Music can be considered art. The original purpose of art was to express human feelings and understanding. People say they enjoy jazz but tend to choose low-level melodies. This allows them to feel satisfied and content while listening, without really understanding the music. Jazz has seen a significant change in the last few decades. People now appreciate jazz beyond just listening to it. This influence can be both positive or negative.
The Internet and social media have made new media a part of jazz’s music appreciation and creation. People’s traditional appreciation of jazz, prior to 2000, was based on listening. In today’s society, social media is almost non-existent. An appreciation for jazz has expanded beyond listening. New media have made jazz more accessible. The majority of contemporary jazz is not presented as pure auditory symbol text. Music texts, on the other hand, contain many visual symbols. They include album covers, posters, and visual presentations such music videos, short video clips, etc. to concerts, festivals, and so forth. There are also on-site presentations and audiovisual presentations that include musical drafts, music star variety, etc. The way that people listen to traditional jazz music has been affected by the advancement of new media technology. The original audio appreciation has been transformed into a visual appreciation. Visual Music: Synaesthesia, Jazz and the History of the Senses. The article by author, Visual Music.
“Many scholars believe that modernity separated the human senses. The study shows that the senses were not always singular or separated in a media society like early 20th century Germany. The Weimar Jazz history shows that modern media culture encouraged synaesthesia.
Jazz is slowly becoming a visual art form. These influences can have positive and negative sides.
Positively, both composers, as well audiences, will be influenced by new media. They will change their musical contexts and the way they perceive music. YouTube is a popular platform for sharing music videos. When new media wasn’t available, people used traditional media to appreciate jazz. This was before 2000. Many jazz musicians use exaggerated ways to present their performances in order to grab people’s attention. Some players use traditional methods to present their performance. YouTube has two videos about jazz: Jazz Roots 2015 and Stuart Fuchs in concert: Jazz Ukulele Mlade. Both showcase jazz performances. In the first video, people dance to jazz music. The second one shows just jazz musicians. The former is certainly more appealing than the latter. Does the former one have a problem playing jazz? The latter is not a bad player of jazz. While both plays have great music, people are more interested in the performance than the music. This has helped jazz evolve in a new direction. It also helps jazz become more accessible to a wider audience.
Because of its interactivity with media fusion, new media can also create feedback mechanisms in music acceptance. This allows users to voice their opinion to the music producer team or communicate directly with the fans. They can also adapt and disseminate music text. These interactions also allow the recipient of the musical text to direct or indirect influence its production. Some jazz composers have started to live-stream their compositions on YouTube and are now able to teach others. The comments section is where the audience can offer their opinions. Jeff Schneider, a jazz player, posted his video on How I compose and produce jazz loops to YouTube. There were many comments below. The jazz lovers can exchange information, ask questions, and give feedback on Jeff Schneider. “Jeremy Lucas, a person who is a jazz lover, commented:
Jeff, which artist would you recommend to get that rnb neo soul-jazz sound? You sound solid (authentically) and I’m just a little bit there. Any suggestions? I feel like I’m missing something.” Will Rowsell said, “I use altered chord to describe dominant chords in minor keys. I initially thought they were complex, but I soon realized that the minor-key extensions are much more straightforward. The flat 13 can be added to the major key. This will bring new ideas to jazz composers and jazz lovers, as well as help them to improve their knowledge of jazz.
The first side is the negative. Music’s visual effect has a negative impact on music’s ideology. Visualization of music can also reduce the appeal of the music. In some cases, the audience’s attention to visualizations may be more important than the music. The YouTube player for jazz is two-fold, as discussed previously. Although the former has a larger audience, the latter is more traditional and draws fewer viewers. While the former has 4,949 886 viewers, the latter has only 49,254 viewers. The former does not perform better than the second. Are these people really paying attention to jazz music? While both performances are outstanding, the popularity of the first is due to audiences focusing more on the performance and less on jazz music appreciation. This is how the visual perceptions of jazz affect our feelings about it. The author concludes the article, “The Impact on Visual-Music Interaction and Music Perception: Influence of Agreement & Disagreement”, by stating that
“Agreement of mood between music/visual can enhance each individual part’s mood. Disagreement may lead to irony, commentary, and foreshadowing. These interactions allow the audience to see the elements in a different or enhanced way than they would if seen separately. “
The reason people are more inclined to watch the second video is that they know the difference. The videos can be visually stimulated. However, the first video is more focused on traditional jazz performances and offers a different experience through dance. New media can be used to visualise jazz and it not only increases the audience’s enjoyment of the music but it also makes the music less enjoyable.
A further problem is that jazz visualizations limit the audiences’ ability to visualize the music. Different people react to different music. However, visualization has made jazz less mysterious and restricted people’s imaginations.
The analysis shows that new media can have both a positive and a negative effect on jazz. Innovation and progress in new media can change how people listen and the shape of jazz. It seems like jazz visualization has become a commonplace.
