The genre jazz is widely overlooked as it is often seen as very dated. 24-year-old Icelandic singer, Laufey Lín Jónsdóttir recently grew a large following over her light voice paired with groovy tracks. Laufey’s 2nd studio album, Bewitched, was released September 8, garnering support from her fans.
Jazz itself has been lacking recently. Spotify has been caught promoting fake musicians due to the lack of new jazz artists. The genre has been slowly dimming down as the newer generation does not seem to enjoy jazz as much as older generations have.
Unfortunately, as music ages many times it is no longer relevant. Music is timeless; however, the popularity of certain genres can fluctuate. Genres popular in the ‘50s are different than those popular now, but there is always the possibility of reviving the genre, like what Laufey is doing.
Laufey added a modern flare to the genre, making it appealing to the younger generation. It is nice to see an underappreciated form of art coming back in this way.
Her newest album gained over 31 million listeners within the first two weeks of its release, not including hit, “From the start.” Allowing jazz to gain the recognition it needed as of recently is heartwarming to say the least. Many hope other “dead” genres will be revived similar to how jazz was.
Laufey gained fame overnight following the release of her song “Valentine” in early 2022. Since then, Laufey has gained 13.5 million monthly listeners and over 2.8 million TikTok followers. Another song that has gained positive attention recently off her discography is “From The Start,” which was released May 11th, 2023.
Laufey is currently the most streamed jazz singer on Spotify, despite only making music for a short amount of time. According to Neilson report in 2015, jazz made up only about 1.3% of all music consumption in the US. On the contrary, more recent reports show 6% of all vinyl record sales are jazz records.
Younger artists performing underrated genres allows for new fans to arise and popularize the genre again. Underrated genres including classical, grunge and disco could use someone like Laufey to revive the genre.
