Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-tf8b9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-29T00:26:56.457Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

MacIntyre, Bourdieu and the practice of jazz

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 February 2012

Mark Banks
Mark Banks
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, The Open University, Milton Keynes MK7 6AA, UK E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article offers a sociological account of the labour of jazz musicians. The first part is concerned with elaborating a theory of jazz work based on Alasdair MacIntyre's notion of social practices. Applying this theory to recent empirical work with British jazz musicians, the article reveals how the virtuous pursuit of specific ‘internal goods’ is judged to be particularly prominent in jazz, suggesting that it might constitute an ethical practice in MacIntyrean terms. While MacIntyre's theory is argued to offer a congenial framework for an analysis of jazz, it is then compared and contrasted with more established readings of jazz practice – based on the work of Pierre Bourdieu – which suggest more objective and instrumental motivations for working in jazz. The article concludes by evaluating the relative merits of each approach.

Type
Articles
Information
Popular Music , Volume 31 , Issue 1 , January 2012 , pp. 69 - 86
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Becker, H. 1963. Outsiders: Studies in the Sociology of Deviance (New York, The Free Press)Google Scholar
Becker, H. 1982. Art Worlds (Berkeley, University of California Press)Google Scholar
Berliner, P. 1994. Thinking in Jazz: The Infinite Art of Improvisation (Chicago, University of Chicago Press)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bourdieu, P. 1984. Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste (London, Routledge and Kegan Paul)Google Scholar
Bourdieu, P. 1990a. In Other Words: Essays Towards a Reflexive Sociology (Palo Alto, Stanford University Press)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bourdieu, P. 1990b. The Logic of Practice (Cambridge, Polity Press)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bourdieu, P. 1993. The Field of Cultural Production: Essays on Art and Literature (Cambridge, Polity Press)Google Scholar
Bourdieu, P. 2010. The Rules of Art (Cambridge, Polity Press)Google Scholar
Collier, G. 1973. Inside Jazz (London, Quartet Books)Google Scholar
Faulkner, S., Leaver, A., Vis, A., and Williams, K. 2008. ‘Art For art's sake, or selling up?’, European Journal of Communication, 23/3, pp. 295–317CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hesmondhalgh, D. 2010. ‘Normativity and social justice in the analysis of creative labour’, Journal for Cultural Research, 14/3, pp. 231–50CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jeffri, J. 2003. ‘Jazz musicians: the cost of the beat’, Journal of Arts Management, Law and Society, 33/1, pp. 40–51CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jenkins, R. 1992. Pierre Bourdieu (London, Routledge)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keat, R. 2000. Cultural Goods and the Limits of the Market (Basingstoke, Palgrave)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kirschbaum, C. 2007. ‘Careers in the right beat: US jazz musician's typical and non-typical career trajectories’, Career Development International, 12/2, pp. 187–201CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Laing, D., and Riley, M. 2006. The Value of Jazz (London, Jazz Services)Google Scholar
Lane, J. 2000. Pierre Bourdieu: A Critical Introduction (London, Pluto Press)Google Scholar
Lopes, P. 2002. The Rise of a Jazz Art World (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MacIntyre, A. 1981/2007. After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory (London, Duckworth)Google Scholar
MacIntyre, A. 1994. ‘A partial response to my critics’, After MacIntyre, ed. Horton, J. and Mendus, S. (Cambridge, Polity Press), pp. 283–304Google Scholar
Marquis, A.G. 1998. ‘Jazz goes to college: has academic status served the art?’, Popular Music and Society, 22/2, pp. 117–124CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McRobbie, A. 2002. ‘Clubs to companies: notes on the decline of political culture in speeded up creative worlds’, Cultural Studies, 16/4, pp. 516–31CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miles, M.B., and Huberman, A.M. 1994. Qualitative Data Analysis: An Expanded Sourcebook (London and Thousand Oaks, Sage)Google Scholar
Miller, D. 1994. ‘Virtues, practices and justice’, After MacIntyre, ed. Horton, J. and Mendus, S. (Cambridge, Polity Press), pp. 245–64Google Scholar
Monson, I. 1996. Saying Something: Jazz Improvisation and Interaction (Chicago, University of Chicago Press)Google Scholar
Pinheiro, D.L., and Dowd, T.J. 2009. ‘All that jazz: the success of jazz musicians in three metropolitan areas’, Poetics, 37, pp. 490–506CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sayer, A. 2010. ‘Bourdieu, ethics and practice’, Cultural Analysis and Bourdieu's Legacy, ed. Silva, E. and Warde, A. (London, Routledge), pp. 87–101Google Scholar
Stebbins, R. 1966. ‘Class, status and power among jazz and commercial musicians’, Sociological Quarterly, 7/2, pp. 197–213CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stokes, W. Royal. 2005. Growing Up With Jazz (Oxford, Oxford University Press)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Swartz, D. 1997. Culture and Power: The Sociology of Pierre Bourdieu (Chicago, University of Chicago Press)CrossRefGoogle Scholar