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Conference Agenda

The Online Program of events for the 2026 AMS Annual Meeting appears below. This program is subject to change. The final program will be published in early November.

Use the "Filter by Track or Type of Session" or "Filter by Session Topic" dropdown to limit results by type. Some of the sessions are also color-coded: purple indicates performances, grey indicates paper forums, and orange indicates sessions which have been organized by one of the regional associations of IMS (ARLAC or IMSEA). (Sessions which are both IMS sessions and performances are only colored orange.)

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Please note that all times are shown in the time zone of the conference. The current conference time is: 1st Sept 2026, 02:59:58am EDT

Daily Overview

Session

"Viral Jazz": A Very Online Discussion About Online Musicking

Presentation 1

"Viral Jazz": A Very Online Discussion About Online Musicking

Chair(s): Kelsey Klotz (University of Maryland); AJ Kluth (Case Western Reserve University)

Organized by the AMS Jazz and Improvisation Study Group.

In 2022, pianist and composer Vijay Iyer described (on Twitter, no less) jazz’s “latest subgenre: ‘viral jazz’.” Often used to describe extremely online jazz musicians like DOMi & JD Beck, Louis Cole, MonoNeon, Thundercat, and others, critic Nate Chinen has argued that “viral jazz” describes an aesthetic (though not necessarily a musical one) more than viewer metrics. Beyond platform choice and aesthetics (musical or visual), investigations of “viral jazz” invite new ways of thinking about jazz and improvisation in relation to institutions and industry, mediation, speed of production and distribution, intersectional identities, alienation, community, listenerships, and indeed, the very question of genre in historically gate-kept spaces: who is now keeping the gate, what’s being kept at the gate, and what are the stakes of such slippages? That Iyer’s post is no longer available on X suggests continued questions around ephemerality and historiography.

“Viral jazz” is a new area of scholarly focus, and is also fast-changing. Given that, the AMS Jazz and Improvisation Study Group will host an open discussion of these issues, focused around recent work in the field. Before the session, attendees are invited to engage with any or all readings from the following list:

D. Bondy Valdovinos Kaye, “JazzTok: Creativity, Community, and Improvisation on TikTok,” Jazz & Culture 6, no. 2 (2023): 92–116.
Hannah Judd, “Virals, Memes, and the Lick’s Circulation Through Online Jazz Communities,” Twentieth-Century Music 19, no. 3 (2022): 393-410.
Kristen McGee, “Hacking Viral Jazz’s Gendered Hierarchies: Grace Kelly’s Entrepreneurial Polygeneric Art,” Journal of Jazz Studies 16, no. 1 (2025): 87-118.

These articles will be shared with members of the study group ahead of the meeting, or can be obtained by contacting any of the study group officers: Kelsey Klotz, A.J. Kluth, Ben Barson, Darren Mueller, Nathaniel Sloan, Jenna Przybysz, and Lael Dratfield. Our discussion will probe the vast and complicated questions that emerge when jazz becomes part of online circulations. All are welcome to engage in the conversation as we develop new ways of thinking about jazz, improvisation, and their positions online.