There are over a million jazz recordings, but only a few hundred tunes have been recorded repeatedly. Why did a minority of songs become jazz standards? Why do some songs—and not others—get rerecorded by many musicians? Shaping Jazz answers this question and more, exploring the underappreciated yet crucial roles played by initial production and markets—in particular, organizations and geography—in the development of early twentieth-century jazz.
Damon Phillips considers why places like New York played more important roles as engines of diffusion than as the sources of standards. He demonstrates why and when certain geographical references in tune and group titles were considered more desirable. He also explains why a place like Berlin, which produced jazz abundantly from the 1920s to early 1930s, is now on jazz’s historical sidelines. Phillips shows the key influences of firms in the recording industry, including how record companies and their executives affected what music was recorded, and why major companies would rerelease recordings under artistic pseudonyms. He indicates how a recording’s appeal was related to the narrative around its creation, and how the identities of its firm and musicians influenced the tune’s long-run popularity.
Applying fascinating ideas about market emergence to a music’s commercialization, Shaping Jazz offers a unique look at the origins of a groundbreaking art form.
Awards and Recognition
- Finalist for the 2014 George R. Terry Book Award, Academy of Management
"The thesis of this multilayered, impressive scholarly study is that jazz is shaped by the processing of the recorded product from its geographical region, its reception and active participant audience, social structure, and its marketing and diffusion. . . . The multiple graphs and charts serve as important sources for understanding the global aspects and diffusion of this innovative musical form."—Choice
"One of the most enjoyable things about this book is that it demonstrates the importance and historically contingent nature of social categories. . . . Other people who study product and organizational categories would do well to emulate his concern for concrete phenomena. . . . His sensitivity to time and place are critical to the insights he draws from his research, insights that have wide applicability outside the early jazz recording industry."—Heather A. Haveman, Administrative Science Quarterly
"The entire book rewards the reading, both for what it tells us substantively about a major art form and what it tells us theoretically about processes of legitimation, diffusion, and canonization."—Gabriel Rossman, American Journal of Sociology
"The author should be commended on the depth and scope of the work. . . . In summary, Phillips sheds considerable light on the formation of jazz, its dissemination, its institutions, musicians and geography, and does so with a variety of analysis tools and unique historical data."—Journal of Economic Literature
"Shaping Jazz combines a deep love for the music, a comprehensive historical understanding of what happened across two continents as it developed, and an inventive use of sociological ideas and tools, to shape a wonderful contribution to the story of jazz."—Howard S. Becker, author of Art Worlds
"While there is abundant research on the innovation advantages of networks that bridge disconnections in organizations and markets, this book finally explains how the disconnections themselves are significant for innovation to take hold and emerge in the form it does. Phillips shows that network disconnections were key to the congruence between the product and market responsible for the evolution of jazz. The book is productive in theory and engaging—even magical—in substance."—Ronald S. Burt, University of Chicago
"Offering a different approach to jazz history, Damon Phillips uses statistical data to ask questions, and ultimately find answers, about the music. Many of his arguments about the disconnectedness of jazz scenes, about marketing strategies, and about the highbrow and lowbrow perceptions of jazz intertwine and lead to even more questions. His book's approach can teach a lot about the use of empirical data for any period in jazz history."—Wolfram Knauer, director of the Jazzinstitut Darmstadt
"Reading the history of jazz recording through perspectives from organizational science and economic theory, Damon Phillips investigates the complex interweaving of market forces, choice, genre, geography, and cultural production. This book combines rigorous and innovative methodologies with an engaging style that welcomes anyone who wants to know more about where great music comes from."—George E. Lewis, Columbia University
"Shaping Jazz provides a rigorous and engaging look at the instrumental roles played by organizations, musicians, and regions in the evolution of jazz. It weaves historical sources with expertly executed analysis, and does an excellent job of addressing potential alternatives for the observed patterns of music popularity."—Olav Sorenson, Yale University
"Shaping Jazz is a tour de force and invites the reader to explore how jazz might have diffused and cohered as music. This ambitious and historically informed consideration of the development of jazz offers answers to questions that readers of all types will find satisfying. A fine book indeed."—Timothy J. Dowd, Emory University
