Saturday, February 11, 2012

Jazz Music and Its Significance in US History

Jazz music which is thought to be an art creation of the American blacks during the early decades of the twentieth century has bedn an important subject of the social history of US. It gained popularity not only as an art form but it also helped the hapless blacks, who were the offspring of the enslaved African origin blacks brought into America by the white settlers to exploit them for their labor needs, to gain a social standing through the power of music. They, with the help of influential jazz music, brought to limelight the miseries that they are suffering because of the racial hatred.

Initially the jazz music flourished in the South American region. New Orleans was especially very dear to this art. From there it traveled to all parts of America. In the beginning years there was strong resistance seen on the part of whites who could not see the blacks progressing in some field. But despite all their malicious efforts to suppress the jazz music being spread into society, they themselves were vanquished by its influence. It made itself as a hallmark of the US culture. Whites and immigrants from other regions of world were seen getting into this music.

The music when adopted by people from different ethnic backgrounds living in the multicultural society of US groomed further and many other variations were developed of it. All these happenings with the jazz were signifying the growing influence of the Negroes. The lyrics of their songs, especially the improvisation technique used in the Jazz which allows the singer to sing without even the tune, were expressive of their true emotions and their social sufferings on being the isolated and neglected portion of the society. It, in a sense, played a considerable role in reducing the racial differences. Other people of different ethnicities also used it to raise their voice.

Jazz was setting its roots in the music landscape and became popular in all people. Because of its rapid development people started calling it the rise of 'Jazz Culture' in America.

It was just after the end of slavery in US the Jazz music started to grow. The slave trade, though it was ended by the American law, had profound effects for the US society. It generated a milieu of hatred for blacks toward whites and vice versa. This legacy had to last for generations and according to the recent studies there is still a huge tendency of racism that exist in American people. In addition to this there were immigrants from other regions of the world that further amplified the diversity and nationalistic feelings among people who were now living together in the multi-ethnic society of US. In such an atmosphere the empowerment of blacks through the help of their arts movements was a historic marvel. It was not just music that was their sole part of the black arts movement. Other genres of art like poetry, fiction, fashion were also distinctively used by them

In the city of New Orleans where the Jazz music was born there was a peculiar tradition among people. During the funerals the people were consoled by these jazz singers who used to play funeral songs that soothed the family and friends of the dead person. This practice was becoming more and more prominent and was taking a shape of a must element of funeral processions. Moreover the people of New Orleans were very fond of holding music parties, concerts, balls,etc. that further paved the way for jazz to get fame among people. In this way the city of New Orleans mushroomed jazz culture and is therefore called the mother city of jazz music. One of the most famous and much cherished jazz singer Louis Armstrong also belonged to that place.

From New Orleans Jazz was entering into the boundaries of New York and Chicago. These cities also proved to be welcoming for it. So large was becoming its influence that many recording companies, who initially were not providing equal opportunity to black artists to record their albums, started to give access to these jazz singers to prepare their albums in the recording houses. That rapidly boosted the growth of jazz music. Firstly the recording companies which were mainly owned by whites were skeptic that the jazz would be liked by the greater masses.

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