Jazz Sells: Music, Marketing, and Meaning by Mark Laver (2015)

Ever wondered why so many products we come across while out shopping are labeled “jazz,” ranging from cereals to beverages, cars, and airlines? All of those products and many services as well, for various reasons, somehow want to be affiliated with “being jazz.”

At one time when advertising with the term was still young, this was meant to describe something either spectacular, or fresh, juicy, extraordinary; but in the meatime the word is also used to describe something familiar, comfortable, good for everyday use. So marketing products with the label “jazz” seemingly could draw attention to American and Canadian customers, because jazz, on the one hand, is something common, a well-known name, but then it also is actually anything you want it to be.

The question why this is so, is the main subject matter of Laver’s book. One of the many reasons he finds: consumption naturally is a crucial component of self-expression and participation in a certain elitist group – all of those who consume this or that product – is thus wanted; if one falls for ads and their messages.

The book, after going through various introductions of marketing and advertising, eventually  focuses on three separate case studies, that are supported by many interesting facts about marketing ideas. One study deals with the use of jazz music in a 2003 Canadian Chrysler campaign, another one with Pepsi’s product “Jazz” of 2006 and the final one examines TB Bank’s sponsorship of the Canadian jazz festival.

“Throughout the century-long history of mass-mediated advertising, advertisers have put numerous cultural resources to the task of ‘interpellating’ consumers. Of these various resources, music has been one of the most important and most effective … ” says Laver.

While music as a carrier of advertisement slogans has been in operation since probably the 13th century, we may still remember radio jingles promoting toothpaste, car parts, pills and beauty products. While in the 19th century producers of all kinds published sheet music of popular music and light classics, they did this by filling parts of the respective pages with advertisements. And one important early American entertainment act crucial for the development of many blues and jazz artists could still be found in the 1940s: the medicine show, where a variation of products was advertised, accompanied by a multitude of acts, comedy and most of all: music.

The first ever radio jingle “Have you tried Wheaties?” (1926) was based on a short excerpt from the song “Jazz Baby” by M. K. Jerome and Blanche Merrill and thus jazz inspired tunes were associated with the very beginning of modern product marketing in the US. Then, it happened to be the latest adjustment of the commercial messages and methods of subliminal communication developed by marketing companies.
The ever changing strategies were the result of massive market research and respective adjustment to what commercial agencies considered the state of the arts of popular culture. This could mean an attitude towards countercultural likes or fashion in one month, while the following week conservative ethics or even national issues may have called for an altogether different strategy. And marketing strategies very often referred to music as one of the vehicles to transport an idea of what customers either wanted to be like, or thought  they had to be like to receive attention  from other consumers.

These days, music is not reduced to the background of a commercial, nor does it serve as a mere carrier for a jingle (mostly outdated today); instead, a tune or tune snippet now is used to create an entire soundtrack for a certain lifestyle that is linked to the particular music.
Mark Laver is ethnomusicologist and Assistant Professor of Music at Grinnell College. In the book at hand he investigates the history of marketing, commercials and product placement that involve jazz in the US throughout the decades and finds many remarkable facts.

Throughout the study, we encounter product marketing for many different products; and the many reasons why consumers (according to the marketing departments) should buy certain goods. Laver concentrates on those in connection with either jazz tunes, a countercultural lifestyle (when regarded as something positive) or something sophisticated (when jazz finally was understood as something on the level with classical music.) We also learn about the many partnerships of jazz music and consumer culture, given the examples of jazz festivals and sponsoring in later times.

According to the author, this is the first large-scale attempt to research not only music in marketing (as a marketing tool) but the first one to focus on jazz as a very particular tool. Since “…jazz is an unquestionable African American cultural practice with an incredible historical linkage to black modernism and black nationalism [….] Hence, its appearance in … mainstream advertising represents an exceptional lens through which to examine both the interpellation of African American consumers into the so-called American mainstream capitalist culture of consumption, and conversely, the mainstream American consumption of African American culture.”

This title at first sight may appeal rather to the academic reader or researcher of sociology, for there are many theories and schools mentioned. However, it is worth spending a little time here, for many familiar jingles, slogans and commercials most readers will (still) remember were invented for a certain purpose at a particular time with jazz music as a relevant ingredient. Even so, the usage of jazz already has reached another stage: there are commercials, as we learn, that will not need the sound of jazz anymore. Instead, a picture or an expression suggesting the music will be enough to indicate a certain style, or a way of life, that could signify jazz and today can carry about any meaning (mostly a positive one).

So both scholars of jazz, popular culture, sociology as well as marketing devotees will get something out of this book.
This is the second volume in a new series called „Transnational Studies in Jazz,“  published by Taylor and Francis.

Review by Dr. A. Ebert © 2015

Mark Laver. Jazz Sells. Music, Marketing, and Meaning. Routledge, 2015, 262 p.