An Overview of the Social, Cultural and Political Factors Relevant to the Birth of Jazz Music - Essay Example

An overview of the Social, Cultural and Political Factors Relevant to the Birth of Jazz Music The following discussion will attempt to reference the social, cultural, and political influences that have helped to craft jazz music throughout the decades. Rather than focusing on a specific time period, the cultural roots of jazz will be analyzed alongside the social dynamics and political changes that helped to encourage its syncretism and approach. By analyzing all of these factors, the reader will be able to gain inference with respect to the mechanisms that encouraged jazz to grow and the means by which it has come to be one of the most definitively impactful genres of music within the recent past. Introduction: Originating in the United States among African American communities, jazz has played a powerful role with respect to the development of popular music within the 20th century. This form of music was originally the result of a type of synthesis between African and European/American musical instruments/styles. Key elements that help to differentiate jazz from other forms of music are concentric upon the fact that jazz incorporates the following components: swing tones, improvisation, syncopation, blue notes, and poly-rhythms. Additionally jazz has also incorporated elements of American popular music; further proving it to be one of the most syncretic types of music. As a direct result of the change that has been presented with respect to jazz music, it has continued to evolve and currently represents one of the most dynamic musical genres. As a function of the continual shift and change that jazz music has experienced over the years, one might infer that it has not held true to its original colour; yet, this is not the case (Hammond, 2011). As a function of seeking to understand this musical genre to a more full and complete degree, the following discussion will be concentric upon the historical, social, political, and cultural factors that have contributed to jazz music developing in the way that it has. A History and Background of Jazz Music The transatlantic slave trade can at least be partially understood to have contributed heavily to the influx of jazz instrumentation, style, and culture from parts of West Africa. During this time, roughly half a million sub-Saharan Africans were taken to the Americas. These slaves were mainly from West Africa and the majority of them originated from the Congo River basin. With them, they brought strong musical traditions. As such, these rhythms had a counter metric structure; a unique aspect that reflected African speech patterns. In this way, Africans used a single-line melody with a call and response pattern within their music; this would later become evident with respect to the songs that developed on the plantations. According to music historians, slaves oftentimes celebrated and participated in their annual festivals such as harvest time by constructing musical instruments by utilizing available material to craft drums and various other percussion instruments. These were in turn utilized as a means of helping the performers to keep tempo with the music that was performed (Dostal, 2012). Yet, traditional African music alone cannot be understood to have been the sole determinant of jazz music. Instead, in the early nineteenth century, black musicians learned to play European musical instruments. Accordingly, they used these “new” instruments in making parodies of European music into their own cakewalk dances. This cultural mimicry resulted in a counter mimicry that saw European- American minstrels blacken their faces and perform for audiences utilizing heavy doses of syncopation alongside European harmonies; allowing the audience to have a brief taste for what developments were taking place in the confluence between African and American/European musical styles. Socio-Cultural Elements of Jazz One of the most important socio-cultural elements of the development of jazz music has to do with the fact that African-Americans were largely shunne from society during the time in which this particular genre came to be developed. This unfortunate but unique occurrence culminated in a situation in which jazz music was virtually unconstrained and could develop in whatever way that artists of the times wanted it to. By means of contrast and comparison, other genres of music, throughout the course of history, were oftentimes constrained by prevailing theories of appropriateness or approach (Pinkney, 2000). Yet, the fact that these early jazz performers and artists were largely separate from the remainder of society, few individuals were interested with their unique cultural approach to music; at least within the early years of jazz development. This allowed for a degree of freedom that otherwise could not have been noted. Engaging with this theme of separateness, jazz was also heavily impacted by the rebellion and “otherness” that so many African-Americans exhibited. Realizing that they were separate and unique from the remainder of the US population, a desire to create their own form of music” allow for socio-cultural interpretations of jazz to be further throughout much of the African-American community. Whereas it is true that many aspects of socio-cultural music come to play a very powerful role in the hearts and minds of cultures of property, jazz music came to be almost inseparable with the understanding of what it was be African-American and how the culture and experiences of this particular group were reflected throughout society. In essence, a jazz concert was a conduit through which the frustration and anxiety of an entire race could accurately be understood by all members of the community. Jazz and Politics: Understanding concerning jazz music cannot be wholly separated from an understanding of unique societal patterns and/or the politics of a particular era. Beginning as early as the genre itself, jazz music has oftentimes dealt with politically sensitive issues; a unique facet of this genre that was not necessarily not reflected in other genres of music that have thus far been presented to society. Whereas classical music, including baroque, classical, and romantic, oftentimes served as a catalyst for new ideas and representations of theory or melody, jazz music unique due to the fact that it was able to integrate with current political issues and represent these within the lyrics. Beyond merely measuring jazz music as a compilation and synergy of African instrumentation and