There is a book entitled Everything I Know About Life I Learned from My Cat.  I’m discovering more and more every day just how true this could be.  You see, in February we switched over to the dark side.  After being long-time dog owners/lovers, my husband and I brought home an adorable puffball of a kitten whom we named Zeke.  Zeke has a fancy pedigree name, but that’s neither here nor there.  The point is, in the last nine months, I’ve learned a lot about life from Zeke.

Lately, while I eagerly watch to see what he has to show me that day, I’ve noticed that he actually has quite a lot to say about the future of smooth jazz.  The lessons basically apply to more than just smooth jazz, but this is SmoothViews, so I’m going to keep a narrow focus. 

We debate, from time to time, how to keep smooth jazz alive.  Inevitably, the conversation goes to attracting a younger audience, because it stands to reason that if your audience continues to age and doesn’t attract younger people, then sooner or later, it goes the way of the dinosaur and becomes extinct.  We all basically agree that, one way or another, we need to reach out to the younger crowd – not so much the high school and college crowd, but certainly the late-20s and early 30s crowd. 

This is what Zeke had to say about that.

1. Young cats don’t sleep as much as older cats, so they need more stimulation.
   Translation: Smooth jazz needs to be less relaxing and more engaging.
2. Young cats like to chase things, and catching things is not nearly as much fun as chasing them.
   Translation:  The music needs to be interesting enough to chase, and it has to move and go somewhere fun before it can be chased.
3. Young cats have nice sharp healthy teeth and like to chew real food like tuna and chicken.  They also need more protein and calories than older cats.
   Translation:  The music needs to be flavorful and substantive, not overly processed, dried and boring, easy to chew and digest kibble.
4. Young cats think it’s more fun to play with other young cats than it is to play with older ones.  They also think young cats are more fun to watch than older ones.
   Translation:  Do what you will to perk the music up, there needs to be more young musicians playing smooth jazz if it is to attract young listeners.
5. Young cats (and old ones, alike) want fresh food.  If it’s not fresh they won’t eat it.
   Translation:  Doing nothing but covers of oldies just isn’t going to bring in a younger audience.  “Classics” from the 70s and 80s may mean something to people in their 40s and 50s, but they don’t mean a thing to people in their 20s (who weren’t even alive for most or any of the 70s).  And let’s face it, stale is stale no matter how old you are.

So you see, you really can learn a lot from your cat!