POP IS LIKE PULP FICTION. JAZZ IS LIKE LITERATURE

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.