Interpreting Creative Experience across Diverse Musical Communities

This chapter introduces creativity as a fundamental human desire and activity that is culturally embedded and socially regulated. Examples are drawn from classical, jazz, and traditional musicians in Cape Town, Helsinki, and Los Angeles. Conducting in-depth qualitative research among such diverse communities poses methodological challenges but also reveals rich insights. The chapter proposes a model of creativity based on these musicians’ experiences and discusses the components of generativity, agency, interaction, nonconformity, recycling, and flow. It theorizes why societies do not always value creativity and how they regulate it, addressing issues of power, punishment, socially induced emotions, motivation, and morality. Common enablers and inhibitors of creativity are introduced. Classical, jazz, and traditional music scenes in Cape Town, Helsinki, and Los Angeles are compared and contrasted.