The Jazz Age Flashcards
What was crooning? Who was one of the first crooners?
crooning. Bing Crosby was one of the first crooners. Before the microphone, singers had to be loud and carry their voice over a band. With the microphone, a crooner could create an intimate atmosphere, sounding as though the performer was singing directly to you! Crooning remained (and remains) and important popular style of music, especially from the 1930s to the 1950s.
What was the dominant form of entertainment in the 1910’s? How did this effect popular music?
> urban dancehalls were a dominant form of entertainment.
This created an increased demand for new dances, and new music for those dances.
The ballroom was filled with young, white Americans: the exoticism (and sexuality) of black dances were intensified.
Tin Pan Alley provided sentimental songs (and some for intimate dance), ragtime continued as an important syncopated music for black-styled dances.
Who are the Castles?
Vernon and Irene Castle (or “the Castles”) were a husband-and-wife duo who were responsible for distributing new dance steps to the masses. Mainly from 1913 to 1916, they were the main “socialites” of the 1910s—comparable to Kim Kardashian or Paris Hilton today.
> they branded clothing, records, books and magazines, making them very visible in popular culture.
Why are the Castles significant?
They are significant because they brought dancing to the masses. They took complex dances (like ballroom dancing and the tango) and simplified them into basic “figures” easily learned by amateurs. Those simple movements were sold in instruction manuals for the urban middle- and upper-class. Their popularity significantly changed popular dancing across the USA, brining it and their music to a much broader audience.
What is ensemble ragtime?
the ragtime style played by a band or large orchestra (up to 125 musicians).
Who was James Reese Europe?
a prominent African American bandleader. they performed mainly ensemble ragtime
>James Resse Europe was the Castle’s musical director. He was responsible for writing new music for the Castles to dance to, as well as performing and recording that music.
Europe (1880–1919) was from the African American middle-class in Washington DC and studied music. After moving to New York City at age 22 (before the Castles), he became known as a pianist, conductor and musical director for all-black vaudeville.
His career significantly contributed to the advancement of African American musicians, and the popular music styles they performed.
In 1910, Europe founded the Clef Club. It was a major meeting centre for black musicians, and functioned as their union.
What was the historical and cultural significance of Europe?
> His career significantly contributed to the advancement of African American musicians, and the popular music styles they performed.
African American musicians were prohibited from joining the American Federation of Musicians (AFM), the musician’s union that protected professional performers, including a mandatory wage for performance. Some cities had segregated unions (an AFM local for white musicians and another for black musicians), although most places didn’t have representation for black performers. Some unions merged over the following decades, but the segregated unions generally remained until 1964.
In 1910, Europe founded the Clef Club. It was a major meeting centre for black musicians, and functioned as their union.
His music became very popular because it reached a wide audience of dancers eager to learn the new dance steps, and buy the new (African American) ragtime recordings for those dances.
How was Jazz originally spelled? When was the first Jazz recording?
> Jazz, the spelling now, was written differently when it first came about. “Jazz” was adopted as a common spelling by around 1917.
The first recordings of jazz were in 1917.
Jazz was around as early as 1900. It existed as a folk tradition, mainly in New Orleans, and grew out of an African American musical tradition. Jazz Is Black Music.
Jazz quickly replaced ragtime as the most important popular music in the world, and remained so until the 1950s.
What are the geographic factors regarding the emergence of jazz in New orleans?
geographic: New Orleans was a port city. At the base of the Mississippi river, it exported goods to the rest of the world: goods brought by boat from the North, or the many railroads that ended in New Orleans.
> More importantly, it was a major port for imports to the USA from Europe and the Caribbean. This means that it was a meeting point of African American music (from the USA), European musics, and traditions from the Caribbean (giving the music the “Spanish tinge” cited in our textbook).
What are the cultural factors surrounding the emergence of jazz in new Orleans?
Culturally, the Caribbean is very important here. Slavery in the USA was based on Protestant beliefs that banned drumming and limited African musical practices. The slave trade in the Caribbean was largely based on Catholic beliefs and an entirely different set of politics. Drumming remained in many slave cultures of the Caribbean.
> Caribbean peoples of African descent—including musicians—would also be meeting in New Orleans. Musically, we can see how drumming was more active in New Orleans than most other cities in the USA. which included a lot of drumming.
