{"id":1784,"date":"2015-03-14T14:21:47","date_gmt":"2015-03-14T18:21:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/?p=1784"},"modified":"2019-09-12T15:25:52","modified_gmt":"2019-09-12T19:25:52","slug":"jazz-health-is-not-in-its-reported-records-sales","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2015\/03\/jazz-health-is-not-in-its-reported-records-sales.html","title":{"rendered":"Jazz health is not in its reported records sales"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"teachout\"<\/a>

Terry Teachout<\/p><\/div>\n

Terry Teachout in his About Last Night posting “Jazz, by the numbers”<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0conflates falling numbers of jazz cd sales with the health of the music itself. Understandable mixup, way too simple.<\/p>\n

Feeling he was burned by criticism of his 2009 Wall Street Journal column<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0about the National Endowment for the Arts Survey of \u00c2\u00adPublic Participation — in which Teachout\u00c2\u00a0wrote of jazz, “Nobody’s listening” (later NEA analysis of that survey’s findings here<\/a>) — he\u00c2\u00a0takes pains to proactively defend himself for\u00c2\u00a0telling the truth about figures reported by Nielsen<\/a>. The report\u00c2\u00a0shows jazz cd sales as neck and neck with classical music’s, above only childrens’ music, among the top 10-selling genres. The others are: Christian\/Gospel, Country, EDM, Holiday\/Seasonal, Pop, Latin, R&B\/Hip-Hop and Rock. Rock tops all with 29% of what Nielsen calls “TOTAL CONSUMPTION \u00c2\u00a0(ALBUMS + TRACK EQUIVALENT ALBUMS + STREAMING EQUIVALENT ALBUMS). What these numbers really say is that the aggregate record-buying audience\u00c2\u00a0is not buying as much\u00c2\u00a0“jazz” as it is buying something else. There doesn’t seem to be any indication that in recent years’ jazz album sales, low as they are, have changed much.<\/p>\n

This information can be interpreted in many ways besides stating that jazz is in dread, perhaps fatal, decline, because people don’t like it. Chicken or egg? — that major record \"cartoon\"<\/a>labels have all but given up on jazz? And indie labels don’t have the resources to mount promotional campaigns that break through the media power they’ve established for pop stars (remember Elvis?) since the birth of rock ‘n’ roll? Is it chicken or egg that jazz doesn’t sell many recordings, when Nielsen reports, “Radio Remains Top Source For Music Discovery,” and there is indeed ever less jazz (especially current jazz) on radio? That trend has affected even non-profit college and community stations, but is embodied by programming policies of\u00c2\u00a0the behemoth iHeartMedia, Inc. (formerly Clear Channel Communications, Inc.) which offers\u00c2\u00a0only a strict diet of “Smooth Jazz<\/a>,” a sub-genre overdue for refreshment? Isn’t it a self-fulfilling condition of low jazz records sales that purchase of on-demand music streams has grown 54 % over\u00c2\u00a0the period Nielsen measured, yet jazz producers\u00c2\u00a0for a variety of reasons don’t yet do much of that?<\/p>\n

I agree that selling jazz is quite a challenge in our current culture. Instrumental music of any type is secondary to vocal music of any type. There are no figures here on the sales of jazz singers vs. jazz instrumentalists, but no doubt Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett’s Cheek to Cheek<\/em>\u00c2\u00a0<\/a>released last September has sold more than Whiplash (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0<\/em>issued around the same time.\u00c2\u00a0Jazz has no industry lobbying organization to put on glamorous Awards shows, unlike the Country Music Association, BET, MTV, Billboard, NARAS –another chicken or egg situation? Maybe jazz musicians lack glamor, or just don’t make enough $$ to rate widespread interest in their drug use, sex scandals, violent outbursts, fashion choices, etc. — though I’m pretty sure some jazz musicians are still so involved.<\/p>\n

