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In Reply to: RE: Where is the jazz audience? posted by plantsman on March 21, 2011 at 05:34:54
"Is this simply an issue of lack of exposure?"
Exactly.......
The masses are dealt a constant stream of Kanye West, the Black Eyed Peas, and Linkin' Park.......... They've never heard of Pat Metheny or Brad Mehldau like they've never heard of Beethoven or Liszt..........
YouTube has helped to a degree, but people still need to be made aware that there's music beyond the realm of modern pop and American Idol. But since the mainstream media would rather have mind control over the masses, alternative entertainment to this audience is and will continue to be a pipe dream.
Follow Ups:
Interesting article in the LA Times on arts attendance. It focuses on a pair of studies, one of which links decline in attendance at arts events (of all kinds, not just jazz) to the defunding of arts programs in schools that began around 1972. The other suggests that the dearth of younger people at arts events is a product of there being fewer younger people now relative to the total population and that the real problem is the lack of arts "omnivores" who attend all sorts of events and who used to account for some 60% of ticket sales.
All pretty interesting, as are some of the further observations about how race and income play into this. But none of it addresses what I think is the fundamental phenomenon: basically, people are spending a lot of time online, playing computer games and visiting social media, and watching their hi-def big screens, and they're not spending as much time learning to play instruments, listening to sound-only recordings, or going out to hear live music.
I think a lot of analysis misses for the forest for the trees here. People look at jazz clubs closing down and they say, "what's wrong with jazz?" Or they look at orchestras going broke and they say "why is classical music declining?" If you step back far enough to look at the big picture, you realize that a lot of things, from television viewership to visits to our national parks, are way down over the last 10-15 years. To me, it seems obvious what's changed: people are living their lives online, spending hours every day in front of flickering screens, and there are quite a few things they used to do that they aren't doing as much anymore.
All of this hits jazz especially hard, partly the jazz economy (ha! that phrase always make me laugh) was so small to begin with that once you decline by a few percentage points, you're left with practically nothing, but also because the soul of jazz is live performance. More than any other genre, jazz needs to be played and heard live.
But, as Yogi said, if the people won't come, you can't stop 'em.`
I remember this like it was yesterday....... Sometime in the late 1960s, network TV used to air both jazz and symphony concerts in prime time....... Then suddenly, for seemingly no reason, the programs stopped, and stopped completely. As a young child at the time, I couldn't understand why my favorite music shows were taken away.........
Something happened in the late 1960s with network television, and IMO, music, in all facets and genres, declined since that time. Classical, jazz, and even rock.
... and a reflection of what little value society places on music.
I think until about the mid '70s, there was a sense that the arts had some importance in our culture. Up to that time, pretty much every school had a music program, as well as programs in theater and visual arts. In fact, some of the poorest schools had some of the best programs. But beginning in the late '70s, what we might call the "taxpayers revolt" started, and the defunding of schools began, and the arts were immediately deemed as something that could be cut to save money. So music went from being something that every educated person would know something about to ... I dunno, a distraction from "important stuff" like math and business and a luxury to be indulged in by those with the private funds and the time.
TV reflects this. There was a time when major networks thought they had a responsibility to broadcast weekly performances by Toscanini, Bernstein, etc. These days, we're lucky if we can get an orchestra concert two or three times a year on PBS.
I believe that network television does not reflect societal tastes, it *dictates* societal tastes.People have been conditioned to follow the crowd, and too often, the network media *defines* that crowd. In the vision of its executives. Creating an illusion of "popularity", *before* the product actually gets popular. (The Grammy Awards has become a prime example of this. The music used in ads during nationally-televised events is another.)
If I were King, I’d break up the alphabet and cable networks, and have the local networks fend for themselves. Any national news and events should be gathered by these local networks on their own volition. And since local networks cannot dictate what the public likes (unless there is mass collusion), it will in time start reflecting public sentiment again.
And believe me, if some jazz or classical concerts were present on accessible TV, and people in good numbers get a chance to access it, I really think this type of music could once again gain popularity on its own merit. (The problem is with the current media, such exposure would kill shows like American Idol. And maybe even diminish some of its prefabricated "stars".)
Edits: 03/23/11
Here is the long explanation:
http://www.amazon.com/Death-Grown-Up-Americas-Development-Civilization/dp/0312340486
The short version is that the general American public stopped growing up about 50 years ago.
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