despite music's relative obscurity- something doesn't feel right

Hi - I agree. This does not look right to me - there should be a 'the' or something.

Aries - can you please specify your source - or take a look at proof reading your question.

Thanks

james

Whom does " he" refers to ???
Jazz or Benny??

There is no confusion about this Jazz is a form of music so he cannot refer to jazz.
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I just observed the parallelism error in neither-nor and choose the option C which is correct answer.

However I wanna know,is there any other grammatical error in this sentence?

Whats wrong with second clause " having been......obscurity"

Hi crakgmat
I'm happy to help.

Jazz was neither popular nor was often played in auditoriums until it was revived by Benny Golson in the mid-twentieth century, having been won over by the music's sound despite its relative obscurity.

A. Jazz was neither popular nor was often played in auditoriums until it was revived by Benny Golson in the mid-twentieth century, having been won over by the music's sound despite its relative obscurity.
Wrong. Parallelism problem: neither POPULAR nor WAS OFTEN PLAYED....

B. Jazz was neither popular nor played often in auditoriums until it was revived by Benny Golson in the mid-twentieth century, having been won over by the music's sound despite its relative obscurity.
Wrong. "having been won......" is Verb-ing modifier + comma ==> modifies preceding clause. However, who was won by the music's sound in order to revive Jazz? Only Benny Golsson. Thus, we need a modifier that modifies Benny, not the preceding clause. ==> Verb-ing modifier is wrong here.

C. Jazz was not popular and was not often played in auditoriums until Benny Golson revived it in the mid-twentieth century, after he was won over by the sound despite music's relative obscurity.
Correct.

D. Jazz was did not have popularity nor was it performed in auditoriums until its revival by Benny Golson, who in the mid-twentieth century was won over by the music's sound despite its relative obscurity.
Wrong. Parallelism problem: did not have ...nor was......

E. Jazz was neither popular nor was often played in auditoriums until Benny Golson revived it in the mid-twentieth century, when he was won over by the sound of the relatively obscure music.
Wrong. Parallelism problem. neither POPULAR nor WAS OFTEN PLAYED.....

Hope it helps.

Source for the question is: Edvento

Jazz was neither popular nor was often played in auditoriums until it was revived by Benny Golson in the mid-twentieth century, having been won over by the music's sound despite its relative obscurity.

Found two errors in original sentence:
1. neither popular nor was often played - neither(adjective) nor (verb) - not parallel.
2. having been won over by the music's sound despite its relative obscurity. - having been won - wrong tense.

A. Same
B. point 2 not still remains
C. Jazz was not popular and was not often played in auditoriums until Benny Golson revived it in the mid-twentieth century, after he was won over by the sound despite music's relative obscurity.
D. did not have popularity nor was it performed -not parallel.
E. Same as 1

Hope it helps!

In the correct option C, how come two independent sentences are connected by a preposition "after"? Can any oneplease clarify? shouldnt the statements seperated by semi column?

Damn it ! I did not read C fully and rejected it assuming what the rest of the sentence was going to be and Chose E. Of course C is the correct one !

Also, one more thing. In Choice E we have "when he was won over...". First Benny was won over by the music and then he revived it. Therefore "after he was won over..." is a better choice. "when..." seems to put an emphasis on the time, but in reality the emphasis should be on "reviving" and "after" he was won over.

Why not? There is no rule as far as I know prohibiting such a construction if it is required to convey the necessary meaning.

Example:

Harry met Sally.
He had breakfast.

Harry met Sally after he had breakfast.

Harry scored high marks in the essay writing competition.

He read Robert L. Stevenson's primer on essay writing.

Harry scored high marks in the essay writing competition after he read Robert L. Stevenson's primer on essay writing.

"after he was won over by the sound despite music's relative obscurity"

After he was won over by what sound? The sound he made going poopies? And despite what music's relative obscurity? Was all types of music obscure?

The only correct way to say this would be to phrase it so: after he was won over by the music's sound despite its relative obscurity.
Here "the music" correctly refers to jazz and "its" refers to "the music".

Hi Expert,

In this question though I chose Option C as it resolves parallelism error but "won over by the sound despite music's relative obscurity." part of the sentence does not convey the meaning clearly that comparison is done between "music's sound" and "music's relative obscurity" instead sentence compares any "sound" .

Thanks!

C should actually say "the music's," to make it clear that we are talking about jazz. Otherwise, the sentence is saying that all music was obscure in the 1950's. This was probably just an omission on the part of the OP.
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Jazz was neither popular nor was often played in auditoriums until it was revived by Benny Golson in the mid-twentieth century, having been won over by the music's sound despite its relative obscurity.

A. Jazz was neither popular nor was often played in auditoriums until it was revived by Benny Golson in the mid-twentieth century, having been won over by the music's sound despite its relative obscurity. -- No need of a passive voice here. Also having been makes the sentence awkward. Its can refer to sound or music, not sure. ELIMINATED

B. Jazz was neither popular nor played often in auditoriums until it was revived by Benny Golson in the mid-twentieth century, having been won over by the music's sound despite its relative obscurity. -- Often in front of auditorium changes the meaning of the sentence. ELIMINATED

C. Jazz was not popular and was not often played in auditoriums until Benny Golson revived it in the mid-twentieth century, after he was won over by the sound despite music's relative obscurity. -- Despite music's relative obscurity, shows the ability of Benny and no confusing words are used in this sentence. CORRECT

D. Jazz was did not have popularity nor was it performed in auditoriums until its revival by Benny Golson, who in the mid-twentieth century was won over by the music's sound despite its relative obscurity. -- "was did not" this is completely a mess. ELIMINATED

E. Jazz was neither popular nor was often played in auditoriums until Benny Golson revived it in the mid-twentieth century, when he was won over by the sound of the relatively obscure music. -- this says obscure music is a type, there are other types of music of which obscure music is one. Also "when" makes the two actions parallel here. Benny revived Jazz when he was won over by the sound of the relatively obscure music. ELIMINATED

A, D and E are out as neither... nor parallelism is not maintained accurately here

B- "having been won over by the music's sound despite its relative obscurity"
its refer to music again , does not sound right .Also Use of having been is not correct

C is correct choice here