jazz = good vibes

[wesbed]

I enjoy jazz. The music gives me positive vibes, physically & mentally. I can come home at the end of a less than desirable day at the office, pop a jazz CD in the player, and begin to feel better in only minutes. Jazz makes me think positive thoughts. It gives me the opportunity to clear my mind of the day's junk. Most negative thoughts disappear. I get a warm and content feeling. The world seems a good place. I see clear images, feel at ease, and sometimes get a bit of a tingly feeling.

Unfortunately, the opposite is also true. If I'm forced to listen to popular music I get negative vibes. The world seems cheap & unfriendly. I feel like I'm hiding under a shadow of negativity, as if sky or ceiling is moving in. I don't like to hear a disco drumbeat, a loud-mouthed FM deejay type, whiney country crooners, or the fake plastic vocals of a Brittany Spears. Yeck!

It's not just a matter of me not liking the above listed sounds/styles. I mean I really don't like them. To a point that I feel my stomach turning and, sometimes, even a bit of depression. I try to keep my opinions to myself because, for most of the people I know, the music I listen to (jazz) has the same effect on them as their popular FM music has on me.

Is it only me that gets these extra-negative feelings when listening to popular music and FM disk jockeys?

[Dr. Rat]

Is it only me that gets these extra-negative feelings when listening to popular music and FM disk jockeys?

 

Hey! Let's not tar everyone with the same brush now!

Anyhow, one of my core beliefs about the world is that anything that has the power to do good has a pretty much equal power to do harm.

So if jazz does really have a positive effect upon you, I'd expect some kind of music would have an equal and opposite effect.

Commercial FM (not me!) is pretty much in the business of assuming that you are very stupid. That message comes through continuously. Even if you aren't insulted, it's a pretty depressing thought that people listen to and like the station that tells them "You're listening to K-Rock, you lemmings! You'll do what you're told!" 8 times an hour.

Makes sense to me.

--eric

[jazzbo]

Guilty, more often than I would like that to be. There are as others will/have mentioned, different "production values" at work, and there are other "popular" musics I DO like, but. . . yeah, I really get negative feelings when exposed to some commercial efforts, especially in the "blather away" radio format, and when it is really badly performed live. I really really really get upset by bass players playing the wrong notes, singers who are out of pitch cluelessly, and noisy loud "shredding" guitarists, etc. when exposed to them.

My wife used to tell me I was being "elitist" and "getting old". . . but after more than a decade of exposure to the jazz and other music I have played, she too has been getting really impatient and unhappy with some of the other music she encounters.

I am NOT going to say that jazz is some sort of superior art form or anything like that. I'm moving as best as I can away from snobbishness in as many areas as I can; I really disdain snobs and jazz snobs are no different--I don't want to be one or even appear to be one. But I do think that different music moves different temperaments or persons differently. Jazz moves you and I and in a positive manner, and many other musics don't move us that way. . . that would be the safest statement I could stand behind.

[AfricaBrass]

I find that I can find good or bad vibes from pretty much any type of music.

I haven't always been this way. If you'd have spoke with me 10 years ago, you'd have met one of the most negative elitist (musically) people around. I hated almost everything. Any rock music on a major label was crap to me, I think that's one reason why I initially embraced jazz. I loved the music, but I also dug the fact that it wasn't the same old thing.

Eventually, I realized that I didn't even enjoy my company (and my opinions), so I decided to open my mind up. Now, I'll listen to anything. I even like that Britney Spears "Toxic" song, though the video made me like it more.

Now, I figure if someone likes a song, there might be something of value in it.

[Dan Gould]

Speaking of Eric's comments regarding lemmings and dummies, I made a memorable gaffe on the air once:

An imaging statement that was supposed to be "Playing the music you've told us you like the best, we're Mello 105" became "Playing the music we've told you you like the best, we're Mello 105"

Luckily, the boss and his entire oafish family was out of town at the time, or I'd have been shit-canned right there.

As far as the effects of jazz vs the effects of other music, I'd say I'm far more tolerant than wesbed, though far less tolerant than a lot of people. But at that radio station I worked at, the son of the owner once told me that jazz (and we're talking the smooth variety here) made him "nervous".

