Why Listen to Jazz?A Vast Assortment of Reasons
1. It's the music of your grandparents. Throw a Benny Goodman Big Band CD on the sound system when Grandpa is around and watch his face brighten up. He may show energy that you didn't know he had anymore. In fact, don't be surprised if you walk in on him cutting the rug (aka dancing) with Grandma. Benny Goodman's group and the rest of the big bands was the *NSYNC's, Eminem's, and Limp Bizkit's of your grandpa's day, so to speak.
2. Jazz never goes out of style. Why do we still listen to Louis Armstrong almost 100 years after his birth? Because the music has a classic quality to it that's always fresh. If ANYBODY on the Top Ten list
right now is still selling lots of CD's 100 years after their birth, they definitely deserve it. To give you an idea, Christina Aguilera would still have to be selling CD's in the 2080's to match what Armstrong has done.
3. Jazz is AMERICA's music. Many people who don't know better call rock America's music. However, we wouldn't have rock if it weren't for jazz. The US rock scene has been periodically taken over by British bands, such as the Beatles. However, there are no truly great jazz artists who were born outside North America (Meaning Canada, the US, Mexico, and the Caribbean). Louis Armstrong claimed that he was born on the Fourth of July. While it was later found that he really wasn't born on Independence Day, many people still honor him on the Fourth because his music truly defines America.
4. Girls like guys who listen to jazz. First, it's one of those traits that women love, like being able to cook a gourmet meal. Second, it gives guys a sense of sophistication when they can talk intelligently about interesting subjects like jazz. Trust me.
5. Look at the Billboard Top 10. Look in your CD pouch. I don't care if the music on the charts or the music you listen to is pop, alternative, rock, techno, country, R&B, rap, ska, reggae or anything else. IF IT STARTED IN THE STATES, JAZZ HAD A DIRECT INFLUENCE ON IT. I challenge you to find me a CD you own that ISN'T influenced by jazz. Make a sample of it and send it to my e-mail.
6. Jazz is the best music to listen to when you're out on a date, especially if it's a slow song. And if the song you're listening to is being played by Miles Davis, the master of slow jazz, well... Just try and keep your hands to yourself, OK?
7. Guys like girls who listen to jazz. It gives off a sense of sophistication just like it does for guys, but there is also something deeper about it, a mysterious, alluring element. Trust me.
8. Jazz is becoming the music of hip, in crowd, cutting edge young adults. How do I know this? Because Abercrombie and Fitch says it is, and A&F is cutting edge, in, and hip. In the fall 2000 issue of A&F Quarterly, there are articles about Harlem and the Beat Generation. And what did those people listen to? Jazz! (Modern jazz for the beats, hot and Dixieland for the folks in Harlem.) . Notice that the people are in a jazz club in one scene!
9. Jazz can express so many different feelings. You have the romantic, steamy feel of ballads, the groove of cool jazz, the joy and excitement of swing, the anger and confusion of bop, and the near-rave like energy of Latin jazz.
10. Much of jazz is very danceable. Swing, of course, is the standard, for slow dancing or fast. But listen to a good Latin tune, and you can see much the same scene you see at a high school dance in your mind's eye.