Jazz Music Influence

Jazz music has its roots in Black slave culture and arts. The white culture of the time saw these influences as “savage” and deteriorating to their music. Some saw the role of jazz as a platform for a change. Jazz was a way to bring together the different cultures. During the 1920s and 1930s jazz began to be popular and interesting among young people, black and whites. They were attracted by the freedom and artistic nature of it. When white popular musicians started to integrate the Bebop style with their own music, it became that much more popular, not only in America, but around the world. Jazz became a way to unify cultures through music. It helped to bring down barriers. It reflected a new time in America, one where cultures became more integrated, but still had room to be individual. This music was the combination of not only features of African American life into its music, but also features from other influences of cultures. Cultures such as the Caribbean, European folk and Asian styles. [1] The most popular form of jazz

No longer played in large groups, bebop was played in smaller groups, highlighting individual musicians. Bebop was also different in which the music was arranged, notes were added and dropped. It was more intricate and complex that swing music of the big bands. Bebop was on the rise when the American Federation of Musician’s ban on recording, which began in 1942 and would not officially end until 1944. The AFM felt threatened by advances in technology, such as radio, the jukebox, and Warner Bros. By this time much of radio was recorded music which was necessary for the time in which moral needed to be improved during World War II. During this time, many of these beginning bebop bands music were not recorded, due to the recorded music ban implemented by the AFM. So many of the early recordings are no longer in existence.