By the 1920’s music and dancing intermingled to create a dancing frenzy in the United States (Fletcher Henderson 99). The dance craze started due to a shift in Jazz music to Big Bands. Swing was the main way these new type of bands were described due to the fact that these bands played like no other bands before, and gained the ability to make the music move unlike jazz had in the past. In the article “Fletcher Henderson” it explains “someone once described swing as the quality which not only makes people want to dance but would also cause them to fall over in a heap if the music stopped unexpectedly” (112). This was very apparent in the performance by the Big Band last week, unlike the other performance the band was able to get the audience …show more content…
Jazz had become a musical sensation and gained new appraisal unlike ever before during the Swing era this was due to the fact the industry migrated beyond the confinement of the nightclub to the American population at large thanks new forms of technology. The radio and use of white agents gave the musicians a newfound ability for national success (Swing Changes). Before the Swing era jazz was “perceived as uncouth and primitive” due to its association with African Americans but according to the article “Swing Changes” that perception changed “when jazz answered to the label “swing”, the music took on a more explicit set of Ideological meanings. Instead of simply eliciting negative responses … jazz evoked more complex responses” (“Swing Changes” 53). The article Swing Changes further explains this transformation of opinions occurred because “the swing ideology expressed reverence for such cherished American ideas as liberty, democracy, tolerance, and equality… the experience was both sign and engine of a fundamentally rational and ever improving American society” (“Swing Changes” 74). Also African Americans changed the way they approached the music industry now that they were able to get white agents, who acted as their bridge between the two races. This is evident in Duke Ellington’s jazz career thrived thanks to his agent Irving Mills, without his agent Duke would not have survived the depression like many other musicians hadn’t (“Swing Changes” 103). The article “Swing Changes” explains that the “relationship between swing and the booking agencies was one of mutual dependency. Swing as a national fad … would have been impossible without the agencies, which served as liaisons between radio networks… and the big bands” (105). The agents were able to use their connections to link the two worlds