This paper uses record covers to understand what kind of object a jazz record was in the late 1940s to the late 1950s. In this period, the dominant medium format for a jazz record in Sweden shifted from 10-inch shellac records to vinyl LPs and EPs. With the advent of albums and vinyl records, also the use of record covers with art work and liner notes became increasingly common.

The paper’s main research question is: How did the packaging of a jazz record – with a record cover and liner notes specifically made for single records – influence the idea of what a jazz record was in Sweden in the period from the late 1940s to the late 1950s? With the use of Actor-Network Theory (ANT) (following Law, Latour), the paper analyzes record covers as material semiotics. Specifically, it focusses on the social basis for the set of technologies connected to records (following Sterne). It investigates this by analyzing how the visual expressions of the covers related to contemporary art and popular culture and by focusing on how the recording process were visualized. Furthermore, the project investigates accounts from jazz fans, critics and musicians in the specialized jazz press and compares this to accounts from actors who were part of the record business and decided to invest in record covers for specific records (and not for others).

The paper concludes that idea of what a jazz record changed in this period and that jazz record started to be regarded as artefacts that were products of artistic processes that should be preserved and collected.