\"wynton\"<\/a>

Wynton Marsalis – NPR<\/p><\/div>\n

True, there is no dominating, relevant jazz style today (did Wynton ensure that by focusing\u00c2\u00a0Jazz at Lincoln
\nCenter from its start on “classical jazz”<\/a>?). And nobody\u00c2\u00a0like Miles Davis who represents decades of cutting edge and often outrageous yet eagerly embraced new sounds. Indeed, some of the\u00c2\u00a0few well-recognized elders, such as Sonny Rollins, have suspended performing. But I personally am awed by the large number and vast variety of highly skilled musicians working hard, not goofing off, everywhere I go. I think we’re living in a period of significant jazz creativity, much of which\u00c2\u00a0isn’t being celebrated because platforms for such celebration have dried up, not because the music isn’t good. But without the celebration, buzz, discussion having a place, there’s less discussion, buzz, celebration going on.<\/p>\n

For all that,\u00c2\u00a0Teachout’s implication that jazz people by and large telling\u00c2\u00a0potential listeners they should<\/em> “enjoy jazz” — a la “eat your spinach, it’s good for you” — is errant. In 2009 he wrote,<\/p>\n

If you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re marketing Schubert and Stravinsky to those listeners, you have\"to<\/a> no\u00c2\u00a0choice but to start from scratch and make the case for the beauty of their music to otherwise intelligent people who simply don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t take it for granted. By the same token, jazz musicians who want to keep their own equally beautiful music alive and well have got to start thinking hard about how to pitch it to young listeners\u00e2\u20ac\u201dnot next month, not next week, but right now.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And now he says, “For the most part, they didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t\u00e2\u20ac\u201dand the results of their refusal to face the\u00c2\u00a0facts are now painfully clear.”<\/p>\n

\"jazz<\/a>Well, the promoters, producers, presenters and publicists I hear from have been focused for at least the past six years on using\u00c2\u00a0every imaginable and affordable approach they can come up with to sell jazz performed live, especially in non-profit venues, as exciting, cool, fun <\/a>— music that can improve your self esteem, mark your sophistication, raise your social status, get you high in many ways and maybe even\u00c2\u00a0laid.<\/p>\n

A generation of students seems to have been convinced; according to the National\"totaljsenrollment\"<\/a> Association of Schools of Music, enrollments in higher education courses in jazz<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0increased 33% from 2004 to 2013. The staging of and audiences for jazz festivals has seemingly grown, too, though my evidence is only anecdotal; aggregate numbers are hard to find.<\/p>\n

Whether any of this will affect a turnaround for jazz popularity, or simply sustain the bubble I live in (have I blown it myself?) with an international coterie of jazz devotees is impossible to say. But we are a hearty bunch, eager for both artistic enlightenment and pleasurable entertainment<\/p>\n

\"jazzmajorsug2\"<\/a>The best jazz offers both at once. If that appeals to “otherwise intelligent people,” jazz per performance, cd or practitioner offers more varieties of the mix than most musical genres that have flourished better in the past half-century of cultural and commercial flux. Big thanks to Terry Teachout, biographer of enduring jazz icons\u00c2\u00a0Louis Armstrong<\/a> and Duke Ellington<\/a>, for bringing to light news about jazz recordings’ current lame sales.<\/p>\n

