[Dixielandjazz] Why American Don't like Jazz

[Steve Barbone]

This paper, by a Japanese was updated in 2006. The earlier version was on
the DJML several years ago.

What Mr. Suematsu ignores (among other things) is the current popularity of
Rock & Roll and Duke Ellington's view circa 1962 that: " Rock n Roll is the
most raucous form of jazz, beyond a doubt; it maintains a link with the folk
origins, and I believe that no other form of jazz has ever been accepted so
enthusiastically by so many."

Duke who? What did he know about American music? :-) VBG.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone

Why Americans Don't Like Jazz

By Dyske Suematsu
The current market share of Jazz in America is mere 3 percent. That includes
all the great ones like John Coltrane and the terrible ones like Kenny G
(OK, this is just my own opinion). There are many organizations and
individuals like Wynton Marsalis who are tirelessly trying to revive the
genre, but it does not seem to be working. Why is this? Is there some sort
of bad chemistry between the American culture and Jazz? As ironic as it may
be, I happen to believe so.

One day, I was talking to my wife about the TV commercial for eBay where a
chubby lady sings and dances to an appropriated version of ³My Way² by Frank
Sinatra. The lyrics were entirely re-written, and ³my way² was transformed
into ³eBay². I told her that they did a good job in adapting the original
song. Then she said: ³Ah, that¹s why I like it so much!² She actually did
not realize that it was adapted from Sinatra¹s song.

My wife and I have always known how differently we listen to music. I tend
to entirely ignore lyrics, while she tends to entirely ignore music. We are
the two opposite ends of the spectrum in this sense, and it appears that my
wife¹s side is more common. Many of my friends think that I have a peculiar,
or plain bad, taste for music. Whenever I say I like this song or that song,
they look at me like I am crazy. Then they go on to explain why it is bad,
and I realize that they are referring to the lyrics, not to the music. I
then pay attention to the lyrics for the first time, and realize that they
are right. The opposite happens often too where many of my friends love a
particular song, and I can¹t understand what¹s good about it until I pay
attention to the lyrics.

The eBay example is an extreme case where my wife could not recognize the
original once the lyrics were swapped. To her, if you change the lyrics, it
is an entirely different song. It is the other way around for me; in most
cases, I would not notice any change in the lyrics. The eBay song was an
exception; I only noticed it because it is a famous song used for a TV
commercial.

I believe my wife¹s way of listening to music is typically American, and my
way of listening to music, typically Japanese. If you don¹t speak English,
any songs written in English are instrumental music. Singers turn into just
another musical instrument. These days, no matter where you live, you cannot
get away from the dominance of the American music. This means that most
non-English speakers grow up listening to a lot of instrumental music. In
Japan, I would say, it constitutes about half of what people listen to. When
they are listening to Madonna, Michael Jackson, or Britney Spears, they have
very little understanding of what their songs are about. In this sense,
their ears are trained to listen to and enjoy instrumental music, which
explains why Jazz is still so popular in Japan.

To be able to enjoy instrumental music, you must be able to appreciate
abstract art, and that requires a certain amount of effort. Just mindlessly
drinking wine, for instance, would not make you a wine connoisseur.
Mindlessly looking at colors (which we all do every day) would not make you
a color expert either. Great art demands much more from the audience than
the popular art does.

In this sense, the American ears are getting lazier and lazier. It wasn¹t so
long ago that most people knew how to play a musical instrument or two. Now
the vast majority of Americans couldn¹t tell the difference between a
saxophone and a trumpet. Thanks partially to music videos, music is now a
form of visual art. The American culture is so visually dominant that a
piece of music without visuals cannot command full attention of the
audience. For Americans, music is a background element, a mere side dish to
be served with the main course. If they are forced to listen to a piece of
instrumental music without any visuals, they don¹t know what to do with
their eyes, much like the way a nervous speaker standing in front of a large
audience struggles to figure out what to do with his hands. Eventually
something visual that has nothing to do with the music grabs their attention
and the music is push to the background.

If you have written your own music, you have probably experienced this
before: You play it for your friends to get their opinions. For about 10
seconds, everyone is silent. After 20 seconds, their eyes start to wander
around. After 30 seconds, someone says something, which triggers everyone
else to speak up. After 40 seconds, no one is actually listening to your
music. I grew up sitting in front of the stereo with my father, closing our
eyes, listening only to what came out of the speakers. This would go on for
an hour or two as if we were watching a movie. It wasn¹t just me; many of my
friends did the same. Who does that anymore? In today¹s living rooms,
stereos are treated as accessories to television sets.

Visual dominancy isn¹t the only problem. The bigger problem is the dominance
of our thought. Most Americans do not know what to do with abstraction in
general. To be able to fully appreciate abstraction, you must be able to
turn off your thought, or at least be able to put your thought into the
background. This is not as easy as it might seem. In modern art museums,
most people¹s minds are dominated by thoughts like: ³Even I could do this.²
Or, ³Why is this in a museum?² Or, ³This looks like my bed sheet.² Etc..
They are unable to let the abstraction affect their emotions directly; their
experience must be filtered through interpretations. In a way, this is a
defense mechanism. It is a way to deal with fears like, ³If I admit that I
don¹t understand this, I¹ll look unsophisticated.² This type of fear fills
their minds with noise, and they become unable to see, hear, or taste.

This is why songs with lyrics in your own language and paintings with
recognizable objects are easier for most people to appreciate. They give
their minds something to do. It is like holding a pen in your hand when you
are speaking in front of a large audience; you become less nervous because
your hands have something to do.

Aesthetically, the paintings of Mark Rothko and those of Monet are quite
similar, but the former is utterly unacceptable for many people even though
they consider the latter to be a master. The difference is that in Monet¹s
paintings, you can still see things represented in them: rivers, trees,
mountains, houses, and so forth. The audience interprets these objects, and
projects their own beautiful memories onto the paintings, which makes the
whole process much easier. In Mark Rothko¹s paintings, there is nothing they
can mentally grab on to. What you see is what you get; there is nothing to
interpret. So, the audience is left without a pen to hold on to.

The same happens to instrumental music. If there are no lyrics, that is, if
there is nothing for the minds to interpret, projecting of any emotional
values becomes rather difficult. As soon as the lyrics speak of love, sex,
racism, evil corporations, loneliness, cops, etc., all sorts of emotions
swell up. Jazz to most people is like a color on a wall; unless you hung
something on it, they don¹t even notice it.

This rather unfortunate trend in the American culture seems to be
irreversible. The popularity of Rap music seems to be a clear sign of this
trend. I can appreciate Rap music for what it is, and I see nothing wrong
with it, but it does not promote the full development of musical ears. If
the song has any musical substance, it can be played on a piano alone
(without a singer or any other instruments), and we would still enjoy it.
The lack of musical substance becomes clearly visible if you would take many
of today¹s popular songs, and play them on a piano alone. Many of them would
utilize hardly more than a few keys. Perhaps this trend would promote the
appreciation of poetry, but it certainly would not promote the appreciation
of music as an abstract form of art.

If we were to reverse this trend, we would need to make a conscious effort
in promoting the abstract aspect of music. For instance, play more
instrumental music in schools or teach how to play an instrument instead of
how to sing. We could go as far as to teach kids in school instrumental
music only, because their musical exposure outside of school would be
dominated by non-instrumental music anyway. It would be a good way to
balance things out.

This problem extends far beyond the American disinterest for Jazz; it is a
problem for music in general. The dominance of words and visuals in the
American culture has lead people to believe that listening to Rap or
watching music videos is the full extent of what music has to offer. If this
goes on, they¹ll be missing a huge chunk of what life has to offer.