Throughout this course, I’ve been introduced to and learned about many events in history. One topic in particular that fascinates me is the era of the 1920s, also known as the Jazz Age. Following World War I, a movement began in America which caused dramatic political and social changes. One of the major changes included a new genre of music. With inventions such as the radio, Americans had easier access to music. Jazz was born, and with the help of new technology, became popular throughout the country.…
A key similarity between jazz and hip-hop is that they were both started by young African-Americans, who had nowhere else to turn but music. Jazz entered the United States at the turn of the 20th century in the city of New Orleans, Louisiana. It only emerged after the introduction of the Jim Crow laws though. Before this, third-class black musicians played ragtime and blues, while the then superior second-class self-proclaimed creoles of color (light-skinned blacks of European decent) played more formal marching band type music, as they were above their fully African-American counterparts. This all changed with the introduction of Jim Crow, which said that all African-Americans, no matter how black they actually were, were second-class citizens. After, both communities combined their sounds and fused together to create the first sounds of jazz. Consequently, as jazz became popular amongst the African-Americans, it became unpopular in the eyes of the superior white community. The first places where jazz was being played was…
The Jazz Age was a defining point in the history of America. This point in time defined the clear division between the older and younger generations of America. The Jazz Age was more than just a time period but a cultural movement. Although African-Americans receive credit for the introduction of this music into America, it had quickly expanded to the white middle class and further erupted from there. The introduction of this new style of music resulted in the younger generation of America at the time to become rebellious and less inclined to follow in their ancestors footsteps culture wise (Boundless). Jazz music, in its beginnings, was most often played in cities such as New York, Chicago, and New Orleans. Each city boasted its own unique…
Jazz first originated in the early 1900s. Jazz didn’t just miraculously emerge as the defining music of the time however. It was a product of various emotions and cultures that reflected the attitude of society that manifested into jazz. Jazz was an improvisation. The 1920s is most commonly thought of as the jazz age as a result of how renowned it became. The improvisational character of the music reflected the relaxed social codes, and loose morals of the time. Furthermore, Jazz is most often associated with the changing role of…
America in the 1920s saw many instances of drastic change, impacting the lives of many Americans. The Roaring Twenties brought about many new inventions, wealth, and a new outlook on the common American lifestyle. With these new times came new influences and much change to the musical industry of jazz. This investigation will study the evolution of jazz music in the rapidly changing times of America in the 1920s and how the new American lifestyle and optimistic times influenced the music. Two sources that are used in this investigation are Jazz from its Origins to the Present by Lewis Porter, Michael Ullman, and Edward Hazell, and Chicago Jazz: A Cultural History by William Howland Kenney and published in 1993, which will be evaluated for their origins, purposes, values and limitations.…
The Harlem Renaissance was a cultural, artistic, and social period of creation and new modes of thought. Jazz, a new type of music swept the streets of New York City in the 1920’s. Every jazz artist has taken the style and made it their own over the years and added onto the legacy of what jazz is. Today, jazz is not only still its own popular entity, but nearly all modern music can trace some part of itself back to jazz.…
The Jazz Age was a cultural movement that began around 1918, post WWI. It was born in New Orleans but later spread around the world, it was a beautiful mixture of jazz and march banding styled music and was often played by African-Americans. It was the first time that people began to move to the cities rather than in rural areas. It was the first time that African American were given the opportunity to progress in a society that failed them since the ending our slavery. After the war, new trends began to surface, for example: dancing, music, fashion, theater and all the other arts in an attempt to help ease the post-war feeling of the nation.…
Jazz flourished widely in the 1920’s, which was considered the Jazz age. In the 1920’s Jazz was a lifestyle to most people. Some fell in love with Jazz, while others hated it. People who liked Jazz were the passionate and urban people. Many white young boys and girls fell in love with jazz. Jazz was a way for them to be freed from the rural America. Jazz had originally come from New Orleans but job opportunities had opened up elsewhere causing many musicians to move out of New Orleans. This is what helped spread jazz throughout America.…
