Musical Creativity Across the Lifespan: An Analysis of the Works of 921 Jazz Artists

Abstract

The relationship between age and musical creativity is not well understood, especially within the jazz idiom. In this study, ratings of 17,416 jazz albums recorded by 921 artists, sourced from a popular music review website, were analyzed. Creativity was operationalized in two different ways: 1) as hit ratios (the proportion of albums that received the critics’ highest rating), and 2) as album ratings (based on the unmodified 9-point scale used by the critics). Results from generalized additive mixed models (GAMMs) indicated that hit ratios peaked sharply around the age of 28 before rapidly declining. In contrast, album rating increased with age, with average ratings higher when artists were in their 60s and 70s than during their earlier years. Follow-up analyses indicated that this trend could be attributed to a reduced number of “inferior” albums—those with below-average ratings—among older artists. Implications for lifespan creativity and avenues for future research are discussed.