Mark Sandow has an interesting piece on his blog about the aging audience for classical music, and the various reactions people often have, such as denial. It’s a major issue that faces almost all arts organizations to some extent, but really is not even an arts issue any more - overall our population is again. Teachers, government officials, corporate types - just thumb through any national publication and you’ll likely see articles about how some remarkably high percentage of the population of _______ is aging, about to retire, not being replaced by new workers, etc.
But classical music is especially challenged in this area. Jazz is too. Just go to a jazz concert or a festival, and observe the audience. It’s not the most youthful group. Thankfully, the jazz audience isn’t quite as old as the classical audience, and it’s certainly more diverse. A recent study (2006) by the Jazz Alliance International (PDF download) says that 41 percent of the jazz audience is under 39 year old, which quite frankly surprised me. Another 37 percent are between 40 and 55. I had expected the numbers to be much older.
Now let’s think about those numbers and ages for a moment. Those 41 percent of people under 39 years old, did not grow up in a world where jazz was popular music. And most of those in the 40-55 age group didn’t either. These are children of the rock and roll generation. They obviously came to find out about, or enjoy jazz at some point - but when? And how? This is the information I’d like to find out. I often ask people who become members of the station how they found out about the station, and how they got into jazz. Some have stories of growing up listening to mom and dad play records by Dave Brubeck and Shelly Manne, or going to see the CTI All Stars at the Warnors Theatre as teenagers. But most of them seem to have stumbled across the music as adults. And I say “stumbled” because it often seems more like an accident, as opposed to “seeking out” the music. They happen across the radio station, like the music, and get become “jazz fans”. Maybe they had some early exposure to the music at home, but most of them probably (my conjecture here) we’re active jazz fans in their teens or twenties.
If true, this dispels the myth that jazz has no future if it’s not “pop” music. Pop is targeted to a teen audience, and if yesterdays teens of the (1960’s and 70’s) are becoming jazz fans in their 30s or 40s. It also dispels the myth that adults musical tastes are set in stone by the time they reach adulthood.