Soziologische Aspekte des Jazzpublikums
A. Methods and theses
- Theoretical work up of specific music socialization levels in Western Germany. The most important finding in this section is the causal chain: social status-school type- listener type. This finding can especially be applied to the jazz public, since here, the special level of socialization mainly determines the specific listening/reception behaviour.
- Developmental psychological explanation in the formation of musical taste. In this section, the behaviouristic learning theory (both classical and conditionally operative) is shown as being inadequate in its explanation of music socialization. The social cognitive learning theory, according to Bandura, is offered as a new approach in which jazz enculturation is conceived as more as a learning process; that the formation of musical taste, as far as jazz is concerned, is intentionally influenced. Unconscious conditioning plays a subordinate role.
- Empirical Controls. The questionnaires, which have been developed for these aspects, now have to be conceived as more than ad hoc studies. Claims as to the validity of th questions and reliability as to the survey findings must be avoided.
B. Results
- The causal chain of social status-school-type-listener type, is confirmed through the questionnaires' findings. Perhaps one could formulate it in that way: someone coming from the middle class, with opportunities for obtaining higher education, has "chances" of becoming a jazz listener.
- Individual listener histories show moreover that the enculturation of jazz has occurred in a more model learning sense.
- Although jazz is almost exclusively heard by those possessing higher education, it is not considered as being intellectual in itself. Most listen to jazz for relaxation.
- A pure political role cannot be assigned to jazz.
C. Comparison and criticism
In a number of places in this survey, comparisons with the findings of Dollase, Rüsenberg, and Stollenwerk are performed. The results ascertain that in many points, the club public and the concert public react practically in the same fashion. The closing point of the study reveals the necessity of ostensibly elevating the 'official rating' of jazz. It simply cannot be tolerated that so-called "classical" music is officially sponsored and subsidized, while autodidactics are more or less responsible for popular music, since corresponding educational and subsidized programs for them are still lacking.
