Talk to a jazz aficionado and they may tell you that jazz is improvisational, spontaneous, evolving and mesmerizing. Jazz is cool. Listening to funk is hip, but not cool.
Classical music can get boring.
World music eventually gets on your nerves. Soul was cool, but not anymore. From its roots in New Orleans at the turn of the century, jazz has grown into many different styles from Dixieland to contemporary. Recently, jazz may be experiencing a revival among young people as more high schools and college music departments across the county are forming jazz bands. A prime example is Bellevue, Washington where a community college is producing sounds that are so big, so polished that the band has won or placed in nearly every competition entered in the last two decades.