The birth of unjazz

Guest post by Ben Morss of Soundfly’s Flypaper. This article originally appeared on his Rock Theory Blog

This winter, walking my dog in the snow, listening to Spotify’s Top 50 playlist, I heard something striking: a lovely jazzy instrumental touched with pretty jazz guitars, the sound of birds and faraway kids playing, topped by a beautiful, timelessly wandering vocal.

Melodic ideas repeated, but the song didn’t have a clear focus or drive toward a chorus. The vocals soared ridiculously far above the bass. I begged my dog to stay and checked my phone. What was this song, and what was it doing in the Top 50?

It was the latest from SZA, called “Good Days.” I resolved to learn more.

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How The Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights” Lifts Beethoven’s Ideas to #1

Abel Tesfaye, also known as The Weeknd, and Ludwig van Beethoven don’t appear to have much in common. Ok, they’re both musicians, there are the repeated digits in their birth years (1990, 1770), they share perhaps a similar amount of curly hair… But, otherwise, come on, right?

And yet, although classical music of Beethoven’s era and pop circa 2020 are different beasts, music that works is music that works. Sometimes it just works because it’s performed or produced effectively. But often I submit that better music is better because the notes are better — the pitches and durations and the relationships and patterns these form, however they’re performed.

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Most Popular Music Genres: It Is Completely Different Than You Believe

Music comes in many different forms and not all of them are equally popular. Maybe you are into a specific type of music and maybe you like 1 or 2 genres more, but the thing is, most people prefer just one genre. This can be useful to new musicians, due to the fact they can start their career in the music genre that is most popular. This would definitely make the things easier. You may believe that POP music is the #1 in the world, but it isn’t. Now you will see the most popular music genres in the world.

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The Anatomy & Politics Of A Hit Song

Touting his supreme confidence, Ice Cube once said, “If It was all about me, I’d do a whole lot of pop records, make a whole lot of money.” For Ice Cube, and many other people who share this belief, producing a popular song is a choice. From this perspective, some musicians have decided to make pop music, while others have chosen more alternative routes.

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