The term Jewish music means diffferent things to different people. My experience and vocation lie in the music listened to by Orthodox Jews, played at their smachot, and sung in their shuls. It is characterized by the works of Shlomo Carlebach , who is the single biggest influence in the last two generations, Mordechai Ben David , Avraham Fried and and a host of others. I exclude klezmer music from this discussion even though it has its own niche and is regarded by most people, Jewish and non- Jewish as the example par excellence of Jewish music. So what is the state of the art? There are 2 areas which I am involved in and would like to comment on. One is the music that is being created today. The second is the state of live performance. For now I will talk about what music is being written today.
In general Jewish music is no different than the general market. There's some good stuff coming out, and a lot of mediocre stuff and an awful lot of bad stuff. Part of the problem lies in the fact that Jewish music must of necessity borrow from the general musical milieu. It has done so for the past 3 millenia and will continue to do so. However it also must constrain itself by retaining a form that is recognizable as Jewish music. Not so easy. People keep on making feeble and misguided attempts to use loops and grooves(tech terms for electronic tricks) in their music, but thus far not to much headway has been made.(thank goodness). The main reason so few good songs come out is that the Jewish music business has become just that-big business. As such there are vested interests who are able to control what goes in and comes out of the field. It then becomes a closed network where the quality of music is not wha'ts driving the market. Instead a few well established singers get their material through a well established pipeline. Their songs good or bad are pushed by radio, dance teachers and the stores. Hmmm... sounds like the general music market.
Do I have any suggstions to remedy this? For one thing, the song writers should pay more attention to fundamentals of melody construction. There are people who do this well-Regesh for one(I have no connection to Regesh, but I know a well constructed melody when I hear it). Second there should be a Jewish music site on the web where artists can throw up some of their music for perusal by the public.
Next time: Live performance and how to pick a band for your simcha without getting taken to the cleaners.