Die Jazzmusiker
Zur Soziologie einer kreativen Randgruppe
In September 1982/February 1983, a survey was performed in West Germany of 156 jazz musicians, who categorized themselves as profis, semi-profis and amateurs. The forms were distributed by the Union of German Jazz Musicians and via contacts with jazz groups throughout West Germany. The questions were standardized and pertained to education, income, musician's biographical information and to problems considered in the broadest sense, which jazz musicians encounter in their profession.
Jazz musicians correspond accordingly in social structure to their public: they represent a relatively young, well educated, almost entirely masculine, middle-class minority. The profis forfeited their material well being for their existence as musicians, which is reflected in their clearly lower net income status, in comparison to the amateurs, who possess a relatively higher income status.
52 % of the jazz musicians who became professional musicians reported that they were not supported by their families, in their choice of this unstable profession. In spite of this, identification with the occupation is big: 100 % of the musicians do not regret having become jazz musicians. Jazz musicians are dependent on informal structures: 54 % of the profis receive their contracts through their own inquiries, 36 % through friends and colleagues, and only 10 % through agencies. The profis make use of a wide palette of possibilities: 34 % tours, 32 % records, 24 % radio and 9 % television.
The amateurs possess a taste closer in keeping with that of their public than the profis possess: the public would like to hear oldtime jazz, the profis, however, preferably play modern jazz, while the amateurs choose to play mainstream and oldtime jazz.