[Dixielandjazz] Website Justification

[TCASHWIGG at aol.com]

In furtherance of the subject of key words,

The argument for more keywords is for cross reference purposes, because all 
folks do not know what OKOM means or encompasses, and many of them also do not 
know the difference in the many styles of Jazz.  Some folks particularly in 
Europe and other parts of the world consider Blues, Gospel, R&B, Funk, Afro 
Cuban, and Latin music of all styles to be JAZZ.

Therefore to reach the circumference of the marketplace we need to send them 
in the right direction, since we have for years continued to redefine what 
Jazz is or what we want it to be.  We have confused our marketplace beyond 
recognition.

There are generations of kids out there today that don't even know who the 
Beatles were much less Wild Bill Davidson or Louis Armstrong, or Sidney Bechet 
and others that we hold in such high esteem.

There is a whole world of non musical minded folks out there who have no clue 
what to look for or where to look for the specific style of Jazz that they 
like, many of them never heard of more than one style, and when they were 
exposed to that style they did not like it so they stereotyped all Jazz as that.   

This is the primary reason that we now have what they are calling SMOOTH 
JAZZ, they are making it simple and mundane to appeal to the non musical folks 
listening to the radio in the car and at work.  Most of them don't even know what 
Smooth Jazz is, it is just the new marketing buzz word that the industry is 
spouting on about, and pushing a lot of mediocre artists into the spotlight 
behind the name.  I might add that very few of them are making any real money 
even though they hear their CDs on the radio all day long over and over.  They do 
fairly well at free concerts but most of them can't sell enough tickets to a 
live concert to pay for getting there.  They are playing a lot of shopping 
mall gigs paid for by the Mall advertising dollars who are buying the radio 
station air time, and the Radio stations are conning the artists into playing the 
concerts in return for playing their CDs on the radio station.

Therefore the only folks making any real money is the radio station, a hot 
smooth jazz artist is one who is selling 500 copies a week of his CD in retail 
stores.  Most of them if they have it together for merchandising sell more at 
their live shows in the Mall than the retail record store does, but they are a 
bit greedy too, they are asking $20.00 a CD which is ridiculous in today's 
glutted CD market.

Cheers,

Tom Wiggins