Music for the masses

There were some great moments during the Grammys last night. You know: Alicia Keys, and then Alicia Keys in a duet with Jamie Foxx--that man can sing! He did a great, non-Ray Charles-impersonating version of Georgia, starting off playing piano. Also, Kanye West. Great rap/song (Jesus Walks), great gospel-style staging, great acceptance speech. And Usher, what a dancer, a mix of Fred Astaire and Michael Jackson plus his own style. Usher's duet with James Brown, those happy feet! Stevie Wonder, say no more!

I have to give props to Jennifer Lopez for bravely singing live with her husband, the masterful Marc Anthony. But it was very painful to watch. She has improved a lot, though. I really would love to know how much of a technological safety net she had--though it wasn't enough to prevent some flubbed notes.

Am I a complete idiot for writing about this? The answer would have to be yes.

But I do listen to a lot of pop music, because I like hearing songs and singers and voices. And I believe in accessibility. Mass production has gone too far, no question. But jazz has a lot to learn from current pop music. The guy who wrote High Fidelity, Nick Hornby, wrote a book I like about various popular songs he loves, and I agreed with practically every essay. One encouraging thing I see in jazz is how Stevie Wonder is becoming the Gershwin of today--his tunes are proving themselves as new jazz standards. But I was dismayed when I sat in a radio programmers session at the IAJE conference last month and they talked about how the accepted jazz format is one singer per hour. I thought to myself, "that's why I don't listen to enough jazz radio." And beyond that, in the jazz world you have to constantly prove yourself as a singer by imitating instruments and scatting, and these are beautiful things in the right hands, but really, only a gifted few should be doing that. Because it's not accessible to people who aren't musicians. People listen to music for the emotional response it inspires, that's it.

And you can't just blanket pop music as junk when you look at the unusual things people like Bjork come up with. Or even the singer/instrumentalists who are up and coming now, Keys, and Norah Jones, John Mayer, the other pianist girl whose name escapes me. I mean, the stuff is just ridiculously overplayed, I'll grant that. And that turns me off.

When I did my radio interviews on KPFA, both the shows I did were so wonderful in terms of the diversity of sounds they played. I really respect KPFA DJs David McBernie and Raquel Aguirre's choices. Neither seems forced into any sort of rubric where there's only a certain type of Brazilian or a certain type of straight-ahead jazz or world music they'll play.

But here's the problem: KPFA's a mixed-format station, so you get the news. And ever since becoming a mother, I can't handle NPR radio news (have never watched TV news anyway). This morning was a perfect example: I get into the car to take my son to preschool and the station was left on NPR and here's this erudite male voice talking conversationally about missile defense: Here's how we think we can stop the missiles ... payload ... warhead ... AAAAGH. I change the channel. I will vote faithfully, I will make phone calls or write letters when it is required, I will read the New York Times, but I will not be sucked into the media/pundit matrix. Especially since November 2, 2004, I'll take TV and pop radio escapism any day over that. Stay informed. But be wise about it, or the data mongers will drown you.