Introduction

This introduction asserts Whiteman’s fame and broad influence on American popular culture from the 1920s to 1950s and his role in shaping middlebrow aesthetics. It surveys the full range of his activities and focuses on his career-long attempts to bridge the classical and popular musical realms. It also explores the impact of his controversial publicity title, “the king of jazz,” and his contested position in jazz history given that his attempts to refine jazz resulted in displacing Black musicians. Whiteman’s career benefited directly from racist antijazz sentiments in the early twentieth century. Whiteman’s own views of jazz and racialized language are explored in a discussion of his 1926 autobiography Jazz. The introduction also provides summaries of each chapter.