My paper is a comprehensive collection of knowledge that I have gathered from many months of research. I analyze this knowledge to prove an idea I had, that jazz music would not be what it is today without recording technologies like the phonograph. I conclude that without such a device, the music would not have been heard outside of New Orleans, where the genre originated. I hope it sheds some light on the subject and causes my fellow musician peers to think about what music is, and how new genres are created.