Jazz and rock have been historically treated as separate musical traditions, despite having many similar musical and cultural characteristics, as well as sharing significant periods of interaction and overlap throughout popular music history. The rift between jazz and rock, and jazz and rock scholarship, is based on a set of received assumptions as to why jazz and rock are different. However, these assumptions are not naturally inherent to the two genres, but are instead the result of a discursive construction that defines them in contrast to one another. Furthermore, the roots of this discursive divide are to be found in the history of popular music journalism. In this thesis I challenge the traditional divide between jazz and rock by examining five historical case studies in American jazz and rock journalism. My underlying argument is that we cannot take for granted the fact that jazz and rock would ultimately become separate discourses: what are now represented as inevitable musical and cultural divergences between the two genres were actually constructed under very particular institutional and historical forces. There are other ways popular music history could have been written (and has been written) that call the oppositional representation of jazz and rock into question. The case studies focus on the two oldest surviving and most influential jazz and rock periodicals: Down Beat and Rolling Stone. I examine the role of critics in developing a distinction between the two genres that would eventually be reproduced in the academic scholarship of jazz and rock. I also demonstrate how the formation of jazz and rock as genres has been influenced by non-musicological factors, not least of all by music magazines as commercial institutions trying to survive and compete in the American press industry.

Cotutelle - Université libre de Bruxelles/Université de Montréal / Si la majorité des recherches situées au croisement de la musicologie et des études cinématographiques s’est centrée sur une exploitation des sources filmiques et des textes musicaux comme outil d’analyse, le prisme de la presse permet de porter un nouvel éclairage sur les principaux enjeux de la musique au cinéma. Cette thèse se propose de mettre en examen les premiers discours sur la musique au cinéma parus dans la presse française, de l’essor de la culture des grands orchestres de fosse à la fin de la commercialisation des technologies du cinéma sonore (1918-1934). La première partie interroge les fonctions octroyées à l’objet musical au cinéma par le biais d’un périodique musical (Le Courrier musical, 1917-1935) et son esthétique par la figure d’un critique spécialiste de la question (Raymond Berner, 1921-1934). Ensuite, nous soulignons la valeur musicale des technologies développées par Charles Delacommune pour la mise en place du synchronisme audiovisuel au temps du cinéma muet (dans les écrits de Raymond Berner) et du sonore (chez Émile Vuillermoz). Les bases théoriques des deux principales pratiques de l’accompagnement musical des films muets – l’adaptation et la partition originale – sont questionnées à l’aune du discours des adaptateurs et des écrits parus dans la presse musicale. Dans la foulée, la deuxième partie de cette thèse se centre sur les discours tenus dans la presse musicale lors de la transition vers le cinéma sonore (1928-1934). Nous montrons sur quelles bases s’articulent les principales considérations techniques (la musique mécanique, la synthèse sonore), socio-professionnelles (le chômage des musiciens exécutants), pédagogiques (l’enseignement de la musique à l’aide du film), et esthétiques (la phonogénie, la musique et les effets sonores) de la musique dans le film sonore. Notre analyse se concentre ensuite sur les discours sur les premiers films sonores français publiés dans La Revue musicale, tout en cernant l’exemple du film Rapt (Dimitri Kirsanoff, musique d’Arthur Hoérée et Arthur Honegger, 1934). Enfin, nous démontrons comment une approche synthétique des entretiens menés auprès des compositeurs permet d’approfondir notre compréhension du travail des musiciens au studio. / While the majority of the researches at the crossroads of musicology and film studies has focused on harnessing films and music scores as analytical tools, the lens of the press allows to shed a new light on the most salient film music issues. This thesis aims on investigating the first discourses on film music published in the French press, from the rise of great cinema theater orchestras to the end of the commercialization of sound film technologies (1918-1934). The first part stresses film music functions through one specific music periodical (Le Courrier musical, 1917-1935) and its aesthetic through the figure of a critic specialized on the topic (Raymond Berner, 1921-1934). Then, we underline the musical value of the technologies developed by Charles Delacommune for the achievement of audiovisual synchronism during the silent film era (based on Raymond Berner’s writings) and the sound film era (based on Émile Vuillermoz’s writings). The theoretical basis of the two main silent film accompaniment practices – adaptation and original score – are questioned within the discourses of the adaptators and texts published in music periodicals. In the same perspective, the second part of this thesis focuses on the discourses published in the music press during the transition to sound film (1928-1934). We uncover and analyse of the main sound film music technological (the “musique mécanique”, sound synthesis), socio-professional (performing musicians’ unemployment), didactical (the teaching of music with the aid of film), and aesthetical (“phonogénie”, music and sound effects) issues. Our research then focuses on the discourses on the first French sound film published in the Revue musicale (1921-1939), while examining the case of the film Rapt (Dimitri Kirsanoff, music by Arthur Hoérée and Arthur Honegger, 1934). Finally, we show how a synthesis approach of interviews with composers allows to deepen our understanding of the work of musicians in film studios.