The Importance Of Jazz Music

In order for an art form to be classified as “dead,” it must not only stop being produced, but it must also stop being appreciated by both audience members and artists. An art form dies when people stop developing it. Latin, for example, is a dead language because even though people continue to study it, the language is no longer spoken, and it has not been “modernized” at all—it lacks everyday use and purpose. Jazz music, on the other hand, is not dead, and will most likely never die. This is partly due to its historical significance and prominence in America since the genre’s conception. It signified a shift or change in racial tensions and bridged the social gap between whites and blacks. Its importance is displayed through the ways in which

“Multi-disc sets of previously unissued live concerts from Ella Fitzgerald and Stan Getz are also competing for the public 's limited attention span this season. So no wonder folks keep saying jazz is dead: devotion to its past is stealing oxygen from the same room in which the present hopes to draw a breath” (Walls). The new jazz music being made is being overshadowed and ignored because people are too focused on “the greats” who dominated the genre back when it began. “But even if jazz is finally buried in that (expanding) graveyard of former mass-culture obsessions, that doesn 't mean the music isn 't still happening, or that it isn 't still perfectly capable of talking to us at an individual level” (Walls). Jazz being alive or dead does not merely depend on how many listeners it still has or if people are still fans of the genre. There will always be someone who listens to any genre, even Norwegian folk-jazz-pop-metal. It even more so depends on whether it is being made

Like most things in the world, jazz needs to be updated over time in order to continue entertaining people. New music is always being made, and for jazz to carry relevance, its sound needs to evolve so that people do not abandon it out of boredom. In Gary Moskowitz’s article titled “Jazz Is Not Dead,” he states: “Perhaps jazz simply needs to be rebranded, re-characterized as music that can speak for people again (even frustrated youth).” Jazz music is thought of as a symbol of the Civil Rights Movement—the music’s conception and growing popularity, during a time of social strife, served as a foundation for reconciliation between the different races. Today, if jazz were able to serve the same purpose, its popularity would definitely be revived, or increase exponentially. Moskowitz claims, “Quite a few new bands are revitalizing the form in exciting ways, mixing elements of jazz (theory, improvisation, culture and composition) with other styles to create music that is often hard to label or