Bemerkungen über den Medienbezug des Jazz
in der Musikentwicklung des 20. Jahrhunderts
Jazz, as an acculturated and fused product of different musical styles and elements, seems to be predestined, when one traces its historical development, to act as a medium among different musical idioms. Its appearance in Europe coincides chronologically with the dissolution of tonality and with the dissolution of a more or less common music language. As a result, various stylistic principles, including those of Jazz, were then available as a means of expression, in the so-called composed, serious music. These tendencies of course, effected not only serious music, but had their influence on jazz as well. The media played an important role in this sharing of different musical idioms. Jürgen Habermas pointed out a further progressing change from an active, thought- provoking culture to a passive, consuming culture, which accompanies further the importance of the mass media.
Jazz, as a music based on spontaneous group playing and improvisation, needs the media, especially the acoustic media, as a type of inherent compositorial component. Undoubtedly, Jazz reception is also victimized by the levelling process which is, above all, caused by the constant tidal wave of sound produced today by the radio. The media had to, from the very beginning, consciously deal with Jazz and its improvisational aspects. Via this connection of Jazz to the media, and via its role as a go-between for "serious" and "entertaining" music, aside from its function as an independent music, it is possible to win, in all music directions, a more conscious awareness of the relations between cultural consumption and the increasing importance of mass media.