Bebop Jazz Influence
Breaking News: Bebop Jazz Influences Beat Poets
The 1950’s was an unusual decade to say the least. Some would say it was a lost decade because it doesn’t get mentioned much in the history books. But there was plenty that happened that would shape the decades to come. In a time when the United States was heavily conservative due to the popularity of the fight against communism there was a little known revolution taking place by a group of young rebels who were known as the Beatniks. Some of the members that headlined this group consisted of Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, and Amiri Baraka. They voiced their displeasures and opinions to the public through the arts. Poetry being the most prevalent art form. The Beatniks found their inspiration …show more content…
The classics were made famous by the likes of Glenn Miller and Benny Goodman who played fun and uplifting songs for inspired dancers in all the glamorous nightclubs. On the other hand, the bebop jazz musicians would mostly play in the smaller clubs which seemed more of the local hangout types rather than places to dance. This new style of jazz was very different because it was played at speeds that were too fast for dancing but also echoed a solitary darkness of troubles. The rising Beatniks lead by the brilliant minds of Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, and others would often conjoin at these various clubs for social conversation and alcoholic beverages in the dimmed light as well as listening to the quick rhythmed, fast paced jazz music bellowing out from center …show more content…
Stephanie Nikolopoulos of roofbeamreader.com has a wonderful take on it, she writes, “What bebop musicians were doing with musical notes, Kerouac wanted to do with words. Just as they improvised their music, he freestyled his verse in his efforts to create prose that was as immediate as a live concert. Kerouac’s prose is a pure rush of thoughts and feelings. He heaps on themes, demonstrating his virtuosity. His story is not easy or comfortable; it’s complex, jagged, and—at times—jarring. It’s also captivating and beautiful.” This is a great passage because it emphasizes the true essence of the inspirational effect that jazz had on the beat poets like Kerouac and Ginsberg.
Another element to some of the beatnik’s poetic discoveries was the use of drugs. Heroin and Benzedrine were popular in those days with the bebop jazz artists with whom the Beatniks idolized. Many thought that if the musicians can create such amazing musical pieces while under the influence of drugs then perhaps my biggest poetic breakthrough will come if I’m under too. Many Beatniks experimented and soaked in these moments and attempted to create pieces of art that could be characterized as something from another
The 1950’s was an unusual decade to say the least. Some would say it was a lost decade because it doesn’t get mentioned much in the history books. But there was plenty that happened that would shape the decades to come. In a time when the United States was heavily conservative due to the popularity of the fight against communism there was a little known revolution taking place by a group of young rebels who were known as the Beatniks. Some of the members that headlined this group consisted of Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, and Amiri Baraka. They voiced their displeasures and opinions to the public through the arts. Poetry being the most prevalent art form. The Beatniks found their inspiration …show more content…
The classics were made famous by the likes of Glenn Miller and Benny Goodman who played fun and uplifting songs for inspired dancers in all the glamorous nightclubs. On the other hand, the bebop jazz musicians would mostly play in the smaller clubs which seemed more of the local hangout types rather than places to dance. This new style of jazz was very different because it was played at speeds that were too fast for dancing but also echoed a solitary darkness of troubles. The rising Beatniks lead by the brilliant minds of Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, and others would often conjoin at these various clubs for social conversation and alcoholic beverages in the dimmed light as well as listening to the quick rhythmed, fast paced jazz music bellowing out from center …show more content…
Stephanie Nikolopoulos of roofbeamreader.com has a wonderful take on it, she writes, “What bebop musicians were doing with musical notes, Kerouac wanted to do with words. Just as they improvised their music, he freestyled his verse in his efforts to create prose that was as immediate as a live concert. Kerouac’s prose is a pure rush of thoughts and feelings. He heaps on themes, demonstrating his virtuosity. His story is not easy or comfortable; it’s complex, jagged, and—at times—jarring. It’s also captivating and beautiful.” This is a great passage because it emphasizes the true essence of the inspirational effect that jazz had on the beat poets like Kerouac and Ginsberg.
Another element to some of the beatnik’s poetic discoveries was the use of drugs. Heroin and Benzedrine were popular in those days with the bebop jazz artists with whom the Beatniks idolized. Many thought that if the musicians can create such amazing musical pieces while under the influence of drugs then perhaps my biggest poetic breakthrough will come if I’m under too. Many Beatniks experimented and soaked in these moments and attempted to create pieces of art that could be characterized as something from another