Then again, a lot of things made this guy nervous, I think he was on every psychotropic drug his Doctor could prescribe.

[wesbed]

Music is an art form and art can never be right or wrong. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I understand that other music is not wrong just because I don't like it. However, it still grates on me in a very strong fashion at times. As I wrote above, it's often enough to move me, mentally, from a positive state to a negative state. This is not meant as a complaint, rather, an observation. And something I wish I could quit observing.

I've been labeled as a 'music eletist' too, as Lon writes. I don't mind the label, I'm certain I appear as such. But, I've never felt like an elitist while posting on this board nor when listening to jazz. More like a 'jazz appreciation student,' still learning and enjoying.

I'm glad the music is here. I'm glad this board is here. I'm glad I can throw my opinions around this place, and share with others who have many of the same interests.

[Chrome]

I actually find a lot of the upbeat pop gives off pretty good vibes, at least in a junk food kind of way.

For example, I happened to flip on the radio yesterday coming home from work and they were playing Pink's "Get the party started" ... it certainly got my party started.

Or think about something like Motown ... plenty of good vibes for me there, too.

Hell, I've even been known to crank up that Sheryl Crow cover of "First cut."

[Joe G]

I know where you're coming from Wes. The other night, Jim and I were driving back from a gig in Muskegon. Our postgig ritual often includes listening to classic rock stations. Usually we try to mimic the singer, or make lots of sarcastic comments, or there might even be an enjoyable tune once in a while. Anyway, the station we had on was playing a rock block, at least 7 or 8 tunes from the same band. Neither of us had ever heard any of the tunes, but my first guess, which ended up being correct, was Nazareth. I guess it was the singer who gave it away.

We listened to about 6 tunes, and hated them all. It wasn't just the bad songwriting and playing and the sound of everything. It made me very depressed to imagine the scene at their concerts; everyone must have been on serious drugs, but no one smiling and relaxed. The music seemed totally bereft of any joy or hope at all, completely soulless. Of course, this was the band that sang, "Love is just a lie, made to make you blue".

A lot of smooth jazz, pop country, and modern rock (like Godsmack) makes me depressed, or irritated.

But fortunately, there's lots of music that makes me glad, or introspective (maybe have a good cry if I need it), or relaxed, or want to dance and sing, so I'll stick with the good stuff!

[AfricaBrass]

I see your points about music that has a darkness to it.

I'm not trying to judge it. It is what it is, but there's a lot of stuff I can't get into.

I'm a big fan of music that expresses a lot of feelings, but if the music brings me down, I'll find something else to listen to.

[A Lark Ascending]

I know lots of people who, if asked what sort of music makes them feel annoyed, unsettled or irritated, would immediately choose jazz (and not just because I asked them!!!). Its irregularity, frequent avoidance of obvious melody or expected resolutions makes it sound like noise to many ears.

I don't think you can generalise.

Somehow we've all found something in jazz we like. So when we come home from a bad day (or a good day) we get the feel good effect from the music we like. Like we do from coffee, wine, kippers or whatever else we like.

I have no doubt that exactly the same is true for people who've found what they like in Bartok, Britney, Shania or Kenny! Or grits!

Feelgood comes from experiencing things we like.

I suspect everyone has similar feeling of antipathy towards things they don't like. Synthesisers generally bring me out in spots.

[Jazzmoose]

But at that radio station I worked at, the son of the owner once told me that jazz (and we're talking the smooth variety here) made him "nervous".

That's exactly what my wife says: it makes her nervous. I guess it makes sense in one way; if you go with the "jazz is the music of surprise", then I guess it's safe to assume that some people just don't like surprises.

[chris olivarez]

Power ballads which typically feature the most overwrought ballads on planet Earth really hurt my head.Definite bad vibes man.

[BruceH]

Music can be strange though. Some of the most nihilistic, anti-everything punk music ever recorded used to give me a liberated, joyful feeling. And the Velvet Underground's first and third albums still make me feel that life's worth living.