Fizz vs. Jazz

Jazz Pills and Fizz Pills

Fizz is a sub-genre of EDM with a huge amount of Jazz influence. There are countless similarities between Jazz and Fizz, but their differences warrant categorizing them differently. Similar to how it's useful to categorize Jazz separately from Blues, and Blues separately from Spirituals.

This is what skeptics tend to misunderstand about Fizz: Fizz can't identify their music as Jazz since they're musically, culturally and philosophically incompatible. If they did identify as such, the amount of norms being broken would lead them to (rightfully) get criticized by Jazz purists. The Fizz community doesn't identify as it's own thing out of arrogance, disrespect or a delusion that they invented something they didn't, it's purely out of refusal to submit to the Jazz imperial complex, and out of respect for Jazz purists who, if they heard a Fizz song like Weevil Lore by phonon or LACKSTRIKE by Convexity, would definitely not say that it's "real Jazz".

Let's just say that the "Fizz is just repackaged Jazz" talking point isn't coming from living Jazz legends like Herbie Hancock, Wynton Marsalis or anyone actually invested in their tradition, it's typically parroted by casual Jazz Fusion fans that haven't listened to much Fizz, don't have the ear to notice the obvious differences, haven't interacted with any actual Jazz purists who would disagree with them, and think that anything with modal interchange and chord extensions is Jazz (Those things are used regularly in Classical music btw).

Differences between Jazz and Fizz

The following is a list of musical and philosophical differences between Jazz and Fizz. Some of the characteristics listed under "Jazz" might not necessarily apply to Jazz-identifying genres like Nu Jazz or Jazztronica, but that's something for them to reckon with.

	Jazz	Fizz
Origin	Spearheaded primarily by Black Americans in the early 20th century. Derived from Blues, Ragtime, West African Music and European Classical Music.	Spearheaded primarily by a wide assortment of Americans in the 2020s. Derived from Nu-Jazz, Jazz Fusion, Dubstep and other EDM subgenres.
Improvisation	Fundamental.	Heavily embraced.
Music Theory	Heavily embraced.	Fundamental.
Sound Design	Not heavily embraced.	Fundamental.
Live vs Recorded	Live music is more important than recorded music. The recording is understood to be a "snapshot" of the live performance.	Live music and recorded music are equally important. The recording is understood to be the platonic ideal of the song, with live performances being instantiations of it.
Ethics of Production Tools	Quantization, autotune and editing are seen as permissible, but these kinds of tools used in excess can make a piece sound overproduced, which takes away from the humanity of it.	Quantization, autotune and any kind of editing are seen as tools that add humanity to the music. The term "overproduced" is almost never used unironically in the Fizz community.
Gatekeeping	Jazz Imperial Complex	If a song is in line with the Fizzosophy and the composer identifies it as such, it's Fizz. Not a definition that Charlie Kirk would be a fan of, but that's how it is.
Song Structure	Jazz traditionally contains 2 instances of the "head" with at least 1 solo in the middle. There are no hard rules for what happens around or in between those sections.	There are basically no rules, but most Fizz can be understood as having verse-chorus song structure. Fizz frequently features bridges, buildups and drops, and occasionally features breakdowns and aftersections.
Instrumentation	Acoustic/Electric instruments are featured primarily, but there are no hard rules.	Electronic sounds and instruments are featured primarily, but there are no hard rules.
Tropes	II V I cadences Chromaticism Swing Walking bass lines	VI VII I cadences Melodic hooks Rigid, quantized rhythms Jumpy bass lines
Swing	On a basic level, swing is described as a displacement of every other beat on the grid. In reality, swing is an extremely complex, fluid grid that takes years to feel intuitively (as a musician).	Swing is understood to be the mere mathematical operation of displacing every other beat on the grid, often described by percentages (ex. 57% swing, 66% swing) by DAW users.
Harmony	Jazz harmony doesn't shy away from utilizing concepts like altered chord extensions, chromaticism, bebop scales and diminished scales. Fizz harmony tends to be more diatonic and use simpler, brighter extensions and scales, with it's complexity arising more from modal interchange.
Percussion	For the most part, Jazz uses acoustic drums, whereas Fizz uses electronic drums. This is also the main factor that differentiates most Jazz from Jazztronica. This difference may seem trivial at first, but composers who have experience with both can confirm that acoustic kicks/snares and heavier electronic kicks/snares arguably don't even have the same percussive function. Other small differences include Jazz's iconic ride cymbal patterns, you won't hear much of that in Fizz, and conversely, you won't hear many quantized quarter-note claps in Jazz.