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When Your Art Becomes a Dying Art
Posted by Tanya
on
5:59 PM
I sing Jazz. I sing Jazz because it makes me feel like I can escape the 21st century if only for five minutes. I believe music is the most truthful depiction of a generation, and because I feel like I am not actually from this generation, I listen to the music of a generation I can relate to on a more personal level.
When the lights fade away on the stage, the lights fade on my life as a 21st century being. I feel as though the mic I am about to sing into becomes an old fashioned mic that more resembles a cheese grater, than a modern mic. I feel like my modern shirt and blue jeans melt into a beautifully flowing, long, black dress that belongs in a small, dimly lit nightclub. When I sing about a woman scorned, I swear I can feel the lyricist's scorn flowing through me and into the microphone. I have the ability to become whatever woman sang the song before me, and It feels powerful.
While Jazz is the music that inspires me and while Jazz is the music that I believe my voice was designed to sing, it is a style that few find seeping into their record players, or rather CD players. Instead of singing about what I love, I find myself falling into the abyss that is Pop music. Sure, I put a little Blues spin on it, but no amount of scatting can ever change the fact that it is still fundamentally Pop music. I don't love the new Pop genre. I don't love it because I don't feel it. No amount of vocal skill can ever replace the lack of feeling in a song. If the singer doesn't embody the song, they are simply not as good as the singer who can embody it, and feel it.
Or at least I thought that was the case. Yet time and time again, I sing a fantastic Jazz song from 1943 and I lose the singing competition. Then the following year, I choose a current Top 40s song, and I win. I may win that handy little cash prize, but I lose the love I once had for my craft. I know the times change, and music is bound to follow in the same path, but I can't help but feel a little disappointed. Maybe I am simply an old soul that hasn't let go of a past life, I don't know. All I do know is, singing means the world to me, when I sing what I feel, when I sing what I want. What I want to sing is Jazz, I hope someone will listen.
Peace, Love, and Good Juju,
Issa Pop
When the lights fade away on the stage, the lights fade on my life as a 21st century being. I feel as though the mic I am about to sing into becomes an old fashioned mic that more resembles a cheese grater, than a modern mic. I feel like my modern shirt and blue jeans melt into a beautifully flowing, long, black dress that belongs in a small, dimly lit nightclub. When I sing about a woman scorned, I swear I can feel the lyricist's scorn flowing through me and into the microphone. I have the ability to become whatever woman sang the song before me, and It feels powerful.
While Jazz is the music that inspires me and while Jazz is the music that I believe my voice was designed to sing, it is a style that few find seeping into their record players, or rather CD players. Instead of singing about what I love, I find myself falling into the abyss that is Pop music. Sure, I put a little Blues spin on it, but no amount of scatting can ever change the fact that it is still fundamentally Pop music. I don't love the new Pop genre. I don't love it because I don't feel it. No amount of vocal skill can ever replace the lack of feeling in a song. If the singer doesn't embody the song, they are simply not as good as the singer who can embody it, and feel it.
Or at least I thought that was the case. Yet time and time again, I sing a fantastic Jazz song from 1943 and I lose the singing competition. Then the following year, I choose a current Top 40s song, and I win. I may win that handy little cash prize, but I lose the love I once had for my craft. I know the times change, and music is bound to follow in the same path, but I can't help but feel a little disappointed. Maybe I am simply an old soul that hasn't let go of a past life, I don't know. All I do know is, singing means the world to me, when I sing what I feel, when I sing what I want. What I want to sing is Jazz, I hope someone will listen.
Peace, Love, and Good Juju,
Issa Pop
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