Swing Music: Swing In The 1970's

Music is one surefire way of describing a culture. It touches every corner of the globe in its own way, reflecting societies and views over the years. The United States has gone through many changes throughout the generations. One style of music very near to our culture has been swing. Whether it be it's beginning stages in the 1920's, its peak in the 1940's, or the numerous revivals, big band is making a big story in the United States. One of the most influential swing band leaders was Glenn miller. With multiple hits, awards, and even a movie about him his life and music embraces and even forms American culture in a pivotal in our history. His music is one of the greatest stories to show the expansion of swing culture and where it goes from

Whether it be the classic swing, a funky swing from the 1970's or the emerging sound of electroswing (swing dubbed with a techno beat). Swing takes from the old and positions it into the new. Glenn miller has done this himself. He took an old 1800's classic, little brown jug, and modernized it to his era of swing. Today people take glenn millers “Little Brown Jug” and modernize that. Unknowingly modernizing a song multiple times from over 200 years ago shows how deep and traditional swing can be. Swing will always be deep in American culture, “David Miller predicts that the best music of the Big Band Era will eventually enjoy the kind of status that is now enjoyed by classical music. 'The best of it will survive and will be replayed for as long as classical music written in the 17th or 18th century is being played," he says. "And I’m referring to the pieces that are most enduring, which are mostly instrumental. The vocal pieces haven’t survived the years as well as the instrumentals. The ones that quickly come to mind are the ones that were done by Glenn Miller'” (Mulher). Swing will last throughout american culture because of its enduring nature. The sounds created by the brass and wind similar to the soft strings of a classical song can not get lost in translation. However can these songs be changed to match the times? Of course! And it is still swing at heart,

Pop music became so popular because of its marketing and commercialization. The use of social media widens the scope of listeners. This means more people not only buy your music or concert tickets but more people actually listen to your music. How many times has one person watched a television show or a commercial with one of the most recent pop songs in it? A lot. We see it on facebook, twitter, instagram, any social media site. There is ads on every website or before every youtube page. A great example was when an ad for “Anaconda” by Nicki Minaj was on before the actual song on youtube. This commercialization drills these songs through our head. But more and more varying songs are coming through that lens. It is used in hollywood to capture moments that only swing can quite emphasize “The band Big Bad Voodoo Daddy made a huge, horn-laden splash on the soundtrack to the movie Swingers recently, and even was mentioned in the New York Times’ Janet Maslin’s review”(Mulhern). It was so prominent in the movie the New York Times began to pick up on the trend of the usage of swing or its revival stages. This can spread the song even more across the United States and when we think of media outlets New york times and Hollywood are two of the largest. Companies even use the music now. Lancaster caramels and even Coke have started using electro swing in their advertisements. My question is why? In the late