Vad är jazz? En undersökning i hur harmonik, melodik, rytmik, improvisation och instrumentation påverkar ett musikstyckes uppfattade ”jazzighet”

Sammanfattning: What, from a sounding perspective, exactly is jazz, and where is the boarder to when it stops being that? With the purpose of answering these questions, I developed a quantitative survey that mainly compared sounding examples. The survey focuses on the music aspects harmony, melody, rhythm, improvisation and instrumentation. I constructed the examples as such that they compare one or a couple of the aspects at a time. For instance, a melody from a jazz-piece is compared to a melody from a pop-tune. The music that I based the examples on are mainly from the playlists “The Sound of Jazz” and “The Sound of Pop”, generated by the service everynoise.com. Part of the results where then analysed using qualitative methods. The results show that harmony is the most important aspect for perceived jazziness, followed by rhythm, melody, improvisation and instrumentation. I as a composer can use the results to relate to the music I create in new ways.