Boundaries and Early Jazz: Defining a New Music

Abstract

The diffusion of jazz into the musical mainstream during the 1920s served as a site for the struggle to define ongoing changes both in the arts and in the broader society. I analyze the discursive themes that framed the contention over the music by connecting the notion of boundary-work to fields of cultural production. In doing so, I demonstrate that the content of boundary-work is shaped by the field in which a speaker is positioned. ‘High’ and popular artists, civic and political leaders, and general cultural critics defined differently the alleged impact of jazz. These differences in content fueled the dynamism of the contention by giving expression to the different interests at stake, interests that reflect the specific authority to name the truth generated by a given field.