Why did Adorno "hate" jazz?

Adorno's jazz essays have attracted considerable notoriety not only for the ir negative and dismissive evaluation of jazz as music but for their outrig ht dismissal of all the claims made on behalf of jazz by its exponents and admirers, even of claims concerning the black origins of jazz music. This p aper offers a critical exposition of Adorno's views on jazz and outlines an alternative theory of the culture industry as the basis of a critique of A dorno's critical theory. Adorno's arguments are discussed in the context of his wider theoretical commitment to a model of structuration-in both music al and social relations-that establishes a dividing line between a moral ae sthetic praxis that can be approved as having "truth-value" and one that be trays and subverts the truth. In Adorno 's analysis, jazz finds itself posi tioned on the wrong side of that line and accordingly, is condemned. It is argued that it is Adorno's commitment to a formalist model of art works tha t has been superseded by modern aesthetic practice in both so-called "serio us" art as well as in the works of the culture industries that binds him to a regressive model of aesthetic praxis. An alternative theory of the cultu re industry is outlined that explores its positive functions in enhancing t he resources available for culture creation through its transmission of aes thetic codes, and in mediating relations between so-called high and low art .