American musical influence, it must also be understood that the political relevance of jazz meant that it was able to represent current thoughts and realities of the community that other genres of music could not; or simply ignored. Even though is true that jazz music was oftentimes use for dancing, it also provided local and regional understanding and reflection of rhetorical questions concerning race (Singer & Mirhej, 2006). Individual such as Louis Armstrong, oftentimes criticized by the African-American community for playing into the “Uncle Tom” category, included lyrics within his own songs that reminded the listener that the current society incorrectly understood African-Americans. Said Armstrong, “My only sin/is in my skin” (Raff, 2009). By referencing the current level of repression and hardship that he, along with countless hundreds of thousands of African Americans faced, Armstrong and other jazz musicians were able to raise these issues to the general public and discuss them amongst themselves in a way that few other genres of music could have afforded at that time. Another political impact with respect to jazz and its evolution has to do with the American Prohibition Era; banning the sale, transportation, or production of alcoholic beverages between 1920-1933 (McDonough, 2008). As social progressives, as they called themselves, alongside rural Protestants attempted to increase morality throughout the nation by banning the sale of alcohol, the era of jazz moved into a new phase. The political movements associated with prohibition were necessarily “moral” in their direction (Shatz, 2013). Accordingly, jazz music came to be seen as immoral and unreflective of the ideal society that these individuals attempted to create. As a direct function of this, jazz music was oftentimes denigrated and compared alongside the evils of alcohol in terms of what society must rid itself of as a means of experiencing further growth and development in the future (Tolson, 2000). Moreover, jazz was attributed to the many swing clubs, dance songs, and venues that individuals who consumed alcohol would frequent. As such, alongside the “war on alcohol”, there existed a tangential repression of jazz music (Gillett, 2010). Not surprisingly, as with many forms of persecution, the level of societal interest that existed with respect to prohibition and the means by which a “moral majority” was dictating the way in which people behaved, jazz music gained an explosive level of interest; no longer merely reflecting African-American cultural or societal norms, jazz music was more and more accepted as a means of rebellion against the system that is increasingly draconian and illogical (Margasak, 2010). Not surprisingly, as has been noted, the level of repression that was focused on jazz music in the desire of the more puritanical members of society to encourage others away from it only effected a situation in which thousands of more individuals came to appreciate the genre of music and identify with it as a means of rejecting the absurd practices that were being foisted upon them during this particular era (Chinen, 2013). All too often, individuals with analyze jazz music only analyze the growth and evolution of this particular genre within the time period in which it was wildly popular. However, jazz music had never ceased to exist. Unlike many of the forms of music that came to be presented within the 19th century, jazz music still exists and is created even up until the current era. Accordingly, the political influence that jazz has been able to generate far exceeded the political influence that other genres of music and create (Goodrum, 2011). Accordingly, even after the jazz music of the 1920s and 30s, the impact of jazz and the means through which it affected understanding and created traction on key issues continued to be felt. As such, jazz musicians laced many of the lyrics that they included within their work with words that were heavily influenced by the growth and development of the civil rights movement. Even as many of the most popular jazz musicians more approaching their later years as the civil rights movement began within the United States, they nonetheless threw their support behind this movement and crafted many songs as a means of supporting what the zeitgeist of the era prompted them to pen (Harker, 2008). Returning to Louis Armstrong, this particular jazz musician was designated as cultural ambassador to the Soviet Union; as such, Louis Armstrong was tasked with representing the genre of jazz music to the Eastern Bloc countries. Even though Armstrong took this responsibility with the utmost respect and appreciation, he patently refused an invitation by the US government to perform within the Soviet Union in 1957; citing that it would be incongruous with the regards the freedom the United States claimed to offer to people while African-Americans within the South were being persecuted under the strict rules of Jim Crow (Veal, 2002). Conclusion: As can be noted from the information that has thus far been presented, social and cultural influences, alongside political dynamics, have greatly impacted upon the way in which jazz music has been reflected throughout society over the past decades. It is a further argument of this author that an understanding of jazz music requires a unique perspective as compared to the many other genres of music that came to increasing popularity during the 20th century. This is due in part to the fact that jazz ultimately paved the way for these alternative genres to be accepted and gain popularity. The underlying reason for this has to do with the overall level of syncretism that exists within this particular genre. Long before individuals began to utilize the term “globalization” to describe the trans-cultural and trends global influences and impacts that regions and cultures have on one another, jazz was performing this the very same feat (Healey, 2014) Whereas it is of course arguable that hip-hop and rock and roll are also able to reflect unique cultural dynamics and reference the syncretic nature of music throughout the globe, it was in fact jazz music that was the prime mover within this particular approach to culture ideals being reflected in shared, society approaching new dynamics of engagement, and politics defining the way in which understanding within music and representation was affected. As a direct result of all of this, jazz music continues to hold the unique place within history and redefine itself based upon the environment that it exists within. 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