Author Type

Graduate Student

Date of Award

1994

Document Type

Thesis

Publication Status

Version of Record

Submission Date

October 2026

Thesis/Dissertation Advisor [Chair]

Budd, Michael N.

Abstract

This thesis examines jazz music first as a language developed by African-Americans to communicate their desire for personal freedom and community, then as a commodity exploited by the commercial music industry dominated by European-Americans. Ownership and the ideology of critics are specific problems of cultural politics which hinder African-American innovators from attaining the commercial success enjoyed by white imitators, producers, and critics. Because real jazz is the creation of African-American musicians struggling to have a voice in society, it is critically denounced and underexposed, lauded and rewarded far less than commercial jazz, its diluted counterpart designed for mass consumption rather than for nationalistic expression. European-Americans largely determine the commercial fortunes of jazz because they control the entertainment industry which consists of publishing, recording, literature, radio, television and film.

Extent

127 p.

Comments

FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection|Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters|Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 1994.|FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Identifier

FADT15001

Format

pdf

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