Jazz Age

The Jazz Age was a post-World War I movement in the 1920s from which jazz music and dance emerged. Although the era ended with the outset of the Great Depression in 1929, jazz has lived on in American popular culture. The birth of jazz music is credited to African Americans, but both black and white Americans alike are responsible for its immense rise in popularity. The rise of jazz coincided with the rise of radio broadcast and recording technology, which spawned the popular “potter palm” shows that included big-band jazz performances. Female singers such as Bessie Smith emerged during this period of postwar equality and open sexuality, paving the way for future female artists. 

If freedom was the mindset of the Roaring Twenties, then jazz was the soundtrack. The Jazz Age was a cultural period and movement that took place in America during the 1920s from which both new styles of music and dance emerged. Largely credited to African Americans employing new musical techniques along with traditional African traditions, jazz soon expanded to America’s white middle class.

Birth of Jazz

 Following World War I, large numbers of jazz musicians migrated from New Orleans to major northern cities such as Chicago and New York, leading to a wider dispersal of jazz as different styles developed in different cities. As the 1920s progressed, jazz rose in popularity and helped to generate a cultural shift. Because of its popularity in speakeasies, illegal nightclubs where alcohol was sold during Prohibition, and its proliferation due to the emergence of more advanced recording devices, jazz became very popular in a short amount of time, with stars including Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, and Chick Webb. Several famous entertainment venues such as the Apollo Theater and the Cotton Club came to epitomize the Jazz Age.

 Growth of Jazz

African-American jazz was played more frequently on urban radio stations than on their suburban counterparts. Young people of the 1920s were influenced by jazz to rebel against the traditional culture of previous generations, a rebellion that went hand-in-hand with fads such as the bold fashion statements of the flappers and new radio concerts. Dances such as the Charleston, developed by African Americans, instantly became popular among different demographics, including among young white people. With the introduction of large-scale radio broadcasts in 1922, Americans were able to experience different styles of music without physically visiting a jazz club. Through its broadcasts and concerts, the radio provided Americans with a trendy new avenue for exploring unfamiliar cultural experiences from the comfort of their living rooms. The most popular type of radio show was a “potter palm,” an amateur concert and big-band jazz performance broadcast from New York and Chicago. Due to the racial prejudice prevalent at most radio stations, white American jazz artists received much more air time than black jazz artists such as Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton, and Joe “King” Oliver. Big-band jazz, like that of James Reese in Europe and Fletcher Henderson in New York, was also popular on the radio and brought an African American style and influence to a predominantly white cultural scene.