Miles Davis: Artist, Marketer, Consumer Researcher?

The paper examines the tensions between aesthetic integrity and commercial appeal, the sublime and the profane, the artwork and the commodity (Holbrook 2005; Bradshaw & Holbrook, 2007, 2008). It argues that Miles Davis provides a classic example of what Hirschman (1983) describes as a ‘self-oriented creator’, driven by strong aesthetic convictions expressed in innovations that were often at odds, not only with public and critical expectations, but with the community of jazz peers. The aesthetic development of Miles Davis’ work is analysed with a focus on his transformative and iconic 1959 album - Kind of Blue – which to this day is held as a critical aesthetic turning point. Using historical and biographical data we construct a position from which to explore representations of transformative aesthetic practice within this album. This informs observations that interrogate the captious discourse enveloping ‘art-commerce’ debates which we illustrate through musical performance.

Citation:

Noel Dennis (2011) ,"Miles Davis: Artist, Marketer, Consumer Researcher? ", in E - European Advances in Consumer Research Volume 9, eds. Alan Bradshaw, Chris Hackley, and Pauline Maclaran, Duluth, MN : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 83.