Abstract
This article examines the discursive framing of jazz as it entered the musical mainstream. Voices in the contest to define the music turned to a body-centered discourse that highlighted jazz’s alleged impact on the listener. In doing so, observers not only responded to music’s unique capacities among the arts but also engaged in a symbolic struggle to define the boundaries of the individual body and with it, the body politic—a struggle whose stakes were magnified by ongoing social and cultural transformations.
Keywords
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
