#them otherwise; vocal pop (especially of the midcentury) is often jazz inspired and not by definition jazz but if you're going to fall back

[leonardcohenofficial]

remember when (white) music men on the internet were acting as if laufey's growing popularity was the ultimate reason to start both hating on her and gatekeeping jazz; is laufey the gen Z savior of jazz? doubtful. is her type of vocal pop very clearly influenced by midcentury jazz, bossa nova, musical theatre and movie musical scores, etc., as well as reflective of her years of training and musical knowledge? yes. it's also quite good music and she knows what she's talking about which i think threatens people who view "pop" as an entirely flattening or dismissive signifier. i don't really care about the jazz/not jazz debate (and people citing the marsalis definition i think are also often being purposefully obtuse + resistant to music that doesn't fit his very narrow neotraditional view of the genre—by his standards much of spiritual and free jazz wouldn't "count" but i digress) when people are using it as a distraction or smokescreen to avoid talking about the actual quality of the music which as previously stated, i think when it comes to laufey is very good and i look forward to hearing what she does next