The Jazz Age free essay sample

The Jazz Age 1920 ;s Like all the changes during the course of history that the United States has experienced The Jazz age can be explained as a time to experiment and try different styles. This period was taken place during a time when big businesses started to grow even bigger and the United states became even more Industrialized. The Jazz Age happened after WWW. During WWW everyone was focused on the war. Everything the people would do was to benefit the war. Once the war was over most of the Americans were ready to experience new styles and start all over again.There were changes in clothes, women, music, writers evolved, crime increased, and daily life changed during this time. Women during WWW wanted to push for womens rights. Eventually the nineteenth amendment was passed for womens rights. Most of the women had husbands that were in combat during the war so women had to leave their housewife routine and work the Jobs that their husbands left once the war started. We will write a custom essay sample on The Jazz Age or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page After the war women changed their look. A new trend started in which women were called flappers. Flappers were no longer the typical housewife, they smoked, drank, went out dancing, ND they voted.These women were more liberal, they wore shorter dresses and cut their hair really short. Another name for these women during The Jazz Age was also twiggy. After the war women wanted to avoid all the rules and the typical role they had to play. Jazz was being played everywhere by the sasss for example dance halls, speakeasies, and all over the country. Before Jazz was being introduced more in the country it was considered the devils music. Jazz is basically a mixture of experimental blues ragtime. Composers of Jazz mixed ragtime Into there music which soon became known as Jazz. Some of these composers were Pan Alley and Irving Berlin.Jazz Influenced everyone In America and even western Europe. In todays society music influences in how we dress and talk. Jazz during this period influenced how people acted after the war. Going out to these dances and liberating themselves was a way to avoid all the rules. A popular dance move during this period was called the Charleston. Besides Jazz, Broadway shows were very popular during this time. This form of entertainment not only brought a way to pass time but It also was a way to make a profit. The directors of these shows took these shows very seriously In order o provide quality entertainment to everyone.One of the most famous Broadway show was Sally, No, No, Nanette. The fashion trend during The Jazz Age showed the rapid changes in the people. Before this period women wore really long dresses, long sleeve shirts, their hair was long, and most of their clothing was conservative. Men used to wear baggy clothing, and cuffs on the sleeves. These old fashion clothing was known as the Titanic their hair was short with feathered headbands. Although when women started to wear these short dresses it shocked the world most of these trends inspired some of he clothing we wear today. Mens style was inspired by a man named Rudolph Valentine.He would wear his hair parted in the middle and pulled back. Men wore straw hats or flat tops and for an everyday look men would wear sport coats. The life style during The Jazz Age was carefree. There was not the typical united family. During this period the first affordable car was invented by Henry Ford. This car was called the Model-T. The car changed how the people lived. For example before the Jazz age if a girl wanted to date a boy she would of have to date him in her home where the parents were around to watch them. This was called parlor dating. The auto freed the youth from parlor dating.It gave the youth a feel of freedom. The invention of this affordable car also allowed families to move farther away from the inner city. The problem that occurred with this new invention is that it decreased church attendance. Families now would rather go out on Sunday drives than go to church. Crime also increased in the cities and the corruption of the youth was caused because of the automobile. We now can see crime everywhere we go. During this period gangs began to form and illegal bars were created. AH Capons was the leading role to all these crimes. He is known as one of the greatest gangsters in the United States.Prohibition was basically a law during this time that made alcohol illegal. Most of the Americans were in favor of this. But there a few that voted against this law. When gangs formed they took over many communities and opened speakeasies, which is an illegal underground bar. In a speakeasies these gangs would sneak in alcohol by bribing the police with the alcohol. The people that had the Job of sneaking in this alcohol were called bootleggers. In order to stop these crimes the 21st amendment was pushed wrought which repealed the 18th amendment and prohibition was mandated nation wide.Many writers evolved during this time most of them from the Harlem Renaissance. This time period took place between sass and sass. This period was known as a literary and intellectual that showed a new identity for African Americans. A critic and a teacher called it a spiritual coming of age in which African Americans can express themselves and show self determination. African Americans