[Dixielandjazz] Dixieland - Future, Past - Who Cares? Just play...

[Bigbuttbnd at aol.com]

Hi, Gang:

This "Will Dixieland ever be popular again?" thread hits pretty close to 
home, for me. IMHO I have to agree with Bill Gunter that Dixieland will never be 
THE popular music of the day again... but then NO type of music that has 
enjoyed mass popularity has 'come back'  to regain its former glory. That's just not 
the way popular trends work... BECAUSE it was popular in a mass way seals its 
fate... every new generation finds something to latch on to that is 
SPECIFICALLY NOT like that of their parents (or grandparents).

It's like asking why Shakespeare is no longer on the New York times 
bestseller list. The works of Shakespeare have quality. They were written by someone 
with unquestionable talent and a mastery of the medium. Yet they are not going 
to beat out Stephen King or Dean Koontz or John Grisham on a daily basis. They 
are not NEW... and in our society (youth-driven marketing) new trumps old any 
day. 

I've stated on this list before that I believe that "Dixieland" (20's jazz) 
was the Rock n' Roll of its day. Louis Armstrong, Paul Whiteman and many others 
sold thousands of records. Record companies did then what they do now... they 
tested the market by recording lots of bands, released lots of recordings and 
made note of what groups sold and what groups just laid there. The ones that 
sold got more promotion (money, marketing) and more attention, at least until 
their sales dropped... and then it was on to the next group. Nothing has 
changed.

In those times the target market for recordings may have been slightly older 
than today. Young people with disposable income. In 1925 that was probably 
kids 18-25. Today that is more like 14-25. The advent of television groups in the 
60's (the Archies, the Monkees, the Partridge Family, etc.) opened up a whole 
new market (pre-teens and teens) for promotional folks and I believe the 
discovery that pre-teens and teens had disposable cash is the key element in 
changing the face of everything having to do with entertainment in America (and 
especially popular music). Today the really BIG trends in popular music are 
driven by very young people. I read recently that the VAST majority of purchasers 
of RAP music are early-middle teen (13-18) white kids.

In the 1930's young people drove the market that brought Benny Goodman, Glenn 
Miller and Tommey Dorsey to popularity. Those young people were a little 
older than the target audience today.. perhaps a little more mature and 
appreciative of musicianship. Perhaps a bit more educated and certainly more wealthy 
(few POOR teenagers could afford to buy records in the 1930's during the height 
of the depression). In the 1930's and 40's the main medium of institutionalized 
mass entertainment was RADIO... which was still listened to in a family 
context. Today, teens have their own CD player or computer, their own headphones, 
and often listen to their music alone and rarely with their parents. Most 
parents don't know what their kids are listening to. So popular music moves farther 
afield with each generational leap and technology innovation.

As the father of 3 teens (14, 16, 18), all musicians, all VERY opinionated, 
all VERY intune to what is POPULAR now and what IS NOT... I can tell you that 
there is not a snowball in hell's chance of Dixieland being popular enough to 
be played on the top stations in any market any time in my lifetime. Popular 
music is all about sex, being cool, sex, being black and being cool, sex, being 
ANYTHING BUT your parents and ... most importantly... sex. As a popular medium 
Dixieland just doesn't have enough sex to match up those requirements.

Where I agree with Steve Barbone is that many people, especially folks 
between 25 and 40, are mature enough to appreciate his group's musicianship and hip 
enough to be charmed by Barbone Street's sex-slanted patter and beads, etc. 
Steve has made a great point that almost any kind of music can be enjoyable when 
presented with entertaining showmanship. Steve knows (and all of us should 
know) that entertainment is the spoonful of sugar that makes the 'medicine' go 
down. Showmanship trumps musicianship every day. You all know it... you've all 
seen less-than-super musicians or singers get away with boring playing or 
missed notes or tuning problems because they know how to sell it. Hopefully, you 
also know that the greatest players in the world, standing on a barren stage 
with a slumped posture and no excitement can't draw a crowd worth having. The 
best of both worlds is the thing to shoot for... great musicianship in an 
exciting, energetic, entertaining package is the best way to go... in that way 
EVERYONE is satisfied: the listener, the observer, even the audience member that 
isn't particularly interested in the style or even in music... all come away 
with something to like.

Take heart... popular music is changing so rapidly that even young people who 
were hip to the scene a week ago are left clueless by the latest new trend 
this week. With the addition of the internet in the mix there is the opportunity 
to DISCOVER something new every day and young people are spending a lot of ti
me searching for something new every day. The good news is that with more and 
more sources the likelihood of one trend dominating all others becomes less 
and less each day. That means that more and more types of music are being heard 
by more and more people worldwide every day... and more and more types of 
music are being discovered and ACCEPTED each day.

