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Constructing the meaning of early jazz, 1917–1930

2003; Elsevier BV; Volume: 31; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/s0304-422x(03)00019-6

1872-7514

Scott Appelrouth,

Musicology and Musical Analysis

This study examines the contention over jazz as it entered the cultural mainstream. Analyzing national print media, I detail how the struggle to define the music was waged through a discourse that underscored the music's alleged impact on artistic standards. While nearly all observers viewed jazz as subverting “legitimate” musical practices, there was not a similar consensus regarding evaluations of these boundary transgressions. To account for the divergent reactions, I argue we must be sensitive to the interaction between the features or qualities of jazz, and institutional and normative shifts occurring within the relevant fields. As I aim to demonstrate, the meanings assigned to jazz reflected not only its musical and performance aspects, but also the impact of new sound technologies, and the broader conflict over the changing meanings of leisure pursuits and the moral order they affirmed.