Jazz Music In The 1920s

Thesis: The 1920’s brought much advancement to today’s society especially in technology the most important of which was music. Is music important to you? Music doesn’t repel to everyone. Music has a huge impact on society even beginning with the Harlem Renaissance to today. Music is the universal language and that’s why it’s important to some people. Music is important to teenagers as well as adults. It is a way to escape from their problems.

There are many different styles of music. The 20’s were known as the “Jazz Age”. This decade was known as the “Jazz Age” because jazz was very popular and just started showing off the skills in jazz music. Jazz is a popular term to be described as miscellaneous events in life. In the 1920’s jazz was entertainment.

Jazz also represents rebellious behavior and biracial culture. The 1920’s was the time of Prohibition. The Prohibition Amendment of the 1920’s was ineffective because it was unenforceable, it caused explosive growth of crime, and it increased the amount of alcohol consumption. The crime rate increased because the Prohibition destroyed legal jobs, created black market violence, diverted resources from enforcement of other laws and increased prices people had to pay for prohibited goods. Jazz was not just music; it was a form of communal expression.

Jazz was different because it broke the rules-musical and social. It featured improvisation over traditional structure. The advent of Prohibition in 1920 brought into gangster runs night-clubs.

In the 1920’s jazz music provided a freedom of expression, musical individuality, and cultural freedom. Jazz music lead to new dances in the 1920’s like the One Step. Jazz originally came from New Orleans. New Orleans jazz is a style of music. Almost any song can be “jazzed” up with a New Orleans beat. Jazz is music for dancing, not listening. Something that sets jazz apart from the music that preceded it is the way musicians improvised…it was a vehicle for personal expression.

Jazz recordings allowed the music to reach beyond night clubs. In the 1920’s the black arts movement was known as the Harlem renaissance. Jazz was an important part of this movement.

As music shifted in the 1920’s to urban areas job opportunities increased. Along with this was an increase in spending power for black Americans. Jazz was also said to be having a caststrophobic impact on the national character. Jazz was also condemned because of its origins. It was originally “the accompaniment of the voodoo dances”.

Jazz music came to seem nor merely an annoyance but a threat. Jazz simply became synonymous with noise. The first great rebellion against jazz music and such dances as the “toddle”. Realizing the evil influence of this type of music and dancing the National Dancing Masteous Association at their last session adopted a rule.

Another proof that jazz is recognized as producing an evil effect is the fact that in almost every big industry where music has been instituted it has been found necessarily to discontinue jazz because of its demoralizing effect upon the workers. This was noticed in an unsteadiness and lack of evenness in the workmanship of the product after a period when the workmen had indulged in jazz music. Jazz is an influence for evils also felt by a number of the biggest country club, which have forbidden the corset check room.

Black musicians were opening doors, Harlem’s Cotton Club, the most popular New York jazz club of the 1920s and 1930s, featured Black entertainers but seated only white patrons. In the first decades of the twentieth century its emotional rhythms moved north with the Great Migration, a mass movement of Blacks from the South to urban areas seeking better opportunities and attempting to escape from rigid Jim Crow laws that held them in a state of virtual slavery. This distinctly American music, with an emphasis on improvisation, captured the spirit of the nation. The radio and phonograph had a major impact on Jazz’s popularity as improvisation and the spontaneity that typified the music was better conveyed through sound than sheet music.

Another genre or style of music is known as the music that was forced underground. The music shifted emphasis from dancing to listening. Bebop reflected the resentment black musicians felt over the rewards and benefits reaped by white big bands from swing developed by blacks.

Bebop was known as modern jazz that developed after WWII. Bebop artist developed their own style of dress with berets and grew goatees. They would perform with their backs to the audience. They developed scat singing a type of nonsense syllable singing. Bebop musicians of note were Lester Young, Charles Parker, and Miles Davis.

Lester Young was one of the musicians who began the shift to bebop. Miles Davis is a very serious trumpet performer of the bop/cool era who got his start with Parker. Charles Parker is the leader of the bop movement. Charles is a tremendously talented saxophonist from Kansas City.

The first popular musical trend in the United States produced by this African-European synthesis was Ragtime. Ragtime musicians often used what are called “ragged” rhymes. Ragtime musicians also occasionally used what were called “blue” harmonious and notes.

The 1920’s ragtime was considered “old hat”. Ragtime continued to be performed and recorded, and it clearly had a major influence on early jazz greats such as “Jelly Roll” Morton. Ragtime continues to be popular with both musicians and audiences and at last gained widespread respect and recognition.

Louis “Satchemo” Armstrong was a person who helped change the music of the 1920’s. Louis not only changed music, but also made one of his famous recordings. His recordings and show tours marked jazz music’s shift from a regionally-rooted out form to a national production.

In conclusion, the 1920’s music had a tremendous change to society today. There were also many artists that tried to change jazz music. Even though music doesn’t repel to everyone. Music has many different styles. The jazz age is what has an impact on society today. The jazz age was very popular and continues to be popular. Today people still listen to jazz music.