owned their own newspapers and magazines. This separated them from the mainstream. One of the leading magazines was written by Charles S. Johnson. His magazine became the leading voice for African Americans.Other writers were W. E. B Dubos, Longs Hughes, and Counted Sullen. This new artistic movement came from New Orleans. It can also be known as the hot spot for arts. The genre in this period was known as modernism and the new form of Jazz poetry. Most of the writers would write about their life during slavery and traditions that they had. This period gave African Americans a new identity in which they could expand their way of thinking nation wide. Many white literacy became interested with the writers of this time and they loud publish their works on a higher level. Hughes said that acceptance by the white world was less important than the expression of our individual dark-skinned selves. Only focused on social and culture issues during this time. People wanted the government to interfere less in their lives. By the time the war was over Americans were tired of the war and attempts to pass moral legislation. People in the end wanted a simple way of life. Most teenagers looked for a way to not follow rules by acting out and doing outrageous things. The image of the sass in the end was prosperity, a new life, and a deep culture conflict. Costello, The Jazz Age free essay sample The Jazz music of the Big Band Era was the peak of over thirty years of musical development. Jazz was so innovative and different that It could literally sweep the world, changing the musical styles of nearly every country. Big band Jazz that makes the feet tap and the heart race with excitement that It Is recognized with nearly every type of music. The musical and cultural revolution that brought about Jazz was a direct result of African-Americans pursuing careers In the arts following the united States civil war. As slaves African-Americans has learned few European cultural radiation.With more freedom to pursue careers in the arts and bringing African artistic traditions to their work, African-Americans changed music and dance, not only in the U. S. , but all over the world. For after the war, African American dancers and musicians created work that was not similar by hundreds of years of musical and dance traditions brought from the peasant villages of Europe. We will write a custom essay sample on The Jazz Age or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page The music of Europe had a more base structure. European music through the nineteenth century was melodically based, with a square or waltz rhythmic structure. Differently, muchAfrican music has an organization which Is based around rhythm and accent, rhythms and accents that may actually shift and move In relation to each other as the music progresses. The big change that took place In music rhythmically was the shift away from the rhythmic structure. African musical tradition tends to count towards the accented beat so that an African may count 2 on the same beat a European would count 1 . It is typical of West African music to have rhythms of different lengths overlapping each other, creating shifting accents, sort of like a mix.Which is to say hat by the late sasss African-American Jazz music had developed a tradition where musicians put a strong rhythmic accent on 2 and 4 and melodic accents anywhere BUT on 1 . The first popular musical trend in the United States produced by this African-European combination was Ragtime, which first achieved popularity in the late 19th century. Ragtime musicians often used what are called ragged rhythms. Ragged rhythms were African-influenced rhythms, shortened so that the accent was off the beat, Instead of In rhythm with the beat.Ragtime musicians also occasionally used what were called blue harmonies and notes. Blue harmonies and notes used notes that didnt fit into the European concept of melody or harmony. Some of the notes dont even exist in European musical scales, so they were not recognized easily. The New Orleans bands of the late 19th century from which Big Bands evolved were varied. Some were social bands that played popular songs and music for dancing, some played marches and rags for weekend picnics and parties. Others specialized in their own variations on work and blues songs.Big Band Jazz ad its start in New Orleans in 1898 at the end of the Spanish-American war. Military bands returned to the port to flood the city with used band instruments. And African- Americans Interested In music quickly bought up hundreds of these instruments and began to form bands. Starting from square one, enthusiastic African American musicians taught themselves to play. This had two results: unconventional playing techniques and unconventional rendering of popular musical tunes. The playing techniques led to new and interesting sounds entering musicians vocabulary: objects as mutes, and others.The unconventional rendering of popular musical tunes led to Jazz. An African-American playing a popular tune would play it adding some African musical traditions, different musical scales and different and complex rhythms. These early Jazz bands played music that was, to put it mildly, loosely structured. A soloist or an instrumental section of the band played the melody and the remaining musicians improvised the harmony and rhythmic embellishments. Many Jazz bands arranged their