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The Jazz Age: The Roaring 20's

The first years of Jazz

Started in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, jazz has its musical roots in New Orleans, Louisiana where it combines American and European classical music with African and slave folk songs with a touch of West African culture.

When it all Started

The music gained in popularity during the Jazz Age (1920s and 1930s) where it affected the cultural landscape in political, social, and economic experiences.

1

The Jazz Age ran parallel to the “Roaring Twenties”, a period during the 1920s where there was a movement of achieving economic prosperity after the end of War World I.

2

The Faces of Jazz

Usually started by crime organizers like Al Capone, jazz musicians had steady work to build a financial and professional profile. Some of the popular jazz artists during this era were Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton, and Ethel Waters while introducing musical styles like scat singing and playing with an orchestra.

Following World War I there was a mass migration of Jazz musicians from New Orleans to major northern cities like Chicago and New York, leading to a wider dispersal of Jazz as different styles developed in different cities. As the 1920s progressed, Jazz rose in popularity and helped to generate a cultural shift.

Because of its popularity in speakeasies and its proliferation due to the emergence of more advanced recording devices, Jazz became very popular in a short amount of time.

Dances like the Charleston, developed by African-Americans, instantly became popular among different demographics, including young white people. With the introduction of large-scale radio broadcasts in 1922, Americans were able to experience different styles of music without physically visiting a Jazz club. Through its broadcasts and concerts, the radio provided Americans with a trendy new avenue for exploring unfamiliar cultural experiences from the comfort of their living room. The most popular type of radio show was a "potter palm," an amateur concert and big-band Jazz performance broadcast from New York and Chicago.

Due to the racial prejudice prevalent at most radio stations, white American Jazz artists received much more air time than black Jazz artists.

Big-band Jazz, like that of James Reese in Europe and Fletcher Henderson in New York, was also popular on the radio and brought an African-American style and influence to a predominantly white cultural scene.

In conclusion...

The Jazz Age was life-changing for everyone who got to experience it in its arising glory. I would have loved to see artists like Louis Armstrong and Joe "King" Oliver perform in a Jazz club or in speakeasies whilst illegally drinking whiskey.

The music and musicians of these times are truly inspiring and I truly hope more people will begin to recognize that.

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