<![CDATA[This study aims to deeply understand the experiences and meaning-making of Generation Z students at STTB The Way Jakarta regarding the shifting meaning of jazz music at the Prambanan Jazz Festival 2025. Using Clark Moustakas' qualitative phenomenological approach, the study involved six active students from various study programs who have knowledge and experience related to jazz and the festival. Data were collected through in-depth interviews with 16 open-ended questions and document observation of artist line-ups, then analyzed using Miles and Huberman's interactive model through data reduction, data display, data processing, and conclusion drawing. The findings reveal a fundamental shift in the meaning of jazz from intimate, improvisational pure art to popular entertainment commodities oriented toward lifestyle and economic profit, manifested in three forms of commodification: genre branding commodification (jazz as an aesthetic umbrella), musical commodification (arrangement simplification for Generation Z's taste), and spatial-symbolic commodification (desacralization of Prambanan Temple as social media content backdrop). This study enriches the sociology of music and cultural industry discourse by presenting the unique perspective of theology students who demonstrate critical-realistic awareness in navigating the tension between artistic value purity and market pragmatism, while also providing important implications for developing theology education curricula that integrate critical media literacy and cultural studies to equip future congregation leaders in facing the currents of popular cultural commodification.]]>
