1930s Music Dbq

Emma Saylor

Mr. Nelson

H. American Literature

October 18, 2014

Never Played the Same Way Once While Jazz was created in the 1920s, its peak of popularity was during the 1930s. Jazz helped people get through their difficulties and offered a break from reality. The 1930s was the most important decade for the genre of Jazz music because it was during those years that its popularity spread throughout the world. The community that Jazz offered was an extremely diverse one, especially for its time period. It started integrating blacks and whites while segregation was still in its prime. Although Jazz was insanely popular, not everybody enjoyed it. Some people believed jazz music was inappropriate and even satanic. These beliefs did not restrain

Without musicians, jazz would simply cease to exist. There were a multitude of amazing Jazz musicians during the decade of the 1930s. Some of those include Benny Goodman, Adolphus “Doc” Chatham, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, and Glenn Miller. There were even more impressive orchestras, such as the Benny Goodman Orchestra, the Ben Pollack Orchestra and the Glenn Miller Orchestra. Benny Goodman moved to California when he was only sixteen to join the Ben Pollack orchestra (Ward 135). It was then that he was given the nickname, “a skinny kid in short pants” (135). Later, the Benny Goodman Orchestra remained one of the most popular orchestras in the nation for over a decade(234). Aldophus “Doc” Cheatham had just switched from an alto saxophone player to a cornet player and had come from Tennessee to Chicago when Louis Armstrong convinced him to play with him (Ward 129). Armstrong was in need of a replacement for one of his shows and chose Cheatham for the daunting task (129). Louis could play notes that were uncommonly high for a cornet. It was quite a sight and many people payed their way into the shows just to see if he was able to do it. Cheatham ended up having one of the longest careers in the history of jazz music (129). One of the most interesting players of Jazz music had a quite interesting belief about Jazz. Miller, of the Glenn Miller Orchestra believed that Jazz was not an art. He simply played because

There were never any restrictions on who could participate even when integration was not believed in, and before woman were influential members of society. Jazz encouraged individualism to be strongly believed in, which is a critical component that should be instilled into everybody’s life. Even through hardships of anti-jazz campaigns and constant criticizing, jazz music worked its way to the top of the charts and became a national obsession. Today Jazz is played regularly in cities all over the globe. The original home of jazz, America, has jazz weaved into the school system in a way that is unlike any other country in the world. Jazz music was and continues to be a form of entertainment, a lifestyle, and a distraction from the everyday hardships that are forced upon them.

Works Cited

Collier, James Lincoln. Jazz: An American Saga. New York: Henry Holt, 1997. Print.

Geoffrey C., and Ken Burns. Jazz: A History of America's Music. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2000. Print.

Kallen, Stuart A. The History of Jazz. San Diego: Lucent, 2003. Print.

"Music and Dance: Early Jazz." PBS. Ed. WGBH. PBS, 1999. Web. 21 Oct. 2014.Ward,

Spitzer, Peter, and Terry Perkins. "Jazz History: The Standards (1930s)." Jazz History: The Standards (1930s). Ed. Sandra Burlingame. Jeremy Wilson, n.d. Web. 22 Oct.