Jazz is increasingly taking center stage in pop music, enhancing both genres for their listeners at Carlmont.
Students said the incorporation of jazz into pop music leads to innovations in jazz techniques and creates more enjoyable songs.
“Jazz creates more diverse music, and it’s fun to listen to,” said Arina Bolsakova, a member of the Swiftie Club. “The usage of jazz would benefit a lot of pop songs.”
In particular, the trend of using jazz in pop music was accelerated by Laufey, a singer and musician who draws on jazz giants such as Ella Fitzgerald and Chet Baker for inspiration.
Laufey broke the debut record for Best Jazz Album on Spotify with “Bewitched.” The album also won the 2023 Grammy Award for Best Traditional Vocal Pop Album.
The inclusion of jazz in pop music has created more appreciation for jazz and diminished its stereotype as an older art form. However, Carlmont students and a local radio volunteer questioned whether people’s music tastes would be significantly altered by jazzy trends in pop music.
“You’re not going to convince people to listen to traditional jazz just by introducing them to concepts of jazz in pop music,” said Ben Mangiafico, a sophomore who plays trumpet for Carlmont’s Jazz Ensemble.
Tom Taggart, a volunteer for the radio station KCEA who helped get Carlmont’s Jazz Ensemble on air, offered an explanation for the inaccessibility of jazz.
“I’ve had people tell me that they can’t get their head around the form and the structure of jazz,” Taggart said. “The structure can be very strange for people who are used to classical music or pop.”
Still, Mangiafico thinks that the incorporation of jazz will lead to more respect for the art form, which is often branded as old and obsolete.
“Laufey’s songs give the impression that jazz is a cool art form that’s beyond the stereotype of jazz,” Mangiafico said.
Mangiafico said that the current mixing of jazz in pop music also allows for innovation in the jazz industry.
For example, Laufey uses ear monitors to play with her band, a performance technique bass player and composer Adam Neely says is designed for pop venues.
Yet Mangiafico said that this setup acts as an upscaling of what would be a pretty standard jam session.
Although jazz techniques are becoming more prevalent in pop, Mangiafico said that these jazzy trends in pop music, popularized by younger artists like Laufey, would not overshadow jazz’s blues roots, which peaked in the 20th century.
“It’s not like all of a sudden people are going to start disregarding the entire history of jazz,” Mangiafico said.
Regardless of the relationship jazz has with pop music, the Carlmont community admires and respects its existence.
Bolsakova said she hears and appreciates jazz in Swift’s “Folklore” and “Fearless” albums.
“Jazz is very versatile,” Bolsakova said. “It has a good impact on music.”
