Cultural Aspect: The Jazz Age

Jazz didn’t born exactly in the XX century, instead Jazz was born around 1895 in New Orleans. Originally it was a mixture of Blues and marching band music and was played by African-Americans and Creoles on old U.S Army instruments.

So if Jazz really born in IX century why we have the Jazz age on the XX. Well that’s because the twenties, were the time for experiments and discovering new jazz-styles. In that period of growing industrialization black people and new-Orleans-musicians moved from the country site south to Chicago. There they helped creating the Chicago-Style. Lots of Chicago musicians finally moved to New York, which was an important center of jazz, too.

Jazz bands started the musical revolution using for the first time the saxophone. It has been known to provoke close familiar dancing and many people were shocked by the loud and extraordinary sound of the sax.

Unfortunately old people in society didn’t agree with this kind of music so the prohibited them. Prohibition influenced the birth and development of Jazz in the United States. Prohibition was a period that banned the sale of alcoholic drinks. This resulted in the growth of a great number of speakeasies, which illegally sold alcoholic drinks. Jazz flourished in this environment, and grew in popularity because it was able to reach a wider audience than it had previously.

Further, because jazz was played in illegal environments, it gained a reputation as immoral and illegitimate music..

Then as the Jazz became more popular in young people. That’s because the national radio started to help Jazz being spread around all the United States, so the barely known new jazz sound spread quickly over America, and found many supporters. Lots of important clubs, or illegal clubs, helped jazz bands to get famous and featured their songs.

As the 1920s carried on, jazz, despite competition with classical music, the jazz popularity helped to generate a cultural move. There were Dances like the Charleston, developed by African Americans, suddenly that became very common and also like we have seen with the beginning of radio broadcasts in 1922, Americans were able to experience different styles of music. The radio provided Americans with a trendy new avenue for exploring the world through broadcasts and concerts from the comfort of their living room.