Impact Of Jazz During The Harlem Renaissance

Jazz during the Harlem Renaissance

The Harlem Renaissance was a major artistic movement in the early Twentieth Century. The movement impacted all types of art including music, paintings, and literature and even influenced the cultural setting to an extent. The Harlem Renaissance was an artistic revolution that took place in the 1920s where African American artists, writers, philosophers and artists sought to foster a rich black culture within the great melting pot of America. Alain Lock promoted a trend, which led to more political aggressiveness, and a self-confident perspective of identity and racial delight prompted the establishment of the idea of the “new negro.” (1) Also during the 1920s was a massive migration of African Americans

This led to the development of many popular vocalists of the 1930s. Eventually, the artists felt that society should be listening to their music instead of just having a few people dance along to their beats. This idea led to the formation of the Bebop style.(5) Bebop music shifted the focus of the art from dancing to actually listening. Bebop was a modern type of Jazz that became more and more popular after World War II. Black musicians began to feel bitter about white bands infiltrating Bebop music and gaining popularity in a black-established music genre. Some bebop artists changed the style by creating their own style of dress and they would sometimes perform facing away from the audience. Artists began scat singing, a type of nonsense syllabic singing. After Bebop, Jazz changed into the Cool Style, which replaced the intense swing style. The Cool Style focused on bringing order, structure and clarity to Jazz music. However, the blues replaced this in the late 1940s. The blues were supplemented with the use of intense instruments like the electric guitar to give the feeling of excitement of Gospel Music.