Post on 01-Jan-2016
The Rise of Jazz Music• In 1922 the first
commercial radio station in the USA opened in Pittsburgh
• The number of radio stations grew at a rapid rate, and with them, spread the popularity of jazz music
• The rise was also helped by the growing production and use of the gramophone
• In fact, jazz became the most popular music of the 1920’s!
• Jazz provided an opportunity for black musicians such as Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington
• They made big money from nightclub and radio performances
• This was the first time white people had been exposed to black music – and millions loved it
• Jazz originated in the black neighbourhood of Harlem, New York
• The rise of Jazz music also led to new popular dances such as The Charleston, the Jitterbug and the Tango
• These high-energy dances were a welcome relief to old ballroom dancing and waltzes of America before World War One
But Not Everyone Was So Happy!
• “Jazz music causes drunkenness. All sense is lost and animal passions take over in its presence”
• “Jazz lyrics, written in Negro brothels, are an offence to women”
• “Jazz has a demoralising effect on the human brain, which has been demonstrated by scientists. Jazz stimulates people to do extreme deeds; it is harmful and dangerous”
But these feelings and comments only seemed to make jazz music even more popular, particularly among women!
Jazz and the Speakeasy Culture
• Prohibition jump-started the Jazz Age
• During Prohibition, "The parties were bigger…the pace was faster…and the morals were looser." (Novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald)
• Mob bosses opened plush nightclubs with exotic floor shows and the hottest bands…At Small's Paradise in Harlem, waiters danced the Charleston, carrying trays loaded down with cocktails
• Out in rural America, on Midwestern college campuses, kids drank "bathtub gin" and danced to the hot jazz of ‘Bix and the Wolverines’
• Jazz took the blame for being “an influence for evil in society”