Is This Fling With Swing a Passing Thing?

Is swing the real thing?

Is the retro big-band sound the start of a genuine new force in pop music--or is it just a momentary diversion?

The diversity of opinion on the topic is as wide as the lapels on the zoot suits favored by the artists and many of their young fans.

But a quick check of radio, retail, concert and record company insiders suggests there is more faith in the commercial viability of the music than one might assume.

Gary Bongiovanni, editor in chief of the concert industry publication Pollstar, sees an expanding audience for the upbeat music.

“I don’t know that it’s ever going to reach the mass-appeal stage, but I think it’s going to grow beyond a real small niche market,” he says. “It’s not something that was manufactured or contrived and thrown upon the public. It really kind of grew from the grass roots.

Gene Sandbloom, assistant program director at KROQ-FM (106.7), has seen no decline in enthusiasm for neo-swing among the station’s listeners.

“Probably it’s just getting bigger,” he says. “The problem right now is keeping it cool. . . .

“At one point, we were the only station playing these records. Now you’ve got [swing] in a Gap commercial, and labels are working every radio format at once. It could erode some of that cool.”

Nonsense, says Phil Sandhaus, head of strategic marketing for EMI-Capitol Records.

He says the appeal of swing among young record buyers, driven in part by exposure to the music through mainstream advertising, portends a long shelf life.

That’s why record companies, he says, are scouring the country for young swing bands.

“You see a very young high school crowd supporting swing,” Sandhaus says, “and if this is the music those fans are going to grow with, we’ve got a good five to seven years to go. . . .

The greatest skepticism seems rooted at retail.

“I don’t think it’s going to be [hot] for another two or three years,” says Scott Levin, a marketing director for the Musicland Group, the nation’s largest record retailer, “but certainly for the next six to 12 months. . . . “

Another retailer doesn’t even give it that long.

“I don’t see it going into next year,” says Bob Feteral, a Southern California regional manager for Tower Records. “It’s just a fad.”*

*

Jerry Crowe is a Times staff writer.