Blog #3 - Racial Discourse During the Swing Era

The transformative social impact and dissemination of popular American culture across Europe, brought about after the first world war, had changed the African-American mindset regarding opportunity, creativity, and acceptance. After black musicians travelled to Paris for the regimental band's recruitment mission, they found that there was no segregation there and that they were more appreciated by the French who equated them to the status of celebrities. This was a sharp contrast to what they were used to back in the United States (Lecture 2/5/15). This experience would serve to later kick in the near future during the Swing Era when the music takes on the ability to “move” on rhythm in a similar way that jazz begins to move big with the emergence of a national market, coupled with the advent of the radio and record players. The Swing Era (1930s) was set on the grim backdrop of The Great Depression which made some people re-evaluate the economics of capitalism (Gioia 448 [ebook]). Interestingly, the Soviet Union was flourishing at this point in time and communism was being discussed by some as a political alternative in the United States. During this time of instability, people sought radical alternatives and new ideas, such as communism, racial equality, and jazz in spite of it being “low-cultured” because of its association with brothels, mobsters, etc. It was in some sense, a form of rebellion of the middle-class, white youth and more and more white musicians started their own jazz bands to benefit off the growing popularity. Indeed, the 1930s not only saw musical battles and competitions in black spaces, but also a “battle of the bands” in mainstream musical media. However, jazz did not become legitimized until after Benny Goodman performed in Carnegie Hall (1938) where the call and response element both figuratively and literally wins out over passive musical appreciation (Lecture 2/12/15). Because of the instability of ideological norms regarding capitalism and the hegemonic roles of white people, and the rise of jazz as a national market, there was an emergence of jazz critics in the late 1920s or early 1930s who became the arbiters of the music and the musicians and critiqued the racial inequalities that came with its production. After all, black musicians such as Duke Ellington watered down the true black elements of New Orleans jazz to cater to the white audience, for which he was strongly critiqued. People wanted to hear music performed by black musicians such as Fletcher Henderson and thus, successful white musicians such as Benny Goodman hired Fletcher to write arrangements for him. One such major critic was John Hammond, who was a white, privileged radical who promoted the black musicians he saw as authentic, ironically mimicking the white patronage of black music which he condemned so harshly in his articles (Gioia 374 [ebook]). Ironically, most of the radicals or progressivists were the most privileged of the people and held high ranks in their society. They were changed by the prevalent jazz movement that had spoke to them on a deeper level for which they were willing to devote their creative and literary efforts on. And of course, this instigated a rippling effect of even further interest in jazz and the inequality of its distribution as a strange yet widespread art force. 

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Commented on Austin’s blog

I really like the certain points you make in your blog regarding the advent of the radio and how it spread a wave of authentically sounding African-American jazz in demand. And also how you mention that the critics wanted to relay the key messages of Swing, which I understand as the movement towards liberty. Great job!