz is sometimes discordant - less
predictable, and it often strays into extreme syncopation, changing time
signatures, syncopated
rhythms (rhythms that accent or emphasize the offbeats) and polyrhythms (simultaneous use of two or more rhythms).
Then there is
vocal jazz, and surprise, surprise, vocal jazz has swing and blue notes, unique tonality and
pitch deviation, dissonant notes, polyrhythms and improvisation too.
Jazz vocalists interpret songs which may be 'jazz
standards'* but, to do so, the jazz vocalist should be accomplished enough to
keep up with the band and impart the feeling of jazz through phrasing and rhythmic subtlety;
through melodic vocal improvisations called scat singing, where the vocalist
imitates an instrumentalist's tone and rhythm. In
vocal jazz it is the way the song is sung that matters, the same song can be
sung in different ways; a jazz singer would invest a song with different subtle
emotions.
Listening to
jazz, both instrumental and vocal, requires some listening and comprehension
skills to enjoy jazz musicians’ aesthetic, their lyrical playing, their rich
musicianship, their creative artistic intent and their profound and emotive
lyricism.
Pop is popular. Jazz
is uncommon and unfamiliar. Before we touch on the analogy of reading
page turners and literary novels and listening to pop music and jazz, we must first
admit the sad truth: Most people don’t read. Many have never a
read a book if it is not work-related, or if it’s not in their academic
curriculum. They do not want to read. They have no desire to read. They are
quite indifferent to reading; reading is not important to them.
The analogy - Pop music is like pulp fiction, potboilers and page
turners. Jazz is like literary novels or literature. Just a small percentage of people read for pleasure and just a small
percentage of people listen to music for the pleasure of listening to music. More
people read pulp fiction like Mills and Boone romances, and Lee Child’s ‘Jack
Reacher’ books, or James Patterson or Danielle Steele novels in preference to
books by literary writers like Amitava Ghosh, or Salman Rushdie, or Zadie Smith
or Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, or Arundhati Roy.
Readers of
literary writing love the profound way in which language is used, and how
words are used for their emotive and descriptive qualities. Literary writing
takes us through many realms of experience that stay with us, feed our souls
and our minds ear, and all this while we relish the aesthetic, the lyrical
writing and the rich and creative artistic intent. Readers of literary novels, plays, and poems - enjoy the pure, unadulterated, sensual
pleasure of reading, and enjoying the craft of the writer. They appreciate well-written
sentences, and the way we are transported to an adventure that unfolds and
enfolds - where we hear with our eyes and see with our ears – where we are
carried away by imagination like it happens while listening to jazz and
classical music.
The difference
between reading potboilers and literary novels is: you can just give
your mind a rest while reading a page turner as one does while listening to
most pop music, but jazz and classical music has to be listened to attentively.
Jazz lovers are attuned
to listening carefully/attentively to music and since one gets involved
with the music, it evokes deep emotions and passions. Listening to jazz needs
time and concentration, and due to this attentiveness to music, hears beauty in
all types of music and is especially taken in/up by jazz with its core value of
breaking musical boundaries and its improvisation, lyrical playing and its rich
and creative artistic intent which stimulates emotions and the intellect as Jazz
can be hot, intense and otherworldly, cool and introspective, and at the same time
jazz can be joyous, light-hearted and amusing.
To a regular listener of pop, jazz is not easy music to listen to. Pop music does not require an investment in time specially to
listen. Since it is easy listening music listeners of pop are not conditioned to
listen to music as the only thing to do, whereas listeners of classical music
and jazz make time to listen to music exclusively. Just as readers love reading
and music lovers appreciate music, it really doesn’t matter whether what one
reads or listens to, whether it is mass culture, popular culture or high
culture.
All music is music
to our ears, and all readers are appreciative of writers for writing pot
boilers or pulp fiction, or, literature and literary fiction, all of us who love
music are grateful to all creators of music for making music. We are glad to
listen to all music – pop, or classical, or jazz.
*Standards are enduring, timeless and well-known tunes among jazz musicians which can be sung and played in a wide variety of styles and tempos. Standards allow musicians to use the melody and chord progression of these songs to provide a framework to fashion variations and new interpretations of the music in their improvisation and put their own unique stamp on the music.