howardmandel.com<\/a>
\nSubscribe by Email <\/a> |
\nSubscribe by RSS<\/a>
\nFollow on Twitter <\/a>
\n All JBJ posts <\/a> |
\n[contextly_auto_sidebar id=”ksAJ9SezOK4JCqdmtxDwMmZSSoEpYZVo”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Terry Teachout in his About Last Night posting “Jazz, by the numbers”\u00c2\u00a0conflates falling numbers of jazz cd sales with the health of the music itself. Understandable mixup, way too simple. Feeling he was burned by criticism of his 2009 Wall Street Journal column\u00c2\u00a0about the National Endowment for the Arts Survey of \u00c2\u00adPublic Participation — in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1795,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1784","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-main","8":"entry"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/to-jazz.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1i3CL-sM","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":231,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2009\/08\/mr_teachout_gets_the_word.html","url_meta":{"origin":1784,"position":0},"title":"Mr. Teachout gets the word: Jazz’s Swing Era popularity past","author":"Howard Mandel","date":"August 9, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Biographer of H L. Mencken and (coming soon) Louis Armstrong, ArtsJournal blogger and scribe for the Wall Street Journal Terry Teachout has raised a fuss\u00c2\u00a0by pointing to the National Endowment for the Arts'\u00c2\u00a0study citing declines in jazz audiences from 2002 to 2008 (and indeed from 1982 to 2008). That this\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "main"","block_context":{"text":"main","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/category\/main"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":240,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2009\/08\/labor_day_jazz_twitter_propose.html","url_meta":{"origin":1784,"position":1},"title":"You’ve heard live jazz ? Tweet using #jazzlives","author":"Howard Mandel","date":"August 26, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Let's prove jazz lives. Tweet about live performances using hashmark #jazzlives, detailing who and when in 140 characters.Jazz fests rage across America in the next couple of weeks starting Aug. 29-30 with NYC's Charlie Parker fest, picking up Sept 4 through 6 \u00c2\u00a0--\u00c2\u00a0Tanglewood,\u00c2\u00a0Chicago, Detroit, the Angel City Jazz Fest, LA's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "main"","block_context":{"text":"main","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/category\/main"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":881,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2012\/04\/grants-for-visual-arts-journalists.html","url_meta":{"origin":1784,"position":2},"title":"Grants for (visual) arts journalists","author":"Howard Mandel","date":"April 25, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Creative Capital and the Warhol Foundation have an idea I adore: Offer grants \"directly to individual writers . . . \u00c2\u00a0in recognition of both the financially precarious situation of arts writers and their indispensable contribution to a vital artistic culture.\" From the Request for Proposals: The program, which issues awards\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "main"","block_context":{"text":"main","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/category\/main"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":333,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2010\/08\/twitter_campaign_jazzlives_aft.html","url_meta":{"origin":1784,"position":3},"title":"Twitter campaign #jazzlives after one year","author":"Howard Mandel","date":"August 26, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"#Jazzlives -- the Twitter campaign aimed at demonstrating that there is a big and enthusiastic audience for live jazz -- is one year old. What has it wrought? First: What is #jazzlives and how does it work? To participate in the campaign, audience members at live jazz performances \"tweet\" -\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "main"","block_context":{"text":"main","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/category\/main"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1303,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2013\/04\/before-tarantino-there-was-ebert.html","url_meta":{"origin":1784,"position":4},"title":"Before Tarantino, there was Ebert (and Muddy Waters)","author":"Howard Mandel","date":"April 5, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm as sad as any Chicago-born & raised movie fan about the death of Roger Ebert, who I saw regularly in the Chicago Sun Times\/Chicago Daily News offices when I was a copyboy there in the '70s, but to whom I never spoke. And I take umbrage at the characterization\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "main"","block_context":{"text":"main","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/category\/main"},"img":{"alt_text":"Unknown","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/Unknown.jpeg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1739,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2014\/10\/jazz-men-and-women-and-jazz-itself-honored.html","url_meta":{"origin":1784,"position":5},"title":"Jazz men and women — and jazz itself — honored","author":"Howard Mandel","date":"October 24, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Tonight (Oct. 24) will be a Great Night in Harlem, as pianist Herbie Hancock, winner of the Jazz Journalists Association's 2014 Award for Lifetime Achievement in Jazz,\u00c2\u00a0receives likewise\u00c2\u00a0recognition at\u00c2\u00a0the Jazz Foundation of America's gala fundraising show (goal: $1.7 million to help health-, housing- and employment-challenged jazz and blues musicians), genuinely\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "main"","block_context":{"text":"main","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/category\/main"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/BzDiIvCIgAM3eb5.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/BzDiIvCIgAM3eb5.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/BzDiIvCIgAM3eb5.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1784","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1784"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1784\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1795"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}