Jazz is often considered as the most favourable genre of the elite, however, in recent times, with the rise of precarious genres all around the globe, with special preference to the pulsating and highly promising but soon to be decadent EDM genre, Jazz has been given the backseat and has been given the title of a retro genre, which in other words is a formal and polite way of saying ‘Jazz is a thing of the past’. A typical jazz song is characterized by the dominating trumpets and drums section, followed by rhythmic pieces on the piano and finally concluded with a nostalgic voice, which speaks volumes of the plight musicians often go through.
Being a major fan of Jazz music, though not completely learned of the nitty gritties of the genre, I prefer listening to the moving tunes of the Thelonious Monk and the uplifting masterpieces of the Dave Brubeck Quartet, often considering myself as retrograding from the mainstream hits of Zayn Malik, Halsey and Yo Yo Honey Singh (sounds more like an African- Punjabi version of Lil Wayne). However, it would be unusual to say, that I detest mainstream songs, the powerful lyrics of Macklemore and Ryan Lewis and the unusually haunting melodies of George Ezra, fill up the space. Irrespective of the recent backseat this legendary genre is going through, it has produced not only Grammy-Award winning artists, but also soulful tunes and reverberating renditions, which magically come in sync, with any activity one is doing.
In India, EDM has dominated the music fraternity, every other teenager will know about the likes of Axwell Ingrosso, Avicci and Major Lazer,which is likely to happen, keeping in mind the fact that festivals are set up just to dance off to the electronic tunes and beat drops which sound more like the ‘incessant drilling of a machine into a brittle wall’. Festivals are often platforms to showcase crop tops, rather than beat drops, making it more like a pretentious get together of a North Indian family, ‘replete with cacophony and deprived of quality’.
This piece of writing is not targeted towards any genre, it is simply voicing the opinion of a teenager, who wants equal importance to be given to the decadent genre of Jazz. In India, the only time, we hear about Jazz, is in the news, when we see jazz concerts being held by Mr Barack Obama, to assert the presence of this beautiful part of musical history. It’s time we give equal weightage to this genre, before we miss out on good music and our lives are dominated by heavy electronic rythms, that sound less like music and more like the passionate mating of two Transformers.
If anybody has any idea, about upcoming jazz concerts, please send in the details to the Newsletter. Any willing and interested person doing so, would be subject to reverential and sincere respect from my end.
- Siddhant Sharma