From Lil’ Wayne to Coltrane
Submitted by: University of North Texas
by Sam Reid, Jessica Watts, Joshua Tavana, Ramon Muzquiz, Scott Mulvahill, Jonathan Shifflett (mentor: Jason Levi)
In response to The Savvy Musician Challenge #2
Attracting New Audiences. Classical and jazz performances often appeal to only a small segment of our population, typically aficionados. Design a chamber music experience (4 players or less) that will engage new and untraditional audiences. Describe your target demographic(s), why they will be interested, the event design, and marketing strategy.
In our efforts to design an event capable of bringing a new audience into a chamber performance, we at the University of North Texas thought about what we value most in music. We wanted to make an event capable of inspiring youths to pick up an instrument and play music (even possibly ending up at UNT to further this education.) From Lil’ Wayne to Coltrane is the idea we surmised. Our concept is to create a concert experience for high school students at their own school where a handful of students will perform the popular music of the day with jazz as the medium for their peers. In this manner we hope to grasp young people’s attention with songs they know, but put a twist on it by presenting those songs in a style with which they may be unfamiliar. We think that this method could help to bring a new audience to the jazz realm.
Our target demographic will be the average American high school student, aged 13 to 18. At this age, students are being exposed to many new ideas and experiences, with music being a common thread that links many students together. By playing popular music for students of this age, students will get an introduction to a new medium via songs they may already be familiar with. These teenage years are a great opportunity for new beginnings and diversity of thought.
The chamber event we propose is to have a jazz quartet (including a vocalist) perform these new takes on pop tunes in a high school cafeteria during the students’ lunch. This would require little set-up for the players, and they would only have to play short sets, since most high schools have short lunch periods. It is important that the group include a singer, because we feel that will be another way for young audiences to instantly relate to the music. This event is designed to be a low-stress situation for the musicians and a welcome environment for student collaboration and interaction.
By having the event take place during the lunch period, students won’t have much of a choice about whether to be there. Our marketing strategy, therefore, is not so much about getting the audience to the event but rather getting them to pay attention and be engaged.
We believe that by using popular (and hopefully well-liked) tunes, and including vocal lyrics, students will be able to recognize and appreciate the songs. Also, the simple novelty of having a live band in the cafeteria will catch students’ attention, as will being exposed to a generally unfamiliar style of music. We will also use posters, flyers, and in-school announcements to generate excitement about the event. Finally, we will schedule clinics for the school’s music programs (band, orchestra, choir, etc.) so that we can directly target students who already show interest in music. This allows us to introduce young musicians to new options for career choice and musical expression and challenge stereotypes the students may have about jazz music and professional musicians. These clinics will also provide an additional opportunity to promote the event and create word-of-mouth advertising among the students.
High school teenagers are constantly looking for ways to express themselves. One possible outlet is through music, be it the writing of song lyrics or the composition and performance of an instrumental work. According to statistics available through the National Center for Education Statistics, while only ten percent of high school seniors took part in extracurricular performing arts activities in 1992, almost eighteen percent took part in these same activities in 2004. Teenagers have realized the potential positive effects that music can have, and because of this increased interest and awareness, it is important for high schools to develop and offer more programs for teenagers.
We believe that the creation of a student led ensemble performing fresh takes on familiar music will have a positive impact on the school environment, and inspire some students to further explore jazz. Music inspires audiences all over the world – and who knows, maybe the next Miles Davis will have his debut performance in a cafeteria near you.
Music Industry Entrepreneurship is the pilot class for an expanding career development department at the University of North Texas. MIE is a unique class that teaches musicians to think like entrepreneurs. Students gain an understanding of business structures, finance, accounting, marketing, and leadership. By the end of the class, they construct a clear business plan to help actualize their chosen vision in the music industry. Alumnus Jason Levi (BM, MM, MBA) created and guides the class.
5 Responses to “From Lil’ Wayne to Coltrane”
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DAVID CUTLER balances a varied career as a jazz and classical composer, pianist, educator, arranger, conductor, collaborator, concert producer, author, consultant, speaker and advocate. Dr. Cutler teaches at Duquesne University, where he also serves as Coordinator of Music Entrepreneurship Studies.
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Great ideas. I love the whole concept of the class. The whole element of business has been missing from UNT music for way too long. Way to go Jason!
Great job! A good question is why isn’t this done more often? In it’s early development small group jazz was mostly based on playing popular tunes of the day. Look through a Real Book and you’ll find that most of our jazz standards are from musicals, arguably the most popular entertainment medium from the 20’s through the 50’s.
Even Herbie Hancock released an album in the early 90’s of popular tunes from every popular genre of the day. At the time I was just awakening to jazz and found it amazing that someone like Herbie would put out a jazz version of Nirvana’s All Apologies!
Many people argue that jazz has isolated itself from the mainstream media through it’s own hubris by constantly pushing the barriers of tonality, form, and function, effectively shunning anyone who ‘doesn’t get it’. I believe the boundaries should always be pushed, but sometimes we need to bring it down to laymen’s level and get dirty. Even Johann Strauss wrote some of the best known dance tunes of his (and our) day! They just happened to be waltzes and polkas
I don’t really think this is the answer. Its an easy answer to an old question, and certainly a step in the right direction. But the lack of exposure is just one of many problems. Fusion, which has been going on since Miles Davis collaborated with A.B. Money hasn’t worked to hook new jazz audiences. Adding horn lines and solo’s to hip hop gives horn players jobs but it doesn’t get a lot of people to listen to music where the horn is the focus.
I recently played a sold out show of David Bowie, Schoenberg, and Kurt Vile. None of the music was avante garde, it was all accessible to a David Bowie loving audience. The hardest part for the audience to grasp was the orchestral background to David Bowie songs. But this type of symphonic rock is an already established genre, much like Miles playing ‘Time After Time’ and the new hip hop jazz fusion Trombone shorty.
The real issues we are trying to deal with are aesthetics, relate-ability, and fashion. The aesthetic of the American audience is drastically different than it was when jazz was mainstream. The artistic content within jazz is hard for many non-musicians to relate to for a number of reasons which a whole other blog post could be written about. and finally the fashion-abilty of jazz is almost nonexistent for the American youth. If you want jazz to be mainstream again, than you need corporate sponsorship that has a full capacity to infiltrate every aspect of the young Americans life the way that hip hop does. In other words, if you want jazz to be the next big thing again, you need to find a way to do it that will make s few non-musicians very wealthy.
I must commend the marketing strategy, I find it brilliant, and Texas high schools whose bands have an excellent reputation for quality, will likely receive the idea well.
I also must commend that this has not dissolved into a debate of old guys telling young guys that their solo’s are B.S., as all debates that have arisen on the SOTW forum have.
I must say, as significantly as I enjoyed reading what you had to say, I couldnt help but lose interest after a while. Its as if you had a excellent grasp on the topic matter, but you forgot to include your readers. Perhaps you should think about this from far more than one angle. Or maybe you shouldnt generalise so considerably. Its better if you think about what others may have to say instead of just heading for a gut reaction to the topic. Think about adjusting your personal believed process and giving others who may read this the benefit of the doubt.