The Devil's Music: 1920s Jazz
Today when we consider jazz, we see a classic American art form. In its early years jazz was considered barbaric and immoral by diverse segments of the American public. Will future generations regard rap and other controversial contemporary musical genres -- heavy metal or shock rock or reggae -- as true art forms?
Jazz and Gangsta Rap
I was deeply offended by the attempt to compare jazz of the 20s with today's gangsta rap. Near the end of the program, one of the narrators had the audacity to say that early jazz musicians and gangsta rappers "both come from working class backgrouunds." That is garbage. Miles Davis's father was a dentist. Duke Ellington came from an upstanding family. What galls me is the attempt to equate the vilification of early jazz to the profound disgust many people have with sexist, racist, sensationalist non-music. It takes no talent at all to scream invectives against people and the system with an undercurrent of boring and repetitive dance beats. The talent of fine musicians like Louis Armstrong, Ellington and others cannot, and should not be mentioned in the same breath (much less the same program) with the foolishness that markets well to youngsters trying to upset their parents and temporarily rebel against the norm. The music program was a profound disappointment, primarily because the program completely ignored the blues parentage of all jazz. It seems the producers and writers got terribly confused with trying to present how early jazz was feared by whites and thus condemned, and then flakily comparing that racist outrage with today's concerns about the violence and misogyny inherent in gangsta rap. PBS can do better!
I assume Ms. Douglas is chosen as an expert. I think it fitting she is interviewed in front of empty shelves. Where has she gotten the "information" she is dispensing. I just heard her say that European composers such as Ravel came to New York to hear jazz, and considered it a serious "classical" music, more interesting than anything current "classical" music in Europe had to offer at that time (nevermind that it was actually one of the more INTERETSING if not the most EXCITING and INTERESTING time in the history of Western Classical Music). What a fabrication her statement is! Completely false and imagined. Ask her for a single shred of evidence for the assertion. It goes along well with the tenor of the program in general, however. It reflects the fashionable view at any rate. Congratulations. Daniel d'Quincy daniel@wholarts.com
"sensationalist non-music" "It takes no talent at all" "boring and repetitive dance beats" "foolishness that markets well to youngsters trying to upset their parents and temporarily rebel against the norm." Wow. If you had asked me, after having watched "Culture Shock", where I might have heard such phrases, I would have immediately replied that it must have been what respectable society was saying about jazz in the 1920s. As opposed to real music, which is produced by musicians who "come from upstanding families". I absolutely love jazz music. I enjoy classical, rock, pop, blues, "world music", and folk as well, but none as much as jazz. And I don't care at all for the lyrics or music of contemporary rap and hip-hop. I don't like the stuff at all. But I prefer not to denigrate it, or any other style of music, with the kind of words you use. Who am I to say that it's not real art? I'd rather let time be the judge. Because if history is any guide there are two possibilities. Either it's all relative, and gansta rap really is no worse than American jazz, which is no worse than European classical, in which case eighty years from now I'll sound like another foolish closed-minded culture bigot. Or else gangsta rap really is degenerate trash. In which case so is jazz.
Rheba Heggs - 09:53am Feb 3, 2000
Ann Douglas
on Jazz - 12:27pm Feb 4, 2000
Re: Jazz and Gangsta Rap (response to Rheba Heggs)
Paul Richter - 09:46pm Feb 9, 2000