Like #116: Black Music that Black People Don't Listen to Anymore

Quotes Lander:
"All music genres go through a very similar life cycle: birth, growth, mainstream acceptance, decline, and finally obscurity. With black music, however, the final stage is never reached because white people are work tirelessly to keep it alive. Apparently, once a music has lost its relevance with its intended audience, it becomes MORE relevant to white people. Historically speaking, the music that white people have kept on life support for the longest period of time is Jazz. Thanks largely to public radio, bookstores, and coffee shops, Jazz has carved out a niche in white culture that is not yet ready to be replaced by Indie Rock. But the biggest role that Jazz plays in white culture is in the white fantasy of leisure. All white people believe that they prefer listening to jazz over watching television. This is not true."

From the music we have listened to over the course of this blog, the obvious overtones of jazz and cabaret styles are constantly present in Zooey's singing style and in the music of She & Him.  Above is a video of Deschanel singing Louis Armstrong's "Dream a Little Dream of Me," which provides a concrete example of her purposeful use of jazz music, or 'Black Music' in her own work.  The image of Deschanel is another example of this connection by showing her singing in her cabaret inspired band called 'If All the Stars Were Pretty Babies."

Deschanel does recognize the importance of jazz music, as NPR reports "But jazz is perhaps her biggest influence. Deschanel grew up listening to jazz greats from Ella Fitzgerald and Anita O'Day to Chet Baker and Stan Getz. "I think my knowledge of music theory is rooted in jazz theory, and a lot of the writers of standards — Rodgers and Hart, and Gershwin." Deschanel says."

In addition, Deschanel's star image is associated with vintage, particularly African American associated sounds and tastes.  With her interview in Self Magazine from August 2009, Deschanel made a short playlist for summer songs, including 2 songs by African American artists, Nina Simone's 'My Baby Just Cares for Me,' and The Shirelles' 'Everbody Loves a Lover.'  It may be suprising that Deschanel's obvious appreciation and admiration for 'Black Music' actually excentuates her whiteness, but that is what Lander suggests in his argument that black people don't listen to jazz music anymore.  So in choosing to use jazz music, Deschanel is using the fantasy that jazz music is for relaxation and leisure that is connected to the white upper middle class.