America’s Jazz Age:
How the Music started a Movement In the wake of the resolution of World War I, the American people began to work to improve both the public morale and the economy. One main transformation during the early 1920s was the growth in the music industry, in particular, jazz. The onset of the jazz age was a dynamic and controversial movement in American culture, a turning point for racial and sexual relations, and a pivotal moment in the development of technology, which changed the method in which music was listened and consumed. As with any major change throughout history, it was very controversial and met with constant resistance from Americans with more traditional ways of life.
Jazz music provided a common interest for a wide variety of socioeconomic backgrounds, bridging racial gaps. For example, in the Spring of 1885 at the International Cotton exposition at New Orleans, Charles Dudley Warner reflects on the scene saying “white and colored people mingled freely...talking and looking at what was of common interest… in unconscious equality of privileges” (Ward 16). While reflecting on the perceived shift in gender equality, the reality is the process took another 60 years and an immense amount of strife to attain …show more content…
Whitman was a classically trained musician and actually wrote down the parts for his musicians but also favored the soft smooth style of jazz music. Whitman commissioned composer George Gershwin to make a jazz composition for the piano and orchestra (Kyvig 80). Rhapsody in blue aired on the radio in February 1924 and jazz acquired instant respectability. Whitman’s style became popular on the radio and inspired other bands. Some of the up and coming bands lead by various jazz musicians such as Guy Lombardo, Ozzie Nelson, Rudy Valley, Duke Ellington, and Glenn Miller all followed Whitman 's lead making jazz important to radio especially in the 1930s and 1940s (Kyvig
How the Music started a Movement In the wake of the resolution of World War I, the American people began to work to improve both the public morale and the economy. One main transformation during the early 1920s was the growth in the music industry, in particular, jazz. The onset of the jazz age was a dynamic and controversial movement in American culture, a turning point for racial and sexual relations, and a pivotal moment in the development of technology, which changed the method in which music was listened and consumed. As with any major change throughout history, it was very controversial and met with constant resistance from Americans with more traditional ways of life.
Jazz music provided a common interest for a wide variety of socioeconomic backgrounds, bridging racial gaps. For example, in the Spring of 1885 at the International Cotton exposition at New Orleans, Charles Dudley Warner reflects on the scene saying “white and colored people mingled freely...talking and looking at what was of common interest… in unconscious equality of privileges” (Ward 16). While reflecting on the perceived shift in gender equality, the reality is the process took another 60 years and an immense amount of strife to attain …show more content…
Whitman was a classically trained musician and actually wrote down the parts for his musicians but also favored the soft smooth style of jazz music. Whitman commissioned composer George Gershwin to make a jazz composition for the piano and orchestra (Kyvig 80). Rhapsody in blue aired on the radio in February 1924 and jazz acquired instant respectability. Whitman’s style became popular on the radio and inspired other bands. Some of the up and coming bands lead by various jazz musicians such as Guy Lombardo, Ozzie Nelson, Rudy Valley, Duke Ellington, and Glenn Miller all followed Whitman 's lead making jazz important to radio especially in the 1930s and 1940s (Kyvig