If Kenny G is so bad, then why do so many people like him?

[Peterdubya]

Well, they do....

[relyles]

His music appeals to the lowest common denominator in the average music listener that does not necessarily feel the need to be challenged by music and instead simply want something more or less soothing while at the same time trying to appear like they are listening to music more hip than the everyday popular music?

[Gary Sisco]

But it is everyday popular music.

[Sergio Zamora]

Originally Posted by relyles

...while at the same time trying to appear like they are listening to music more hip than the everyday popular music?

I don't disagree, but I'm scared to imagine the kind of person who thinks Kenny G's music is hip.

[sonic1]

People have shitty taste.

A glance at the top selling albums is all one needs to prove that.

[Gary Sisco]

There's an enormous part of the population that doesn't want to admit it listens to E-Z listening music, like their grandparents used ta.

[hornplayer]

If Kenny G is so bad, then why do so many people like him?



Well, they do....

They're deaf? or, at least tone-deaf?

[larrycohen]

[Gary Sisco]

Shit. If he'd left off the "H" he could have said they'd left out all the sharps and flats.

[GoodSpeak]

Not that it matters...but why is this in Politics forum?

[graypencil]

Somebody ( either H.L. Mencken or possibly
George Abbot ) once said"

" No one has ever lost money by under estimating the publics lack of taste "

And Oscar Levant once said:

" Things that smell ..sell "

[Squaredancecalling Steve]

widely atttributed to Mencken, the exact quote according to Bartelby's being:

No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people.


(That last phrase is given as 'general public' and 'American public' from other sources.)

[JamesH]

I don't get Kenny G's popularity because it doesn't seem to be in the vein of any other American popular music. No soul, no rock, no blues, no nothing.

I agree with another poster....liking KG is a feeble attempt to cultivate a sense of class into the life of a person who doesn't appreciate music with feeling or intelligence, i.e. elevator music.

[Sergio Zamora]

For those of you who remember the long-departed JCS, you might remember that aside from the regular jazz forum it had a smooth jazz forum. One of the things I remember from lurking there was that the die-hard smooth jazz fans actually didn't like Kenny G all that much. They were much more enthused about Spyro Gyra and Boney James, etc That was like 7 or 8 years ago, so maybe things have changed. Which makes me wonder if the die-hard smoothies weren't fans, who was?

[Sand]

From Pat M's comments on KG:

- But when Kenny G decided that it was appropriate for him to defile the music of the man who is probably the greatest jazz musician that has ever lived by spewing his lame-ass, jive, pseudo bluesy, out-of-tune, noodling, wimped out, f****d up playing all over one of the great Louis's tracks (even one of his lesser ones), he did something that I would not have imagined possible.


---


You have to acknowledge that someone who plays something that can't be imagined has imagination beyond belief, that this someone is able to hear what have not been heard before. Isn't this what all creative jazz musicians strive for?

[John P. Cooper]

Originally Posted by JamesH

I don't get Kenny G's popularity because it doesn't seem to be in the vein of any other American popular music. No soul, no rock, no blues, no nothing.

I agree with another poster....liking KG is a feeble attempt to cultivate a sense of class into the life of a person who doesn't appreciate music with feeling or intelligence, i.e. elevator music.

I dunno......from what I can tell, the people who like Kenny G. just seem to like 'pleasant sounds' and looped-like music that plays on and on. They aslo seem to be the people that 'love all types of music', but to whom music does not play a big part in their lives.

I like all types of spices, but I am not on the Spice Forum....(or channel).

[Hudson Boy]

As a frequent visitor to the Jazz department of J&R Music in NYC, I often hear customers ask the sales people, "Where are the Kenny G CD's?" They are politely directed to the "Pop" department.

[John P. Cooper]

Originally Posted by Hudson Boy

As a frequent visitor to the Jazz department of J&R Music in NYC, I often hear customers ask the sales people, "Where are the Kenny G CD's?"

Please profile the askers. Age, race, gender, economic condition, social strata, seeming intellectual level, etc. Feel free to broadbrush in a deep stereotypical manner. I have never seen or heard anyone ask for a Kenny G. CD, so I am curious to see who these folks are.

[Squaredancecalling Steve]

Originally Posted by John P. Cooper

Please profile the askers. Age, race, gender, economic condition, social strata, seeming intellectual level, etc..... I am curious to see who these folks are.

[Gary Sisco]

That's pretty close. ;-)

I've probably told this one before but once we took Bronwyn's mom out to a red-sauce place (her choice) for her birthday dinner and they were playing that godawful Borelick Gores Armstrong CD on the stereo. Finally it ended. Brief sigh of relief. Wrong. They had the machine on repeat mode. It ... just .. kept .... on .... playing. I finally had to complain. No dice. The boss liked it. On and on and on and on ....

And people wonder about "random" violence....

[Henry Mars]

Kenny G is popular because there are a lot of smart marketing people. The same people are able to sell horse shit. They just have to convince you that it is great shit because of the designer label that they put on the bag.

The only reason that I can think of to get a KennyG cd is for getting a fast piece of tail from someone who gets turned on by him.

[burning dog]

Does anyone have to really like KG for his stuff to sell in huge numbers?

If people are looking for background, easy listening music that has a fairly contemporary vibe Kenny G is probably the only name they know.

[Gordon B]

Originally Posted by GoodSpeak

Not that it matters...but why is this in Politics forum?

It follows from the Bill O'Reilly thread.

[GoodSpeak]

Makes sense.

Tanx.

[Lenny D.Guitarist]

The last two holdouts to becoming Kenny G converts... the inimitable Pat Metheny and the ridiculous moi.

[phlppo]

Kenny Werner in an interview in Jazz Improv in Spring 2005 had a Kenny G quote I found kind of interesting:

"I think trying to figure out what people like and playing to that is a pitfall. For example, when Kenny G came out, there were a number of sax players that went totally against what they believed in and tried to sound like him. It wasn't really them. Not one of them was successful. The key to Kenny G's success is that he loves that music. So I would say be true to yourself."

Now I admit I would have guessed Kenny G was more in love with the success of his music than the music itself, but what do I know? As a guy who just likes listening to music, my perception that the artist loves his work, and somehow communicates that love to the listener encourages me to become a fan- Cannonball Adderley, Chico Hamilton, Dennis Gonzalez and Kenney Werner are a few examples of musicians whose contagious love of their work affects me this way.

Elsewher in that interview is another Kenny Werner quote which even a non-musician like me should probably pay more attention to:

"The pitfalls of having a big ego may not be what you might normally think. A big ego is not a big problem if you have a big career. A big ego is a problem if you don't have a big career- which 99 percent of us don't."

[Gary Sisco]

An "artist" can love his work and his work can still suck.

There is no contradiction there.

[Pete C]

Before Kenny G came along this may have been the most popular instrumental album of all time, so why be surprised?



Paul Mauriat's "Love is Blue" was very big too.

This is the tradition Kenny G carries on, not jazz.

[Dr Dave]

Kenny G, the saxophonist jazz lovers love to hate! And he laughs all the way to the bank! Why, he's practically the Ann Coulter of jazz!