Platform Jazz: Algorithmic Music Culture on TikTok (Popular Music)

TikTok is one of the world’s most popular digital platforms. Although it may seem unusual at first, many jazz musicians have large followings on this short-form video platform. Benjamin Burkhart examines how popular jazz musicians use TikTok and how jazz is represented on the platform. He investigates how the musicians deal with the platform’s affordances, tailor their content to the short-form video format, and interact with the platform’s algorithmic system. The study also examines the musicians’ expectations regarding TikTok users’ actions, and reveals which jazz-related content achieves the greatest visibility on the platform. Through interviews with popular content creators, the study shows that the socio-technical interaction between musicians and the platform leads to a very specific representation of jazz on TikTok.

Benjamin Burkhart (Dr.) is a musicologist at Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover. His research and teaching focus on the media cultures, analysis, and social history of popular music and jazz. Prior to his work in Hanover, he served as an interim professor for the history and theory of popular music at Universität Giessen, as a senior scientist at the Institute for Jazz Research at Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Graz, and as a research associate at the Center for Popular Culture and Music at Universität Freiburg.