Jazz Performance of 1920s as a Component of Popular American Music

Abstract

The purpose of this article is an attempt to consider jazz as a component of popular music. The article is devoted to the problem of comparing the concepts of popular music and jazz, in particular jazz performance. The methodological basis was the hermeneutic-comparative method, which allows studying jazz in accordance with the intonation-characteristic composition of mass music, popular music of America in the 20s, as well as general scientific methods of analytical and historical-descriptive content, which formed the methodological foundations accepted for research in the field of art history and cultural studies in order to learn patterns and generalisations according to the definition of popularity in relation to jazz music. The scientific novelty consists in the study of the peculiarities of jazz life as a component of popular music, which is interpreted as a way of embodying the specifics of jazz performers’ activity. Conclusions. It was determined that the performing tradition and functioning of jazz existed on the border with popular music as a whole. The binary nature of the activities of jazz musicians was partially eliminated by their basic orientation and accentuated what was utilitarian in nature. It was considered that jazz musicians in their activities relied on quality education acquired through formal and informal means. It is clear that there was a process of cultivating the traditions of jazz performance, which involved the education and separation of the composer-improviser and listening audience. In the context of the study, a number of assumptions are made that are potentially promising vectors for continuing the study of the contamination of the concepts of popular music and jazz.

Key words: Jazz, popular music, American music, jazz performance, musical style.