Is Jazz in a La La Land or a Desolate One?

By Mary Onishi

In Damien Chazelle’s modern musical “La La Land,” Ryan Gosling plays Sebastian, a pianist passionate about saving jazz and opening his own club in Los Angeles.

Sebastian’s passion is driven by the idea that jazz music is dying. But is it?

Paco Romero-Ferrero/Flickr

Assistant Professor of Jazz at Texas Tech Ben Haugland said this question is not a new one.

“This is a debate that’s probably been going on since the ‘60s,” Haugland said.

Haugland, who is also a jazz pianist and a recipient of nine DownBeat awards, said jazz reached its peak in the late 1930s and early 1940s during the swing era, and since then has never had the same popularity.

“Today, jazz accounts for less than two percent of total annual record sales,” he said. “It’s a very marginalized style of music.”

Director of Jazz Studies at Texas Tech University Stephen Jones said the music industry, in general, is taking a beating with new technology that allows the public to listen to music online for free.

“It’s difficult to make a living,” Jones said. “The music industry as a whole is dying, especially the record industry.”

Haugland said companies like Amazon and iTunes control what radio DJs play. He said these companies determine what the public audience is exposed to, and that they do so based on what they think will sell.

“I think it’s more difficult to be a jazz musician than ever,” he said.

Jones, who became interested in jazz after listening to a Benny Goodman record, said jazz is dying in today’s commercial world.

According to Nielsen’s 2014 year-end report, jazz is tied with classical music as the least-consumed genre in the U.S., after children’s music.

However, Haugland said despite its unpopularity with the general audience, jazz is not dying as an art form.

“There are more and better jazz musicians now than there ever have been in the world,” he said.

He said the standard for what it takes to be a good musician in jazz is continually being raised as the music evolves.

Morielle Haller, a music performance major at Texas Tech, said the genre of jazz music has its roots in America, specifically African American culture. She said since then, jazz has come a long way.

“It’s evolved into something very colorful,” she said.

In the movie “La La Land,” Keith, the character played by John Legend, tells Sebastian that he needs to let go of the past because “jazz is about the future.”

Jones said jazz is changing all the time. He said the jazz of today doesn’t sound anything like jazz of 1940 or even the jazz of last year.

“In that sense,” he said, “it’s very much alive and not dying at all.”

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