Jazz Age Analysis

Introduction

Jazz is a unique musical genre which originated in the 19th century in the New Orleans region of America. Jazz has often been described as one of America's original art forms and has encircled itself with elements detached from alternative music genres. The origins of Jazz have been predominantly influenced by the socio-cultural temperament in New Orleans at that time. The early part of the 19th Century saw New Orleans become a self-governing city and state. The population of New Orleans began to increase substantially with an influx of immigrants including Americans, Africans and French with immigrants from the earlier Haitian Revolution (Creole ). A large number of these immigrants had settled in New Orleans and were often

Author F Scott Fitzgerald explains, “Jazz Age is as much for the cultural change it brought about as the music which defined it.” The Jazz Age.2015.Boundless.Online At this time there was still a huge insurgence of African Americans migrating from South America which ultimately saw the increase in migrants to other areas such as New York and Chicago. With this came a contrast of historical and socio-cultural attitudes. The Migrants brought with them a culture fortified with experiences of a society which had treated them as second class citizens. Racism remained prominent throughout the 1920s but despite the obstacle it created, white Americans had begun to embrace Jazz and the culture it produced, frequently attending Jazz clubs to watch artists such as Duke Ellington, Sidney Bechet and Louis

“The Boom”, “The Roaring Twenties”, “The Golden Age Of Jazz”. But it was the label of which one F. Scott Fitzgerald created that seemed to be the most fitting of all. "It was an age of miracles, it was an age of art, it was an age of excess, and it was an age of satire." Shmoop, (2015).F. Scott Fitzgerald: The Jazz Age. [online]. Although Fitzgerald notes some valid observations regarding The Jazz Age, some may feel an element of nostalgia in his findings. Having studied the dominance of jazz in the later 1930s, the glaring reality of what has gone before comes to immediate debate. In the 1930s, the progression of jazz as a style was critiqued by the prominence of female artists such as Bessie Smith. Thus, I ask the burning question; would artists such as these have been so prominent if it were not for the Jazz Age which had come before?. In the case of female performers, I conclude that if it were not for changing attitudes regarding women in the Jazz age, it may have proved a difficult endeavour to succeed as a solo performer. In relation to the male jazz musicians, it may subsequently hinge on whether the performing style will suit the listener in regards to sub-genres (Black Music for White people). In the perspective of jazz as an entity, it is discernible without hesitation that artists such as Louis Armstrong and Bessie Smith have made an extended contribution, not only to