I think this is pretty cool...I decided to check my Twitter feed, where I stumbled on an hour-long Twitter conversation between Terry Teachout, cultural critic extraordinaire, and his followers, on how to revive jazz as an art form. You can see the whole thing here, including the Tweets that Teachout re-tweeted and responded to. It's a very civilized and well-informed discussion, which you might expect from a bunch of jazz lovers.
And that, to paraphrase Teachout's argument, is the problem. His basic thesis is that jazz, which was a popular and mass art form from the 20s until the early 50s at least, has morphed into 'high art.' It's fans are the same ones who go to opera, the symphony and non-musical plays. They trend towards the upper income, college or better educated and - gasp - old. Jazz is about as cool as polka to the average 20-something - not even something your parents like (that's probably classic rock). Grandpa, maybe.

Recent Comments