What is considered jazz music nowadays? If you’re active in the music community, you might’ve heard of artists such as Thundercat, Laufey, or Berlioz who are considered jazz musicians. All these artists seemingly have very different styles of music, but they all fall under one large category, which is jazz. Jazz often has the connotation of only being for educated, high-class people, but that’s not always the case. Back in its uprise in the late 19th century, the genre was seen as rebellious and “music for the people.” Many other artists are picking up on this trend and straying away from the traditional syncopated rhythm, opting for more pop, fusion, psychedelia, and way more subgenres of jazz that have emerged since the 1940s. With expanding technology, there’s more room for experimentalism in the genre. The rise of jazz means new things for separate genres as well, such as rap. Seeing as rap originated from scat solos (scat being a subgenre of jazz), during hip-hop’s emergence, it was seen the same way jazz was seen in the late 19th century as being immoral. More and more members of Gen-Z are starting to follow this music trend without even realizing it; the future of jazz is bright and doesn’t seem to be slowing down in terms of popularity any time shortly. New experimental jazz artists are popping out of the woodwork seemingly every day, and we look forward to what this new generation adds to jazz and music as a whole.