I need your help (my dissertation on free/a.g. jazz musicians)

[gnhrtg]

For the many who do not know, I'm a fifth year PhD student at INSEAD (in the Organizational Behavior department) and my dissertation is on the sources and dynamics of status among free/avant-garde jazz musicians between the years 1989 and 2004. I have been listening to this music for nine years and it was the first context to spring to mind, and certainly the only one I thought would not bore me tears over the course of my dissertation, and I have spent more than a year coding personnel and reviews for 3400 discs.

I'm thinking of designing an on-line survey to supplement the data I have and it would help to have a sense of how many responses I can expect (I hope to get more than 50). The survey will ask your assessments of two, at most three, characteristics of 150 musicians and 70 labels (you'll circle a number that corresponds to your subjective assessment of these characteristics). The rest will be equally simple questions like the mags you follow and your role with regard to this music (one of a listener/fan, reviewer, editor, dj, producer, concert organizer, or musician). It should take about half an hour to complete the survey.

There might also be some open-ended questions - which you can either fill in your answers to then or drop me a mail, or pm here, to give your opinion or discuss. I would not expect all respondents to be experts of the genre but some level of familiarity will make your responses, and time, more valuable for me (and there are questions about how well you know the work of a particular musician, as with others, just a subjective assessment where you circle a number).

If you know of fellow fans, reviewers/critics, editors, musicians etc. please notify them of this and pass along my e-mail address, below, so I can add them to the list. Also of great help would be any such musician, label owner/producer, or reviewer who would not mind learning more about my dissertation and perhaps giving his opinions on my ideas, the measures I'll be using and the like.

(send me a pm for my e-mail)

Unfortunately, I do not have much of a budget left to speak of so I cannot guarantee remuneration for your participation. What I can say is that apart from its own value, the survey data will also allow me to do more with the what I already have and I will be very grateful. I will include a field where you can enter your e-mail address (should you wish) and the minute I can find funds, I will buy as many cd-credits as I can from either a label or a distributor.

If there are enough potential respondents, I will get to work on this and should have it ready in the next 2-3 weeks. It won't be later than that as I am on a tight and strict schedule.

Thanks,
Gokhan

(apologies for the multiple posting)

[Uli]

I'll volunteer for the survey.

[Steve Reynolds]

me too!

let me know what I need to do!

and good luck with it!

[jaka]

Hi Gokhan,
I'll be glad to help.
Drop me a line.

[stonemonkts]

Count me in, Gokhan.

[Dan G]

Gohkan - I'd be happy to help.
Dan

[walto]

I'm in.

[claude]

I can't claim to know a lot about the music, but I am a fan, so if I can help I'm in.

[Root Doctor]

Sign me up, Gokhan.

[Squaredancecalling Steve]

Me, too.

[Darryl G. Thomas]

Ditto.

[gnhrtg]

Thanks, everyone. There is some way to go but this is looking good so far.

Trivia: I started with a core list of 149 musicians and put together a list of the discs they have appeared on over the observation period. It's probably not so interesting that there are 3400 discs (what may be surprising is that there are not more, I imposed a few very mild constraints for inclusion). What was unexpected for me is that more than 500 labels (and more than 4000 musicians) are represented in the sample, though 271 have been active - have released discs - in one year only.

Ahem, yes these will (can only) get more interesting as I go on.

[Gerardo A]

Very cool, I'm in too.

[Surfer]

in

[Dan G]

Originally Posted by gnhrtg

Trivia: I started with a core list of 149 musicians and put together a list of the discs they have appeared on over the observation period. It's probably not so interesting that there are 3400 discs (what may be surprising is that there are not more, I imposed a few very mild constraints for inclusion). What was unexpected for me is that more than 500 labels (and more than 4000 musicians) are represented in the sample, though 271 have been active - have released discs - in one year only.

It doesn't surprise me that there are more than 500 labels represented. I just looked at my CD database, and of the 2800 discs in it, there are 493 labels.

And that's way out of date - hasn't been updated at in over 2 1/2 years, so I have no idea what the number would be now, but I can think of several labels that I have stuff on now that I didn't then.

[Sergio Zamora]

I'm in!

[Rob C]

Moi aussi.

[Brian Olewnick]

As always......

[Mike Schwartz]

Welcome me aboard!

[Sand]

out here in there
count me in

[Lilsis]

Yo tambien. Count me in, too. What an interesting project. I am delighted to help however I can.
LilSis

[likewise]

Sure thing, G.

[Paul B]

Would be glad to participate...

[Vince Kargatis]

and me

[jazzfiend]

Gokhan, count me in. Thanks.

[GoodSpeak]

I will be glad to offer a Jazz opinion relative to Hard Bop and Out Jazz.

[gnhrtg]

I am thrilled to have so many responses within a little more than half a day and I will certainly go ahead with this. The survey should be ready in two weeks, please don't go anywhere.

I am thinking using SurveyMonkey, where you would visit a url address, fill in the survey and submit. This is convenient, we won't have to deal with attachments, and also has some helpful features (e.g., if a question is really important, it will remind you to please record your answer, in case you forgot or skipped over - of course you can still close the goddamn window and forget about it all, I know, but please don't ). Also, I will have the data as soon as you complete the survey, saving me a lot of time.

Would anyone rather not do it this way?

[Mike Schwartz]

Sounds really cool......best of luck and success putting it together!

[Gary Sisco]

I'm in.

[Robert de St. Loup]

Sounds like fun. I'll do it if you'll have me.