realm's word

We’ve all heard the term ‘slept on’ used by ‘holier than thou art’ music reviewers who are so short-sighted that they genuinely believe that they’re the only people to have heard certain songs or artists.

To me, the term refers to artists or songs that were never appreciated for their true genius, be it an unknown album by a popular artists or a musician who never quite reached the dizzy heights of their potential with recordings being in limited supply and once sold out, lost to the depths of a dusty record box.

Few genre’s are slept on more than Jazz and Funk and for obvious reasons.

Jazz comes in various guises and whilst many would love to love it, they just can’t get into the raw, artistic musings of a live musicians ten minute solo epic which is so often the deterrent to so many Jazz-club first timers. For me, Jazz remains the modern day’s most pure form of music and remains the antithesis of ‘cool’, even if it’s a genre that has in reality changed little since its conception.

Funk is easier for the masses to swallow and digest. It is, on face value, light hearted and comes with the head-nodding element. That said, a popular Funk track will in most cases require some sort of repetitive hook to allow for crowds to learn the words and sing along to, or alternatively have a decent ‘break’ which subsequently allowed DJ’s to mix, cut and juggle whilst the B-boys do their ‘thang’. Funk is designed for clubs in the same way that Disco was, the former subsequently created Hip Hop and the latter started the House music movement. The former gained popularity whilst being ‘publically’ played in Punk Rock clubs and the latter was ideal for the Gay scene – then record labels and money got involved with both.

In true cyclical fashion we now see modern day derivatives of Hip Hop, ‘RnB’ and ‘Rap’ merging together where artists collaborate to ensure commercial success across both fan bases (see Jay-Z and R. Kelly collabo albums as proof). However, as the genre has exhausted creativity and top name producers have all seen their hay days after years of hard work (Neptunes, Timbaland et al have been around for a LONG time and only recent got full recognition as artists in their own right) and where has ‘RnB/Rap’ moved to?

Answer: House.

Replacing the lower tempo beats normally associated with the genre, RnB/Rap musicians have noticed a decrease in their popularity as target audiences grow older and so in order to move with the times, artists such as Ne-Yo and others now incorporated their RnB style with an up tempo, club friendly House beat. On the more strict House music side, we see the increasing incorporation of live instruments to add more depth to the bland 4/4 beats which put deter so many through repetition. Of course, there’s Funky House, Jazzy House and hundreds of other variations. Rnb, Rap and Hip Hip too have sub genre’s where some artists try to stay true to ‘proper’ music.

It’s almost an admission in my view, that musicians of said genres tend to lean towards incorporating original elements of other foundation genre’s in order to add credibility to their music. Don’t get me wrong, I still listen and I really enjoy fusion music.

I compare music to textile fashion though. My wardrobe changes in colours, patterns and cuts. However the constants remain: I still wear Trousers, Shirts, Jackets, Shoes, Socks etc and furthermore, within those main categories of clothing, I will always have a classic White Shirt.

The White Shirt is to my wardrobe what Jazz is to my music - The one true constant that works with everything, no matter what the fashion.

You can quote me on that, perhaps it’ll be etched on my grave in 70 years or so.

This all brings me back to my original point, many artists are ‘slept on’ but none so much as in the Jazz genre where the music has and seemingly will always remain the artistic expression of emotion that is perhaps only ever truly understood by one person – the musician who made it.