The birth of jazz music is often accredited to African Americans but both black and white Americans are responsible for its immerse rise in popularity. It is present in black vocals, music-spirituals, work songs, field hollers, and the blues. Jazz united people across the world and had powerful meanings about their lives. Jazz music was completed with a trumpet, clarinet, trombone and section of drums. The music was created with passion inspired by people’s lives. Ragtime was a musical style emerged from St. Louis in the late 1890s. The swing was the new style for Jazz. Benny Goodman was the “king of swing.” and he was the first white bandleader to feature black and white musicians playing together in public. There were other different styles…
Jazz is one of the musical genres that represent America. It had a combination of influences from Africa and Europe. When Africans were brought to the United States as slaves, they brought their music and culture with them. Samuel A. Floyd Jr. stated “…particular musical tendencies were brought with Africans to the New World…and spread throughout African-derived populations in the United States, eventually becoming an integral part of the music we know as jazz.” African slaves used musical expression for social purpose in the 1800s; they sang songs when they are working or they played drums. The immigration of Europeans started in the seventeenth century. They brought the instrumentations, the tonality, the chords, and the form into the United…
Small Changes Make Big Differences A living jazz legend once exclaimed “jazz has borrowed from other genres of music and also has lent itself to other genres of music.” Herbie Hancock makes it clear that jazz has been an evolving form of art. And just as simple as the notion that music can change the world, music changes in itself. Jazz once evolved into something we call swing. Back in the roaring twenties people got up and danced to this kind of music. However, these simple and playful melodies that everyone were accustomed to transformed into intricate music with a different basis. When jazz was over everyone’s head and people stopped dancing, we call this period bop. Inevitably, new ideas emerged and jazz musicians decided to take a step back, leading into the cool period. Although it is hard to find the exact beginnings and ends to these distinct eras, I will show how musicians utilized different styles to express themselves.…
Although Jazz music emerged around beginning of twentieth century, there was a long process from long time ago. The history of jazz started in 1619 when African were being forced to come to US (West Virginia) for slavery. Here, we are talking about the Diaspora African (African that went to US, but still taking their own African culture, styles, and songs) and specifically West Africa, Angola. The African brought various of traditions to America because African music was formed from numerous ethnic group that often being associated with daily activity and dance.…
Jazz is a music genre that has complex characteristics and history of development and thus many musicians and scholars face troubles in defining what jazz is. In general, jazz is believed to have born in New Orleans. Jazz developed for the pleasure of the social dancers. According to the “Understanding Jazz: What Is Jazz?” of John F. Kennedy center for the Performing Arts, Jazz was created mainly by Afro-Americans, and had elements of European and Afro-American culture. Also, it emphasizes few elements of Jazz, which are swing-feel, syncopation, and improvisation. These different culture and elements of jazz may be explained by how jazz developed from popular music styles of 1800’s. There can be many different music styles that could have effected development of jazz, but ragtime and blues were the two essential music style in development of jazz. Ragtime and Blues are similar in that they both were forerunner of Jazz in closely overlapping time period, but those two music styles were different in many ways: the origin of the music, whether instrumental or vocal, and which musical technic each music genre focused on. Thus both ragtime and blues were critical in jazz development, but they influenced jazz in different ways.…
Early jazz was developed among African Americans in the 1880s. Then, it was fully developed in New Orleans at the beginning of the 1900s. New Orleans style jazz became known from the city’s own musical traditions and mostly street parades. But now, this type of jazz is called classic jazz, traditional jazz or Dixieland jazz. New Orleans was the musical home of many jazz musicians (Jazz History).…
The formation of jazz occurred between the years 1897 and 1917. When jazz bands started playing, they had no way of recording their music until 1917; and even then, the quality of these recordings were atrocious. Another aspect of early jazz was that anything that was played was ever written. Jazz evolved from the blues, ragtime, brass band music, and other musical works that were all around the United States. "One important factor that existed only in New Orleans, namely, the black Creole subculture" allowed jazz to emanate from the mentioned city (Weinstock). Another aspect of New Orleans that allowed jazz to thrive in this city was the medley of "ethnic, cultural, and musical conditions […] [and] the necessary philosophical impetus for…