The occupational orientations of jazz musicians: Some recent findings and a reexamination of the evidence

Abstract

In contrast to earlier studies which stressed the deviant status of jazz players and their hostility toward conventional society, research appearing in the 1960s reported these musicians accepting middle‐class values and aspirations and expressing concern about the public image of their profession. This paper reports the findings of ethnographic research on jazz practitioners undertaken in St. Louis and New Orleans during the 1970s. Two contrasting occupational orientations, or work ideologies, those of the “artist” and the “craftman” (Becker, 1978), are found to coexist among the contemporary generation of jazz modernists. A historical interpretation that links the artist and craftsman orientations to the origin of jazz among blacks and the pattern of its diffusion into the larger society is offered as an explanation for the divergent findings from past studies.