Paradigms of rock music and jazz: comparative discourse
Authors: Yakhno О.І 
Published: March 2020

Objectives and methodology. The article is devoted to the revealing of the relation and differences between rock music and jazz, as the phenomena of the “third” layer. It is noted, that, in methodological terms, such a comparative approach is advisable to implement with the use of a paradigm apparatus that fixes a certain commonality in the development of each of the studied phenomena at different stages of evolution. The application of this concept to the phenomena of art is a characteristic feature of modern musicology. In the broadest sense, the paradigm is the possibility of “thinking by analogy” (according to Aristotle), and in music it relates both to the field of theory (views on music as a form of art) and practice (musical and artistic phenomena as the products of composer and performing art).The article proposes a classification of rock music paradigms, which are based on the available data on the aesthetics and communication of jazz and notes that rock music on the path of its evolution has passed a number of stages, which in general can be designated as paradigms. The article suggests a comparative description of the movement of aesthetic and communicative paradigms of jazz and rock music. It is noted that in jazzology this issue has long been relevant, which is not the case for the study of rock music. Despite all the differences in the time of emergence and the nature of evolution, vocabulary and semantics, social functions, jazz and rock have many “common points”. The results of the research. Such features, of jazz and rock music, as improvisational nature, a variety of intonational sources that combine multinational and diverse trends are revealed and systematized as common points. Among the special features are distinguished such as the reliance of jazz mainly on the instrumental and rock music on a mixed vocal and instrumental basis; first is referring to “elitist”, second is referring to “mass”. Various syntheses are also common in jazz and rock music, as well as the correlation of composition and improvisation, performing and authorial principles. It is not so much about mutual influences and syntheses, but about the directions of evolution, the general nature of which is defined as the movement from “realistic” to “phenomenological” (A. Soloviev on the jazz paradigms). At its onset, rock music, like jazz, has been “embedded” in the system of the social and political movement, where its autonomous aesthetic function was not yet identified (youth movements of the 1960s, within which the corresponding “protest music” arose). In the process of mastering vocabulary specific to rock music as a phenomenon of the “third” layer, a new paradigm arose, characterized first as conventionally realistic, and then as conventionally autonomous, where rock music reaches the level of professional art in which laws and rules are established by its representatives themselves (this period begins from the Beatles and will continue further by their followers – “Rolling Stones”, “Led Zeppelin”, “Deep Purple” and other groups). It is noted that “people of rock” as well as “people of jazz” are a special social and communicative community, in which the idea of free communication is the main and determining one, where social, interpersonal, and actually musical factors intertwine. The unifying communicative factor in jazz and rock music is the art of improvisation, in which, in symbiosis, the processes of creating and performing music coexist spontaneously, but are subject to certain paradigm settings. It is emphasized that in the social context, jazz and rock differ in ethnic and age factors, which, however, is eventually overcome in modern global society through consolidation (convergence of African-American and European sources of jazz, transition of rock groups to a more general theme that differs from the original youth focus). It is also noted that rock music, unlike jazz, is too deeply connected with social factors and is always based on topical themes, generalized with varying degrees of artistry. Therefore, its degree of autonomy is much lower than that of elite jazz, which by the last decade of the 20th century had turned into the officially recognized salon art, or into a “conglomerate” consisting of pop elements of various kinds close to the aesthetics of the show industry. It is proved that the differences between jazz and rock music are most clearly manifested at the level of radical-and-phenomenal paradigm, which means plunging into the realm of banal “nothing”, where acts (but actually – does not act) the principle of “no wave” (A. Soloviev about jazz) . While jazz in the post-bop period developed towards elite art under the Free rubric, the extreme expression of which was spontaneous collective “impersonal” (lack of leadership, lack of frontman), the style of rock music developed in a different direction, the vector of which can be considered the opposite of jazz. Firstly, in the field of stylistics and language as its primary carrier, rock music meant a return to improvisational syncretism – a dramatic combination of poetry and music. Secondly, rock music is directly immersed, unlike elite jazz with its style of full linguistic freedom and collage, in the realm of relevant musical and poetic vocabulary, coming not from the rhetorical type of creativity (translating “artificial” into “new artificial”), but from the realities of the set of generally accessible linguistic means, which exists at a given historical moment (and in a certain “geography”). In the conclusions of the article, it is noted that rock music, even in its experimental radical and phenomenological manifestations, associated mainly with the sound realm (electronics, dynamics), remains, as a whole, the phenomenon of pop culture. This does not mean the absorption of rock art by the realm of mass consumerism. The best rock music pieces, which have already become classic, combine in reasonable proportions the “elite” (innovative) and “mass” (traditional), give a special rational embodiment of the idea of combining improvisation and composition – the “cornerstone” in the musical art of the entire “third” layer. The aesthetics and communication of rock music in its latest paradigms are differentiated according to the criteria of various stylistic inclinations – genre, national, regional, personal. Therefore, the study of modern rock music is the task of a number of separate studies devoted to specific issues of the problem, in particular, its main difference from jazz, namely, in the vocal and instrumental nature.