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A Kid's View On Jazz

By AAJ Staff
March 26, 2005
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Not a lot of kids my age (13) like jazz, or have even heard it before, and I believe it's because the exposure of jazz to children is almost at a point of no exposure. It's almost as if you said to someone "How do you like jazz?" and that someone responded "What's jazz?" The younger generations would be able to appreciate and like jazz if they heard it. Jazz is a great thing. The way it can swing just relaxes me in a way that's unexplainable.

Now, there is also the current "uprising" in death metal (Slayer, Psyopus, Rammstein) and other various musical styles, where they are becoming overwhelmingly popular. Jazz, unfortunately, has a seemingly steady decline into an almost underground music. The kids of my era don't recognize jazz as a great, or even good, style of music. They don't listen to it at all, which is a shame, because jazz is truly an excellent work. I can only emphasize the importance of jazz in the world. Without jazz the culture of the world would be, in my eyes, unstable. Jazz brings a certain diversity to the world that no other genre of music could. Jazz needs to be in the world, and I believe it could be immensely popular if people of all ages listened to it. I could only imagine a place without jazz, and I don't like it.

Jazz does sometimes feel a little tedious to me because hearing the same album more than twice starts to sound boring to me. But, unlike most death metal, each composition of anyone's jazz piece is a work of art, and changes rhythmically too. The changes in key and rhythm are what, in my opinion keep jazz alive, along with the greats like Bird. Not to forget stars like Dave Douglas, and players like Fred Hersch. To sum up this article, a kid's view on jazz is that jazz is great, and needs to stay great, or the cultural substance that music brings upon the world would be unbalanced.

Discuss Jazz And Young People on the AAJ Bulletin Board.

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