Music Has An Acute Effect On People - 1436 Words

Music has an acute effect on people. It has the power and versatility to make people feel contempt and miserable. This versatility makes it popular among people, as there are a wide variety of moods displayed in music that can reflect the listeners well being. Jazz has been an extremely popular form of music throughout time. Its interesting melodies and meaningful lyrics give voice to artists to display their emotions through beauteous music. During its heyday in the 1920’s, jazz singing was a landscape of the American sound (Carr 9). Being a jazz singer, Billie Holiday deserves to be put on the list of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century. Not only for her being in the general population of influential jazz musicians, but†¦show more content†¦Holidays voice influenced jazz world, by widening the spectrum of what jazz could be, thus opening jazz up to more vocal types. This influence revolutionized jazz singing by bringing a fresh voice to a world of ja zz that was still growing in the 1920’s. Holiday had a superiority of skill level to other jazz singers in the 1920’s, so it is unquestionable that the influence of her distinct voice reached many, as her fame allowed her to. Holiday had a keen effect on her masses as her â€Å"exceptional voice made her audience connect with her and feel a certain way about her that no one else could match. Her haunting, sometimes even eerie sound had a mysterious effect on her audiences†¦ In her small pretty voice, capable of creating new, blue sounding melodies, they heard the sound of nostalgia- a longing for missed opportunities, and lost love† (Gourse Billie 14). Holiday was far more than a singer, she was a common person. She had both woes and triumphs, as all people do, and she did not hide that in her voice. Holiday used her distinctly haunting voice to lure one in to listen, and once they were listening, they saw their own struggles in her melodies. By doing this, Holiday connected with her audience and portrayed her humanity to them. The distinct vocal cues, a grunt or a moan, could be all that an