Jazzism

[mke]

What would be the tenets of jazz's equivalent to rockism?

Kelefa Sanneh's description is concise and useful:

A rockist isn't just someone who loves rock 'n' roll, who goes on and on about Bruce Springsteen, who champions ragged-voiced singer-songwriters no one has ever heard of. A rockist is someone who reduces rock 'n' roll to a caricature, then uses that caricature as a weapon. Rockism means idolizing the authentic old legend (or underground hero) while mocking the latest pop star; lionizing punk while barely tolerating disco; loving the live show and hating the music video; extolling the growling performer while hating the lip-syncher.

Over the past decades, these tendencies have congealed into an ugly sort of common sense. Rock bands record classic albums, while pop stars create "guilty pleasure" singles. It's supposed to be self-evident: U2's entire oeuvre deserves respectful consideration, while a spookily seductive song by an R&B singer named Tweet can only be, in the smug words of a recent VH1 special, "awesomely bad."

Like rock 'n' roll itself, rockism is full of contradictions: it could mean loving the Strokes (a scruffy guitar band!) or hating them (image-conscious poseurs!) or ignoring them entirely (since everyone knows that music isn't as good as it used to be). But it almost certainly means disdaining not just Ms. Simpson but also Christina Aguilera and Usher and most of the rest of them, grousing about a pop landscape dominated by big-budget spectacles and high-concept photo shoots, reminiscing about a time when the charts were packed with people who had something to say, and meant it, even if that time never actually existed. If this sounds like you, then take a long look in the mirror: you might be a rockist.

A lot of it is directly transferable to a jazzist. Here are a few I can think of and which regularly appear on Jazz Corner:

- seriousness, profundity, test of timeness
- no pop, please, unless it's from 1932
- acoustic = the truth, electronic = evil (unless it's a clean-toned guitar)
- the sky is falling
- the album is the message
- pretty girls or boys are a threat to sacrosanct seriousness
- the masses aren't smart enough to get music as demanding as jazz
- don't sell out
...

Originally Posted by mke

What would be the tenets of jazz's equivalent to rockism?

Kelefa Sanneh's description is concise and useful:



A lot of it is directly transferable to a jazzist. Here are a few I can think of and which regularly appear on Jazz Corner:

- seriousness, profundity, test of timeness
- no pop, please, unless it's from 1932
- acoustic = the truth, electronic = evil (unless it's a clean-toned guitar)
- the sky is falling
- the album is the message
- pretty girls or boys are a threat to sacrosanct seriousness
- the masses aren't smart enough to get music as demanding as jazz
- don't sell out
...

That's silly, and overly-stated/exaggerated, willy. There's some truth to 'acoustic =ing truth', though.

[Tom Storer]

Jazzist 1: Reveres free-jazz musicians of any age, no matter how inept or predictable, for having "extended technique" and "pushing the envelope," but sneers at all swing or bebop players under the age of 50, no matter how talented or fresh, for lacking creativity.

Jazzist 2: Elevates any and all humdrum beboppers to the rank of genius because "they can swing" and "never miss the changes," but dismisses any player who strays from bebop orthodoxy as a poseur and an incompetent seeking to pull the wool over the eyes of the gullible.

[mke]

Originally Posted by jazzbluescat

That's silly, and overly-stated/exaggerated

Of course, but I could cite recent examples of all of them.

"pretty girls or boys are a threat to sacrosanct seriousness"
Larry Nagel: "She's stunningly beautiful, too, which will help her career out for all the wrong reasons"

"no pop, please, unless it's from 1932"
The cut-off date isn't serious, but:
Gentle Giant: "I believe that whatever floats one's boat is cool as long as it's thoughtfully considered and one is not just mindlessly sucking the tit of popular culture"

"acoustic = the truth"
From the same post: "It doesn’t seem like the song is dependent on the electronic touches, so that’s a good thing; it can stand on its own (and be performed effectively) as an acoustic composition"

And these are just from the last couple days, without looking particularly hard. Do I even need specific examples for the others?

Originally Posted by mke

Of course, but I could cite recent examples of all of them.

"pretty girls or boys are a threat to sacrosanct seriousness"
Larry Nagel: "She's stunningly beautiful, too, which will help her career out for all the wrong reasons"

"no pop, please, unless it's from 1932"
The cut-off date isn't serious, but:
Gentle Giant: "I believe that whatever floats one's boat is cool as long as it's thoughtfully considered and one is not just mindlessly sucking the tit of popular culture"

"acoustic = the truth"
From the same post: "It doesn’t seem like the song is dependent on the electronic touches, so that’s a good thing; it can stand on its own (and be performed effectively) as an acoustic composition"

And these are just from the last couple days, without looking particularly hard. Do I even need specific examples for the others?

Maybe it's just too early in the morning, but I don't see a whole lot of parallel between the above posts and rockism.

[mke]

Wait a few hours and try again.

[Chris D]

What irks me, going back to the whole "rockist" debate (the bggst cliche in pop critical "thought" these days) is the barely not spoken indictment of "rockists" as untried-but-most-likely-guilty "racists." Tell it to Little Richard.

[picsou]

Jazzist = Jaga ou la chasse au jazz...

[mke]

Originally Posted by Chris D

What irks me, going back to the whole "rockist" debate (the bggst cliche in pop critical "thought" these days) is the barely not spoken indictment of "rockists" as untried-but-most-likely-guilty "racists." Tell it to Little Richard.

Yes, it got a bit out of hand in the Stephin Merritt kerfuffle, despite Merritt's rather cogent explanations of his own position ("I'm not interested in rhythm and syncopation," it can't get much clearer than that). I'm certainly not trying to import that aspect here.

And while rockism is a rapidly-aging hat elsewhere, similar prejudices have barely been examined over here, which is why I started the thread.

[Tom Storer]

Wow, am I out of the loop. This thread is the first time I've ever heard of "rockism." I'll have to start googling. Or maybe not.

[mke]

The link in the first post has a fair amount of info and further reading.

[mke]

Just to aid Tom in his understanding of rockism:

Apart from the fact that if you don't instantly get it you never will, possibly because you've got better things to worry about, it's got something to do with a) the difference between Springsteen and Beefheart, albums and singles, intelligence and stupidity, glitter and denim, and shaky notions of authenticity and artificiality; b) being able to listen to Nick Drake and Christina Aguilera with the same levels of intensity; c) how rock groups hold their guitars and what they do with their legs as they hold their guitars; d) Q magazine, which turned hardcore rockist values into a glossy magazine; e) the fact that Franz Ferdinand are achingly nostalgic for anti-rockism but are themselves intrinsically rockist.

[Derek Taylor]

Who was it that once said: "-isms are only good for creating schisms."?