We hear so many expressions about "not enjoying" instrumental music. I'm also aware that there are those frequenting this site that who, on the other hand, prefer primarily instrumentals.

Obviously there are opinions here about the subject that I thought might be good to explore. Personally, I'm flabbergasted by both extremes. Regardless, I need your explanations for either extreme.

Thanks,

I can't remember the exact word but there was a word that American Demgraphics magazine had for ideas that circulate and take hold then become assumptions by reflex without examination.
I've seen too many people get captivated by instrumental music and enjoy it at retail, live, and on the radio. But (sorry) mostly when they were caught with their ears on and their filters down - as in:
- back when instrumentals crossed over to top 40 and A/C (which doesn't happen now because playlists are much tighter and the "promotional costs" are beyond the budget of the labels that are releasing it. We never called the "jazz" though..we just played 'em like any other song
- at retail we sold an amazing amount of accessible instrumental music via instore play to customers who had never herd it or heard of it but would come up to the counter when they heard it and ask for what was playing and more like it. AA, Ripps, Metheny, Chaquico, Boney, Shahin and Sepher, 3rd Force. This was mid 90s before it got watered down.
- Jax gets a lot of free outdoor concerts which makes life hell for promoters to bring ticketed concerts but gives a wide variety of people a chance to just be walking by a live music stage and stop, listen and get hooked. And they do. I've seen this at free outdoor concerts all over the southeast..we just have more of them here. One really specific example is when Steve Oliver was doing the music tent at the GoodGuys car shows, which draw a crowd that is as far from the "smooth jazz" profile as you can get. There would be friends, family and a few curiosity seekers at the start but by the end the seats would be full of enthusiastic new fans. Again, though, in a live setting the music is not watered down.

True, the average person is not going to be drawn to the abstract, cerebral end of instrumental music. But they aren't drawn to the abstract cerebral end of vocal music either. And the "watering down" of pop instrumentals has hurt because this Soul Ballet/Hardcastle stuff that defines the radio format has nothing to latch onto..it mostly sounds like intros and fades with no song in between and people like songs, whether someone sings or not. Expressively played instrumentals can carry the same emotional hook as a vocal but expressive playing has been filtered out of the radio end because it is "too foreground"

Vocals are more prevalent and more popular and lyrics give people something to latch on to. Vocals are more available and don't carry baggage (jazz = too cerebral, smooth jazz = retirement home music) But look back to the 40s when a good amount of popular music was instrumental. The culture affirmed it so people listened to it.

Notice that a lot of instrumentals were crossing over right before BA took over the format/genre. Had the BA criteria not taken over that trend might have continued. When the elements that grabbed peoples ears got eliminated they no longer did.

Shannon says - "Vocals are more prevalent and more popular and lyrics give people something to latch on to. Vocals are more available and don't carry baggage (jazz = too cerebral, smooth jazz = retirement home music) But look back to the 40s when a good amount of popular music was instrumental. The culture affirmed it so people listened to it."

I agree. That's pretty much it in a nutshell. 97% of the people I know listen to music as a passive thing while doing other tasks. I am (like probably many of you) an "active" listener disecting the music so to speak. The euphoric effect already happens kind of on it's own. Instrumental music takes more effort to extract out emotional effect and meaning. It has to....the story is painted upon notes and time sigs, not lyrics.

I love instrumental music! :-)

I love instrumental music of several different kinds, but I am a musician (well a drummer anyway). My wife does not like any instrumental music unless it is live. She will not give me a straight answer when I ask her about it.

My fourteen year old son likes instrumental rock but not jazz. There is no accounting for taste. Peace.

Interesting, but I guess it's who you know, or, maybe, don't know. My circle, which is rather broad, would actually go the other way and remove the "not" from the question. I've enjoyed instrumentals since before I knew what to call them. Glen Miller, Dorsey, Booker T., ever hear of a guy called Montovani? Yep, checked him out too! How about Roger Williams on piano? That goes back a few years too.

I suppose I have phases of listening that range from passive to extremely interactive depending on who, what, when, where and why. You won't catch me with headphones...I want to hear it and I want to feel it.

Anybody else listen to Mystic Moods Orchestra?

They've been reincarnated. His name is Dave Koz

ROTFLMAO.

I had just been thinking about Montovani, a couple of weeks ago, when we were talking about radio formats.... I figure smooth a/c is this generation's Montovani. Didn't think about reincarnation though....

I can't for the life of me rememeber where I read or heard this...but it was 10, 15 years ago, maybe 20:

Surveys of the public at large indicate that something like 70 per cent suveyed won't even give a song without vocals a chance!

In the rock arena this is 99 per cent true...try and name more than a handful..."Frankenstein", "Jessica", "Hocus Pocus"...name me more...

For me, I can latch on to both the singing of a saxaphone(Jay Beckenstein stated somewhere that he is best not when playing flurries of notes, eveveryone can do that, but he is at his best when he "sings"), an electric violin, a guitarist like Metheny etc...and on a vocal performance.

A vocal not only "sings" but can connect on a really mind blowing level....

I had a friend, Danny Donnelly, who played fusion guitar, loved SRV, Page, Hendrix, Satch, Eric Johnson. But when he tuned into DylanAfter I loaned Danny the Bootleg Series 1-3), he said that

Donnelly said that I had ruined him....that he had to start all over again from square one....that he could play Page and Satch and Hendrix and SRV, all had to do is figure it out and practice it....but Danny said that he(and no one else) had no hope of ever writing like Dylan...cause no one had Dylan's brain or experiences.
My point is that vocals and, especially lyrics, connect in a way that instrumental flights just can't. And maybe that is a more universal way of connecting with "casual" music fans.

Peace!
Paul

One of my favorite bands growing up was Rush. I just got hooked on their instrumentals... Years later I discovered Jazz by groups like the Rippingtons, Spyro Gyra. etc. Maybe I'm in the minority, but I truly enjoy listening to good instrumentals over vocals because the music impacts you in a way that is long lasting - as it creates a mood as unique as your surrounding at the time you hear it....

Maybe it's not the masses so much as the industry. Gemstone's mentioning Rush reminds me of the music of 30-plus years ago and beyond. It wasn't just the large, jazz-influenced bands like Earth, Wind & Fire and Chicago. But just about everybody in popular music had some kind of instrumental solo, however brief, in the majority of songs. A guitar here, a sax or piano there. I saw a band on Soul Train Classic program last weekend that dared to have a trombone solo during a song.
With the occasional exception of a group like Maroon 5, I'm not hearing much in the way of instrumental breaks in today's music. I think part of the reason we here at the Island are receptive to music that's all-instrumental is we grew up listening to bands - even small groups like the Beatles, The Police, Led Zeppelin, The Who, Genesis - even though they sang, a lot of their songs had instrumental breaks.
When you hear it a lot, you get used to it, and I think that makes for an easier transition to jazz in all its forms. But when you turn on the radio and every song is a non-stop vocal, it's much more of a challenge to appreciating anything without words.

Jazzwriter, your point is well taken. Peace.