Revisiting Kenny G (Colloquy)

Abstract

From fusion jazz, to quiet storm, to neo-soul and lo-fi hip hop, jazz has often been used as a marker of authenticity in contemporary Black popular genres. Given his disproportionate popularity, the class-ing, racialization, and gendering of Kenny G in popular culture has become, in effect, the lens through which we evaluate all forms of crossover jazz. Ultimately, critiques that focus on Kenny G as a means to dismiss such musics are rooted in racialized discourses of authenticity that ignore the long tradition of crossover projects that characterize Black popular musics broadly.