The Jazz Era
Jazz is one of the most well-known forms of music that has been around for over one hundred years!
Ragtime, the earliest form of jazz, was popular from the 00’s to the 20’s when composer Scott Joplin published the “Maple Leaf Rag”. Ragtime has a syncopated rhythm that was commonly used in African American dances. Next came Dixieland jazz that was created in New Orleans in the late 10’s and was popular throughout the 20’s. Bix Beiderbecke was responsible for the popularity of Dixieland, but not even he could stop the Dixieland popularity drop in the 30’s because of swing. Swing was most mainstream in the 30’s with composer Benny Goodman. Swing used a strong rhythm section of double bass and drums with a lead section of brass instruments. This fast tempo style of jazz had a short life time of five to ten years but is very memorable. During this time, traditional jazz had started appearing with artist Buddy Bolden. Traditional jazz wasn’t as well known in the 30’s because of the swing domination, but became more popular in the 40’s and stayed close to the top until the late 50’s. |
In the 40’s, many changes to jazz happened. The first
thing that is notable is that Dixieland jazz had a revival for 10 years. Since it never died, and had more of a fade, once swing was gone it could shine again. Second, R&B, one of the most iconic styles of music, began its rise. It’s popularity decreased twenty years later but never entirely died. Finally, probably the most important event was that Bebop was invented. Bebop was one of the first electronic music that was entirely different from anything else around. It was the ancestor of many techno styles around today. It was popular from the 40’s to the early 50’s. From 1949 to 1955 cool jazz was popular. Miles Davis, a composer, was one of the few artist to played this style. Free jazz was next in line being popular in the 50’s. Free jazz was mainly composed of improvisation made while the artist is playing, hence the name "free". Lastly in the jazz timeline was funk. Funk was popular in the 60’s, consisting of a strong back beat, electrifying sounds, and often, the first electronic synthesizers. Also in this decade, ragtime, from almost fifty years ago, made a revival. Although many of the original ragtime composers were dead or retired, new artists brought it back. |