Think of it like television... In 1964 (I think) there were only 3 networks 
and 1/3 (or more) of the people with a television got to see the Beatles on the 
Ed Sullivan show. Today I have 500+ channels on my satellite system. I can't 
possibly keep up with what is on at what time. Because there are so many 
possibilities, no one channel can command the attention of such a large group of 
people. A RAP group appearing on Leno has less impact on America than the 
Beatles did from their Sullivan appearance... there are too many people watching too 
many other channels! So individual impact goes down... BUT those 500+ (and 
more to come!) channels need CONTENT. So everything in the vaults will be pulled 
out and shown and as those REPEATS become passe' NEW CONTENT will be 
developed. Heck, we may have a Dixieland channel before it's over!

I guess what I'm saying is that the mass sales will be driven by the ever 
younger kids (pre-teen) who have the money and the authority to spend it. And 
NOBODY really knows what they will buy because HITS cannot be MADE, only 
discovered. That part hasn't changed. Nobody has a crystal ball. No amount of 
marketing money or hype can turn something into a hit. That's why the fundamental way 
of doing business by record companies hasn't changed. They spend massive 
amounts of money on groups and songs that don't get anywhere and pay for it with 
the few hits that come along. The philosophy is to cast a wide net and hope a 
wider net brings in more hits... but the hits happen on their own. And 
increasingly bands and songs are being discovered and being made popular on the 
internet. In 1960 you'd call your local AM station and request a song you heard. They 
tracked those requests (which led to more airplay and more sales) and maybe a 
popular little song in Pittsburgh or Philadelphia might be picked up by a 
larger record company and become a national hit. Today you'll DISCOVER a band 
through its self-produced web site and IM your friends about them.... that will 
create a huge network of "buzz" about this band or song and pretty soon several 
million kids are singing their praises... when you get big enough to appear 
on some record company's radar screen they offer you a contract and maybe 
you're on your way. The record companies, if anything, are SLOW to catch new trends 
compared to the kids... and the kids are getting FASTER every day. We may 
soon reach a point where music like Dixieland will have an impact based on direct 
sales over the internet. Sell 50,000 records to kids from your website and 
maybe you'll show up on some record company's radar!

Dixieland isn't going away... but it also isn't going to stay like it is. As 
kids discover some of this music they are going to change it based on THEIR 
musical experiences and not on OURS. They won't respect the traditions that 
we've come to revere because they won't know about them.... they'll change the 
chords, change the words, change the melody, change the FEEL, play the whole tune 
with 2 chords and a pedal point unchanging bass line... about the only thing 
predictable is that YOU won't like it. It will no longer be YOUR music, but 
theirs. There's a current version of the John Denver song "Country Roads" making 
the rounds... except it has a rap/hip-hop beat and is more chanted than 
sung.. it bears no relationship to country or folk music and lovers of the 
traditional "Country Roads" often squirm upon hearing it. But the artist doesn't 
care... he's come up with something NEW to his fans and they have no tie to the 
traditional version. As far as they know, it's new!

I followed the advice of Tom Wiggins (before he gave it) and opened my own 
club several years ago, forming a house band with a Dixieland nucleus. We found 
out rather quickly that the 'traditional' presentation did not work for us. We 
expanded our tune list to include all kinds of music but kept the Dixieland 
instrumenation. We played all kinds of music WELL, even when it was a musical 
joke. I learned a long time ago (from observing the Spike Jones recordings) 
that all kinds of music played WELL is better than any music played badly. So we 
learned to play what the PUBLIC wanted to hear. Some of our repertoire 
included traditional Dixieland tunes. Some was traditional country or Western Swing 
played in a dixie style. Some of it was 50's tunes played on a banjo and tuba 
(believe it or not), some of it was spy music or tv themes or dance favorites 
(with Dixie instrumentation!) but our only requirement was that it be fun and 
well played, that it be entertaining and funny when appropriate. Our time spent 
in that pursuit remains among our favorite playing experiences even when 
compared to more lofty experiences in more legitimate musical circumstances. We lea
rned, as Kash has often written, that good music, played well to appreciative 
audiences is time well spent.

Don't fret the future of Dixieland (or any music)... it's been in constant 
change since its inception... the only thing to worry about is that we won't be 
willing or able to continue to change ourselves with it.

Respectfully submitted.
Rocky Ball
banjo - Atlanta