Q14 - Although early jazz music

[smiller]

Question Type:
Weaken

Stimulus Breakdown:
Premise: in early jazz music, improvisation remained close to the melody on which it was based.
Premise: Later music features improvisation that strays far from the melody.
Conclusion: This later music should not be classified as jazz.

Answer Anticipation:
The argument assumes that this one difference between early jazz and later music proves that the later music should not be classified as jazz. We could weaken the argument by noting a similarity between the two types of music—in particular, a similarity that plays a larger role in the classification of music.

Correct answer:
(E)

Answer choice analysis:
(A) Illegal reversal: We could weaken the argument by stating that, if a piece of music features any improvisation, it should be classified as jazz. If that is true, the amount of improvisation doesn't matter, However, this answer choice states that if a piece of music is classified as jazz it's required to feature improvisation. That's the reverse of what we want.

(B) Unhelpful comparison: One type of music being influenced by another does not prove that both should be classified as the same type of music. Ever heard of rock and roll music? It's a popular type of music that was heavily influenced by jazz.

(C) Unhelpful comparison: If a musician plays one type of music in his early career, it doesn't mean that any music he performs later must be of the same type.

(D) Opposite function: This could strengthen. If improvisation was unique to jazz, we might doubt whether a difference in the degree of improvisation proves that the newer music shouldn't be called jazz.

(E) Correct: This is very close to what we predicted. If the later music is more similar to jazz than to any other type of music, it's less likely that one specific difference would be a reason to classify them differently.

Takeaway/Pattern:
When a conclusion is supported by evidence of two things being different, we can weaken the argument by showing how they are similar.

#officialexplanation

[JaredH639]

Couldn't we also assert that this later music should be categorized as something else entirely? So, (E) is true and thus this later music does not resemble any other type of music but the conclusion still holds and thus this later music ought to form an entirely new genre. Is that flawed?

[JIEL790]

hi thanks for the clarification, may I ask why a conclusion from two things being different would be weakened by bringing up more similarities? Seeing that LSAT is about certainty, i am not sure if there is anything certain here about E that offers me the satisfication I need to move on? thanks.