Great read today! "I believe the main reason jazz has been successful where heavy metal has not is because of the prescribed identity of the music, and perhaps as a second reason, Jazz’s association with skinny ties and sharp suits and heavy metal’s association with bulging spandex and makeup. Jazz has historically been categorized along racial lines. If heavy metal has been categorized at all it has generally been among class lines. We can then make the case that America’s own attitudes towards class has limited heavy metal’s progress in this regard (damn you class warfare, or at least the Republican notion of such). American culture has historically been uneasy about addressing class issues in the same manner it addresses issues of race, especially in the 20th century, which may account for high society’s reluctance to accept the genre as an expression of working class concerns the same way it accepted jazz as an expression of African American concerns. Another factor is that heavy metal is a clear descendant of earlier forms of popular music (rock n’ roll), and has always been recognized as such by fans, critics and musicians alike. This makes it easy for our dear highbrow critics to deride heavy metal as merely a louder and more sordid (both of which are clear positives in the eye of this humble author) variant of an art form that is already perceived as beneath them. In this environment it becomes easy to overlook musicians attempting to break into the elite, since the new genre is already associated with an older genre and its values - what a coup by the cognoscenti! Jazz on the other hand, was clearly and distinctly unlike the previous dominant forms of popular music in America. Highbrow critics could still deny the quality of the music, but they couldn’t clearly associate it with an established form of music. Thus these critics couldn’t immediately circumscribe jazz to a lower place on their cultural hierarchy due to precedent. Jazz’s revolutionary or truly novel nature thus demanded more critical discussion and attention. Presto! The efforts of jazz musicians attempting to break into the elite received a great deal of attention, allowing for their efforts to succeed." - Christine Newby, Exceptional Savagery: A Raucous Trip Through Heavy Metal & High Culture
Posted on: Mon, 12 Aug 2013 01:00:47 +0000
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