"Lifestyle? What is that? I barely have time to have a life!"
- Female smooth jazz fan: fortysomething, two jobs, two kids, caregiver for aging parent.

I tuned into an internet radio show the other day and heard one of our most popular artists saying, "It’s a lifestyle." Reading one of the industry's most influential trade publications, I see that same phrase almost weekly in articles related to the corporate smooth jazz radio stations.  I turn on our local smooth jazz station and hear someone say, "Music for the smooth jazz lifestyle."  That phrase has become the autopilot default when marketers discuss smooth jazz, and now it has crept into the vocabulary of the musicians who play it.  I find it both incomprehensible and scary.  It is not a "lifestyle." It's music!  As the focus shifts more and more toward the lifestyle concept, the music moves further into a secondary position.  It becomes a superficial accessory with no more significance than a pricey vehicle or designer dress.  That is not how I relate to music.  It's not how the listeners I talked to when I was in radio or the people I see at concerts relate to it either.

What exactly do they mean by "lifestyle" anyway?  How did it become associated with this music?  You never hear anyone refer to rock, hip-hop, R&B, or country music being related to a lifestyle.  You become a fan of a given type of music because you hear a few songs you like and then start seeking out more of them.  That doesn't mean you're going to change your behavior or values in order to fit into a narrowly defined profile.  It means you enjoy the music, it touches you in some way and you want to hear more of it.  That should be enough.  Yet at some point "lifestyle" began to creep into the vocabulary of radio personalities and account executives, then marketers and even music writers picked it up.

It certainly wasn't there at the beginning.  The songs that originally defined and launched the genre in the late 70s -- songs like "Breezin," "Angela (Theme From Taxi)," "Feels So Good," and "Sun Goddess" -- were Top 40 hits.  They broke through on a format aimed at reaching the widest and most diverse audience possible.  Steely Dan's Aja turned a lot of people on to Larry Carlton, Lee Ritenour, The Crusaders and stretched out jazzy solos in general.  Fans of both rock and Top 40 heard it.  People liked it, they bought it, and they sought out more.  Your age, education, and income level, and the amount of stuff you owned didn't matter.  If you enjoyed the music, you could call it your own.

Did it start in the 80s when image consciousness became fashionable and money was flowing freely in certain circles? The word had been around awhile.  It seems to have been created to replace the word "Women's" in the section of the newspaper that covered cooking, fashion, and social events.  It was a catchy little word.  Life plus style.  As demographics became more important and marketers started categorizing people by their behavior and tastes, "lifestyle" became a catch phrase for labeling these segments and zoning in on the ones with the most purchasing potential.  Deeper into that era the focus started to shift away from "life" and towards "style.”  And that's when the WAVE pioneered the radio format in L.A., the market where style matters most.  Maybe that's how it began to be associated with our music. In an industry that was driven by youth culture, fads, and trends, this was music that appealed to grownups and was disengaged from pop culture.  Was acknowledgment of that the first step down the road to this narrow focus?  By the mid-90s the words "sophisticated and upscale" were ubiquitous. Now you can't turn on the radio or open a smooth jazz related publication without being told that this can only be your music if your life fits a narrow little profile.

These days not many people fit that profile.  We're a long way from that heady yuppie boom in the 80s.  Priorities have shifted toward caring for aging parents and tuition for college bound kids.  Layoffs and cutbacks hang over our heads as gas prices rise hourly and balloon payments on mortgages loom.  For every person who can afford to take a week or two off work, pay other people to take care of their kids and pets, and take off on an expensive cruise there are hundreds of thousands of us who love this music just as much, but can barely get off work on time to drive straight to a concert. Concerts promoted as "elegant evenings" or held at exclusive venues and accompanied by wine tastings are just too intimidating to deal with after another high stress day.  This type of elitism permeates promotion of smooth jazz events. Why are we telling people that if they don't have a specific "lifestyle," this music is not for them and then getting upset about the fact that the audience seems to be shrinking instead of growing? 

There are not many types of current music that adults can claim as their own.  Smooth jazz is one of them.  Beyond those high-gloss low-key songs that are designed to be nothing more than embellishment, there is a whole world of music that can inspire, delight, uplift, and simply take you away.  We need that more than ever right now.  This music is for people from all walks of life.  If they love it when they hear it, they should be welcomed with open arms regardless of their income level or the labels in their clothes. Let's take off the black ties, open the doors to a cozy and welcoming room, and invite everyone to come in and hang out!  

- Shannon West