HIGHACRES COLLEGIAN
The New Po•ularit Of Jazz
Aid not live apart from the people who
heard their music: Many players had jobs
brought them into the life of the
~ o munity. They lived with their neigh—
played and drank with them; they
- . ire not a class apart, seen only when
- -.orming. During the twenties, too,
?:_-e was relatively little separation
- - , /:::Asen the performer and the listener,
-,, 1).61a117 when compared with the gap
is apparent today in the contempt
icav "name" band leaders and musicians
a!a for the teen-.agers, and moon—struck
(,)der people who idolize them.
Tr. the relations between jazz and commer—
i.,a7_ music in the twenties and the thirties
ran see an interesting examplw of the
:Alteraction betweeb original did imitative
'.ypes of culture. Commercial "jazz" owes
extreme popularity to a simple
vacteristict it combines the features
easily comprehended music with some—
:aing of the vitality of genuine jazz.
Is a medley of light classical, chamber,
:.-a time, and jazz music. Requiring little
2 . ofloentration and evoking no deep emotion—
reaction (except on the part of
terugs, in whose case the reaction
the product at least as much of the
Avertising and publicity work as of the
71 , aic itself), it appeals to a wider
11c4..1.en0e that is not stirred by it but
eepts the music mainly as background
- or dancing, reading, parties, and
..,heatrical acts.
claim that jazz has passed a Golden
• aud is in the period of decline
,iiiianeously exaggerates its popularity
'• L . :Le past and belittles its place in
• ,allsic of the present. Actually ' jazz
• Aever very wide-spreado In a period
• musical taste was varied, however,
rnL -. lot yet forced into certain patterns
the radio, television, and recordings,
was able to live alongside its
).;.'rdecessors and imitators,
1. 4 ,11 mass culture standardized all popular
-.,LA71,„ jazz could be found in many places.
'the vide distribution of radios,
ruma.diugsy and i'Jks boxes
continued
FRIDAY OCTOBER 10 1958
led to the monopolization of the field
by commercial mtsic..—the palatable
simple music in which most people
could find something they liked, si:c,o
there were so many styles and techzu .os
blended in it. Other types of music.-
suffered. Jazz 'Quid be heard ia
places during the thirties. while
commercial music was dinned into tz
ears of radio listenerg and moviegre:
Nhen, in the mid—thirties, commercJ a
music reached another dead end in
standardized and lifeless arrangemenw6
it reached again into the jazz .o rs
and tried to capture the lilt and flee
dam it saw there. This was the birta e
"swing" music, in which the bands led by
the late Glen killer, Benny Goodman ard
Tommy Dorsey excelled. It is notewoby
that all these three most popular swlrlg
band leaders got their early trainiLg
jazz.
The gradual but almost total eliminatoi:
of other kinds of music by thegrowth
of commercial jazz was chiefly a mattor
of indoctrination and custom, not of asy
natural or instinctive traits of the
people who liked it. Since it requires
little concentration by the listener, it
achieved a measure of popularity which
grew as the dispensers and financierB et
entertainment found it profitable, thn):,g ,
radio and the movies, to reach the 10we6' . .,
common cultural denominator*
Our discussion of the notion that jazz
is a child of the twenties ; and its tele»
to commercial music, has revealed that
jazz is a product of the cuThwal impet)ntl
of an earlier era.) For many yearsp 11_
fact, it looked as though jazz could
attract no young musicians, but, dur9 7T
last five years the situation has ine..ci, - ac
Jazz has also made an initial penetra
of the academic world, not (aa might
been expected) through the universitie,
but through the secondary schools,
are apparently much less traditionAwuuldo
If the popularity of jazz continues to
grow, it will be able to compete with
commercial music from the standpoint of
remuneration for the musician s and will
certainly aocordlim more prestige at the
same time,
continued