Jazz has had a profound impact on society, from fashion and poetry to the civil rights movement. Its influence has been felt in many aspects of life, and its impact is still felt today. From the Flappers' rebellious style of dress to the bob hairstyle, jazz has changed the way people dress and express themselves. It has also challenged many of America's traditions, and has been a force for racial integration, respect, and social mobility.
Jazz has been an important part of American culture for over a century, and its influence can still be seen in many aspects of life today. The Flappers used jazz as a means of rebelling against society, and since jazz is such a danceable music, the clothes needed to match. Pre-war Victorian styles were not conducive to dancing, so the rise of jazz led to a change in the fashion industry. First, the dropped waist was introduced, and later the waistless dresses were in fashion. Not only clothes, but also hairstyles were affected.
The bob style became more and more popular than long hair because, like looser clothes, dancing was easier with shorter hair. Highly influenced by African-American music, jazz made it a popular and desirable aspect of American society. Not only was there greater recognition of the multicultural elements of the United States, but jazz also allowed women an outlet to express themselves. Social mobility proves to be a very significant factor because it shows a similarity between black jazz musicians and black rap artists in terms of their achievements in gaining wealth and stardom due to the invention of their music. Jazz must be given more recognition and must be studied in more high schools and universities in the United States so that students, particularly black students, can be educated about its origins. Some of its elements can be traced back to other cultures, its rhythmic accents and patterns of calling and responding to Africa, its instrumentation and harmonies to Europe, but the synthesis is entirely American, rooted specifically in the previous styles of African-American blues and ragtime. So what makes jazz music such an inextricable aspect of our lives even today? You'll have to venture beyond what your ears can hear; the impact of jazz is everywhere around you.
Some black jazz musicians believe that they were economically scammed and that they did not get full recognition and compensation for being the inventors of jazz as an African-American culture. The imposition of Prohibition in the 1920s and the prevalence of jazz in the speakeasy that followed the wake of Prohibition quickly turned jazz into a musical and cultural phenomenon. Voice of America's worldwide shortwave radio broadcasts took music across closed political borders, leading many who lived in repressive societies to see jazz as the sound image of freedom. Once again, this social effect of jazz was the result of white people's greed, and created anger, fear and resentment among black jazz musicians. In other words, because of race, black jazz musicians have experienced major disadvantages throughout the history of jazz music. Benny Goodman, a white jazz bandleader, brought Teddy Wilson, Lionel Hampton and Charlie Christian to stardom but still found criticism for benefiting from their talents; some other black jazz-musicians including Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington earned a lot of money. Jazz did not go out without a fight; ironically what would become the best-selling jazz album of all time (Kind Of Blue by Miles Davis) emerged during the first flourishing of rock'n'roll. More resonant jazz—and this is when white people (those who had made fun of jazz before) started wanting more. But by the time Miles and Coltrane were taking jazz music in new directions, a seismic event had occurred in music that pushed jazz like hierarchical order and ended its long reign as the most popular and dominant musical idiom in the world. The tendency of modern jazz to make solos longer and much more complex in antitonal harmony made it difficult or impossible for many listeners to follow and make sense of what was happening.
Nicknamed Free Jazz or The New Thing, its main architects were Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor, John Coltrane and Albert Ayler whose music brought division and controversy to the jazz community. With the growth of radio, the appearance of jazz stars such as Armstrong in films, and the temporary expatriation in the late 1930s of American stars such as Hawkins and composer-multi-instrumentalist Benny Carter, the feeling that jazz was becoming the musical Esperanto of the era was only intensified. Celebrate one hundred years of the jazz era by hiring a jazz band from Swing or New Orleans for your upcoming events.