"Our subcultural shit-music": Dutch jazz, representation, and cultural politics

In this thesis, musicologist Loes Rusch examines how Dutch musicians, policy makers, audiences and journalists in the 1960s and 1970s contributed to the development of what has become known as a distinctively Dutch sound in jazz: ‘Nederlandse (aktuele) geimproviseerde muziek’. Through interviews and a close-examination of periodicals, newspapers, policy documents and musical performances, this thesis critically engages with the construction of Dutch narratives in jazz and its interplay with local political debates. It is thematically subdivided into chapters that cover different fields in which musical meaning-making takes place: community, education, policy-making, representation and musical performance. By deconstructing the historically and geographically situated jazz narratives and by exposing their underlying ideologies, Rusch argues that musical change is not only directed by initiatives within the musical field, but shaped by broader sets of cultural discourse. Moreover, by engaging with the local roots of Dutch jazz and improvised music, she proposes that Dutch jazz musicians in the 1960s and 1970s not only responded to, but also actively contributed to processes of socio-cultural upheaval and change. Altogether, she suggests a way of viewing jazz as part of a local (music) culture that is not only informed by international developments within the practice of jazz, but which also interacts with the local socio-political infrastructures and the discussions organized around them. In a broad sense, then, she explores the unique relationship between meaning-making in music and national cultural politics, investigating ways in which this relationship articulates cultural values.