A cinemusicaliterary analysis of the American dream as represented by biographical jazz comedepictions in the golden age of Hollywood biopics: Blow, Horatio, Blow; O, Jakie, O; Go,Tommy, Go; No, Artie, No

Abstract

This essay argues that our grasp of marketing theory benefits from an awareness of the rags-to-riches ethos that characterizes the paradigmatic American Dream. In this connection, the essay presents a cinemusicaliterary analysis of how this success-story ideal has shaped some artistic manifestations of the consumer culture in ways that have appeared conspicuously in various literary, cinematic, and musical creations. Thus, beginning with the literary works of Horatio Alger and their reification of the rags-to-riches prototype, the essay traces the evolution of this success-story paradigm through its cinematic embodiment in The Jazz Singer (1927) to its appearance in the underlying musical structures that characterize five comedepictions of jazz heroes during the golden age of Hollywood biopics: The Fabulous Dorseys (1947); The Glenn Miller Story (1954); The Benny Goodman Story (1955); The Five Pennies (1959); and The Gene Krupa Story (1959). The essay ends by considering an instructive counterexample based on the life and writings of a different kind of hero, Artie Shaw, who abandoned $ucce$$ as an enormously popular musician to pursue different artistic goals as an author.

Evaluating Dance Consumption through the Experiential Value Approach

“…It is a way of understanding human behavior in the marketplace, which considers that "everything is consumption" (Holbrook, 1999) and allows applications to many diff erent contexts, such as: retailing (e.g. Babin Holbrook, 2009). However, to the best of the authors' knowledge, none of the previous works based on the experiential approach have been applied to dance consumption.…”

Review of Playing the changes on the jazz metaphor: An expanded conceptualization of music-, management-, and marketing-related themes.

“…The breadth of his work is indicated, in part, by how he provided an analysis of Horatio Alger's "American Dream" tiieme in the lives of several celebrities, including clarinetist-bandleadernovelist Artie Shaw (Holbrook, 2009). Unfortunately, Holbrook's contributions are not well known among jazz fans or research psychologists because members of such groups tend not to read marketing joumals where much of Holbrook's work has appeared.…”

“…Most recently he has investigated creativity in movies, particularly with regard to archetypes and literary themes to portray jazz musicians, summarized in his book Music, Movies, Meanings, and Markets: Cinemajazzamatazz (New York, NY: Routledge, 2011). The breadth of his work is indicated, in part, by how he provided an analysis of Horatio Alger's “American Dream” theme in the lives of several celebrities, including clarinetist-bandleader-novelist Artie Shaw (Holbrook, 2009). Unfortunately, Holbrook's contributions are not well known among jazz fans or research psychologists because members of such groups tend not to read marketing journals where much of Holbrook's work has appeared.…”

Morris B. Holbrook: an historical autoethnographic subjective personal introspection

“…In other words, I cared mostly about how marketing imagery and consumption symbolism could elucidate the meanings of artistic offerings such as films, plays, novels, and so forth. Later (Holbrook, 2003a), I applied a similar logic to interpreting the role of jazz as film music in motion pictures such as Sweet Smell of Success (Holbrook, 2004a); High Society (Holbrook, 2005a); The Fabulous Baker Boys and The Talented Mr. Ripley (Holbrook, 2005f); Young Man with a Horn, Paris Blues, and Mo' Better Blues (Holbrook, 2005b; Heart Beat, The Score, and New York, New York (Holbrook, 2007a); Lady Sings the Blues, 'Round Midnight, and Bird (Holbrook, 2007h); Pete Kelly's Blues, The Cotton Club, and Kansas City (Holbrook, 2008c); and The Fabulous Dorseys, The Glenn Miller Story, The Benny Goodman Story, The Five Pennies (based on the life of cornetist Red Nichols), and The Gene Krupa Story (Holbrook, 2009a). Ultimately, I revised and collected these interpretations in a book about jazz in films entitled Music, Movies, Meanings, and Markets: Cinemajazzamatazz (Holbrook, 2011).…”