music by rehearsing it by ear many times until all the musicians were in agreement about what went where, when.These Jazz bands often changed personnel, sometimes on a weekly basis. This frequent changing also helped the evolution of Jazz, preventing bands from becoming hidebound and determined to have a particular style or sound. On into the sasss change was the watchword of Jazz. The first Jazz record Livery Stable Blues, coupled with Dixie Sass Band One Step was made in 1917 by a White band from New Orleans called The Original Dixieland Jazz Band. The band was one of the first to bring the New Orleans style of Jazz to New York. After a music agent heard them in Chicago and brought hem to New York, where, within weeks, they were a sensation. Soon after their first record Victor records signed them for several more. The music recorded by the band was nearly conventional with no blue notes and only a smattering of ragged rhythms. Even so, the record sold over one million copies and had a profound effect on musicians and the public all over the U. S. As Jazz got popular, many New Orleans- based bands began spreading out across the country, playing in Chicago, New York City, Los Angels, San Francisco, or hitting the smaller towns.The first Jazz record by n African Americans, was by Kid Orgys band recording under the name of Spikes Seven Pods of Pepper Orchestra. The songs Orgys Creole Trombone and Society Blues where recorded in Los Angels in 1922. After 1923 the flood gates were open and African American Jazz became widely recorded. Early stars included other New Orleans musicians like King Oliver and Jelly Roll Morton, a Creole musician who, in the early sasss, recorded over a hundred of his own and others Jazz tunes. Some of the records are solo piano, but many are of Jelly Roll with his band the Red Hot Peppers.These early releases were great hits and record companies began recording nearly anyone who even claimed to be a Jazz musician. With records coming out by the hundreds, thousands of young people across the U. S. Decided they wanted to be Jazz musicians. The Jazz music boom had begun. But the enthusiasm for Jazz was not shared by everyone. Many in White middle America were concerned, and magazine and newspaper articles decrying the influence of African American music on society and the scandalous behavior, including dancing, it supposedly led to were not uncommon.Jazz had arrived and it had made an introduction. As a aced of rebellion, the Roaring asss was made for Jazz. The young and the hip delighted in anything that was new and exciting. The more staid and uptight members of society thought Jazz decadent and a moral which gave Jazz, for some, extra appeal. But the exciting new rhythms and harmonies was the huge force behind societys acceptance of Jazz. The first bandleader to achieve national recognition was Fletcher Henderson who formed a band in the early sasss. Originally his band was a dance band, playing waltzes and foxtrots. Over the course music.By the time the band took over at Roseland Ballroom and featured Louis Armstrong on trumpet, the band had become a Jazz band. Duke Elongating, a formally trained musician, also formed his band in the sasss, again as a dance band. The arrival of an innovative trumpeter named Bibber Mille and a talented saxophonist named Sidney Becket exerted a profound influence on the Elongations work, gradually helping to change the band into a remarkably creative Jazz big band. In 1935 that Jazz with a Swing beat achieved national attention and then in large part to Benny Goodman. As a youth Goodman was an extremely talented clarinetist.He studied tit a respected Jazz clarinetist in Chicago, leaving Chicago in 1928 for NYC where he was successful as a sideman. However, he didnt form his own band until a few years later when he got a recording contract thanks to the great Jazz impresario John Hammond. Soon after that he bought some scores from Fletcher Henderson, some of them arranged by Henderson himself. Despite Henderson fine arrangements, his band hadnt been doing well. Goodman, at the urging of John Hammond, hired Fletcher. The same arrangements which brought Henderson band lukewarm interest proved to be dynamite for the Goodman band.For the next several years Henderson arranged tunes for Goodman band in a Jazz/Swing style. Henderson arrangements are credited with helping sweep the Goodman band to national popularity the following year at the finish of an apparently unsuccessful cross- country tour in California. As it turned out, the radio broadcasts of the tour were scheduled too late for people in the east and Midwest. On the west coast, however, the broadcasts gained a devoted audience who, surprising the band, swarmed its final concerts. And it was with Benny Goodman that the Swing big band boom began, ND our narrative on Jazz draws to a close. After Goodman dramatic success ignited the Big Band craze, excellent musicians who had been working as sidemen for other bands found encouragement to start their own bands. Bands led by the Dodders, Glenn Miller, Bunny Bearing, Lionel Hampton, Harry James, and Gene Koura sprang into being. With big band Swing music in full bloom, it was only logical that Jitterbug dancing should also rocket to national popularity, which it did. Jazz music had an amazing affect on the Roaring Twenties. It tells many stories of sadness, experience and most of all, life.