Subgenres Of Jazz

Jazz

1. Jazz has changed in many ways through the years, especially in the 1900s. There are many different types, or subgenres of Jazz that began with Dixieland and moved drastically through the changes all the way to Fusion or new generation. What changes musically and socially contributed to the formations of the subgenres of Jazz? Jazz came about in the early part of the twentieth century in New Orleans. As Jazz spread around the world it was given very many distinctive styles, it grew on different national, regional and local music cultures. As musicians left New Orleans and spread their music to other cities, the marching aspect of Jazz was dropped and more instruments could be played while sitting down. (Piano, drum set, etc) In the

1920s Jazz had began to diversify and subgenres like Dixieland had started to emerge. During these times, with the help of Louis Armstrong classis jazz had developed into swing jazz and created what became known as big band. After the era of big band. Jazz had split into even more subgenres such as bop, or bebop. The arrival of amplified instruments to Jazz had brought about changes as well as new genres, such as fusion or new generation jazz. So, lets begin this discussion with the original subgenre, Dixieland.

Dixieland began as a continuation of the original New Orleans Jazz. In the 1920 many works had drifted to Chicago looking for work, while there they continued their music traditions, no longer as a marching band though. This led to the piano being added and the stand up bass replacing the tuba. Dixieland began to evolve as the musicians began to play a faster more aggressive tune or feel. Next, we have swing, Swing was the golden age. It showed the first signs in the 1920s. In the years 1935-1946 Benny Goodman and Duke Ellington were considered the number one form of entertainment in the states. The swing era ended when new taxation laws made it impossible and swing bands became unprofitable. Jazz then became an entertainment for listening, not dancing. After that came the big band. Big band is a large ensemble. It consists of 10+ musicians. This type of subgenre consisted of breaking large ensembles into separate sections that were grouped by instruments. This type can be arranged or improvised. Later we had bop, which became known as bebop. This was the answer to a more conservative form of swing music, it was an energetic approach to swing jazz music. Old swing had a much faster tempo from the section of rhythm. This one is considered a favorite

subgenre.

Now that I have discussed the musical changes that helped contribute to the formation of the subgenres of Jazz, lets look at some of the social changed that helped shape Jazz into what it is today.

Many of todays African American musicians face similar social circumstances of those of past jazz musicians. In order to understand the effects socially of Jazz music, you would need to understand how the music came into existence. Lets look at negative effects, It included work songs, and spiritual music and other forms. The recording industry played a large part in the commercialization of Jazz. It would not have been distributed widely to the public with the recording industry. This provided the opportunity to make music more marketable. Blacks were socially affected, they had limited opportunities to showcase originality and were forced to create music that was appealing to whites. Dixieland music was originally created for marching bands to use during funerals in the 1900s, to celebrate the life of the departed. Swing music had lacked improvisation and the solo musicians creativity was not relied upon. Swing music was also affected socially in the mid 1900s when new taxations laws had made swing bands unprofitable and it just became a listening entertainment, not dancing. After the stock market crash in 1929 swing had helped the country through the great depression. Swing served as a major morale booster during the times of world war two. Big band came to an end in part to

world wad 2, many musicians were called to war. Band leaders were stealing musicians from other bands by offering them a slightly better deal. To add to problems, transportation to night spots out side the city limits were difficult due to gas shortages. As you can see, many factors had affected the Jazz era. 2) The similarities between the two in general, Dixieland eventually had gained a much faster beat to it, which sounds much like what fusion is today with implementing rock sounds into the music. The similarities that I have found between the two are they both have a rock feel to them, as I stated previously. Similar instruments are used although fusion instruments are more advanced then Dixieland. Dixieland and fusion both could be improvisational if needed and in my opinion, both subgenres are both high energy and similar beats are used in the two subgenres Dixieland and fusion, which is the new generation Jazz.