Learning Goal: I’m working on a writing discussion question and need the explanation and answer to help me learn.

Jazz As “Art Music”

The idea that there is some sort of dividing line between what is considered “art music� and “everything else� is actually pretty new. If we go back to Medieval or Renaissance Europe, we can find discussions of different contexts for music, but never really a distinction that one was “art� and that another was “not art.� The same goes for the artistic context of early America. This idea that there is “art music� and “popular music� (which is thereby, not art) comes sometime in the mid-nineteenth century. It was tied up with all sorts of categorization efforts with which people in the US and Europe (and their colonies) were obsessed at the time. Thus, while it’s a relatively new idea, this idea is one that jazz inherited, or at least that the public inherited and applied to jazz.

Once we get to the mid-1940s, jazz seems to cross into the territory of “art music.� Basically, before WW2, folks thought of jazz as “pop music� and after the war they treated it more like “art music.� Generally, the term “art music� was applied to music played in fancy concert halls set aside just for this purpose, music written by dead German guys, music played on violins and oboes. Now, with the arrival of bebop, some of the reverence usually reserved for this old, dead music was being directed at jazz.

There are a variety of reasons for this shift in perception, some of which we have—or will—gone into elsewhere. The point, there, though, is simply that this shift in perception happened and what that means for the style’s future.

Modern Pop vs Art

This totally arbitrary line between “art� and “pop� persists, today. We interact with it all the time, even when we don’t do so on purpose. We “enforce� these “rules� about the music through all sorts of ways. For example, when attending a concert, we are supposed to dress and/or applaud differently depending upon which type of music we are seeing performed. This is kind of silly, but also aids in the ways we are able to truly “appreciate� the music in the most appropriate way.

But, this brings lots of dumb elitism to different styles of music.

Can you think of anything—a style of music, a type of movie, a type of book, etc.—which is often degraded as not very artistic, but who you just love or find very moving? Why do you think this thing—music, movie, book, etc.—is so derided by the elites? Why do you disagree?

An example:

At Cuyamaca College, we offer a History of Rock class as a General Education class. This is pretty common; we have offered it for at least the last twenty years. But, when I was a student—2000–2004—the school where I went (admittedly a pretty conservative, religious school that was “behind the curve� on lots of things) didn’t have such a class. In the 1990s, a History of Rock class was pretty rare at a college. This was because only “artistic� music was considered appropriate for study at a college, and, apparently, rock music wasn’t considered close enough to “art.� It took Cuyamaca College until 2019 to offer a History of Hip Hop class for similar reasons. Some of this is responding to outside pressures (what other schools are doing, what students are demanding, etc.), but a lot of it comes down to what a college wants to “legitimize� by offering classes that study it.

Related: It wasn’t until the 1980s that jazz bands became more or less a normal thing in an American high school or college. This, well after jazz was seen by most people as pretty firmly in the “art music� category.

A second example:

I think comic books are silly. But, I have been told that there is a lot of great stuff in comic books, great story telling, great visual art, great character development. To me, though, I just see something kind of silly. This is me being an elitist about what “real literature� or “real art� is and isn’t. It’s probably not that good of me to have this mindset.

Please leave a comment about either:

• Something you like that is often not considered very artistic. Why do you think other people don’t think it’s art? Why do you?

and/or

• Something lots of other people do think is great art but you just don’t. Why don’t you like this thing? What is keeping you from saying, “That is art?â€�

Please, as always, be respectful of others’ opinions. This question could ruffle some feathers, but I am hoping it will help us dig a little deeper and see where each of our biases lie as to what is/isn’t art. This can then help us examine the way we treat other opinions in more empathetic ways.