The Jazz Age: Hear It Roar

1725 Words4 Pages

There were many important events that have occurred during the history of our country. Some have been filled with turmoil, while others have shown prosperity. Examples of turmoil are World War I and World War II. The Jazz Age did not let the bad times affect them. They are many ways that this time period is considered great. The Jazz Age was the greatest era in American history because of the characteristics and the economic prosperity that defined the 1920s as well as the styles and behaviors of the people who lived during this time, as seen through the characters in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s, The Great Gatsby.
Though there were many aspects that made up the 1920s culture, one of the most important was the music. Jazz was the major form of music that was starting to make its way through the seams. This style of music had been around for many years, starting in New Orleans. According the book Popular Culture: 1929-1929, Jane Bingham states that a group of talented African Americans started this type of music, and their inspiration came from songs their ancestors used to play while they were working on cotton plantations (Bingham 8). Jazz was originally played in underground speakeasies and nightclubs. However, it was none other than F. Scott Fitzgerald that jump-started this musical journey through his novel, The Great Gatsby. In the Encyclopedia of Jazz, James Ciment writes that Jazz was the musical anthem for the carefree, modern spirit of these times (Ciment 307). With Jazz being so upbeat, fast paced, and rhythmic, it led to the rebellion of many young men and women. For instance, in the Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald portrays Gatsby’s parties as being jammed packed full of people dancing to jazz music and having the time of ...

... middle of paper ...

...haracteristics it displayed. People were breaking from the norm. Men turned to alcohol and bootlegging while women were becoming carefree and loving life. However, not all times were fun and outrageous. The Great Depression hit which left many families in debt. Still, people did not let that stop them from roarin’ in those 20s. F. Scott Fitzgerald created his characters in The Great Gatsby from peoples’ styles and behaviors in the 1920s.

Works Cited
Bingham, Jane. Popular Culture: 1920-1939. Chicago, IL: Heinemann Library, 2012. Print.
Ciment, James. Encyclopedia of the Jazz Age: From the End of World War I to the Great Crash. Vol. 2. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 2008. Print.
Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. New York, NY: Macmillan, 1991. Print.
Miller, Bettina. From Flappers to Flivvers--: We Helped Make the '20s Roar! Greendale, WI: Reminisce, 1995. Print.

Show More
Related

  • Impact of Music of the Harlem Renaissance Upon the Artists of Today

    1614 Words  | 4 Pages

    Though jazz has changed, the background behind it still inspires those today. Even though each artist has their particular style or expression, they all can agree that music is art. They can all agree that music is about emotions and feelings. Through the years, just as all things do, Jazz and Bebop have grown and flourished across America and the World. All in all, Jazz for African Americans opened the doors in America, jazz alone opened doors and ears all across the Earth.

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast Three Cities And Their Jazz

    1386 Words  | 3 Pages

    Jazz became popular during the 1920s and was developed from Blues and Ragtime. The 1920s was nicknamed The Roaring Twenties or the Jazz age because it was a time where many traditonal moral standards were not followed and people indulged in new danicng and dressing styles. Jazz is still important to us today but according to Nielsen‘s 2014 Year-End Report, jazz is continuing to fall out of favor with American listeners and has tied with classical music as the least-consumed music in the U.S., after children’s

    Read More

  • The Decline Of Music In The 1920's

    786 Words  | 2 Pages

    Did you know that the 1920s has many different names for it such as the Ballyhoo Years, the Roaring Twenties, and the Jazz Age? In the twenties people were listening to the swinging music known as jazz that made the 1920s appear to have a happy, wonderful aura, but not everything was what it seemed to be. Around this time new things were occurring and changes were being made for the better of Americans, but a few of these new occurrences had their downfalls which led to a depressing period as time went on. In spite of this, in the twenties there was jazz music that made the decade brighter during the harder times, for example; Prohibition, the stock market crash, and the beginning the Great Depression.

    Read More

  • Religious Symbolism in The Great Gatsby

    1548 Words  | 4 Pages

    F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote The Great Gatsby around the 1920s. During the time period of the 1920s, it was considered the “Jazz Age”. This time period dealt with the issue of prohibition, many people attended parties and clubs. Religion did not affect the 1920s social dance very much. During the 1920s people had a sense of freedom, and were not bound by what their religion guided.

    Read More

  • Forbidden Love in The Great Gatsby

    1346 Words  | 3 Pages

    Many people in the 1920s lived very extravagant lives. The time of the “Jazz Age” or the “Roaring 20s” where girls were flappers and the men were bootleggers. People loved to have fun and be carefree. However, alcohol dependence was becoming a problem and many started realizing that. Taking action to stop this was the hard part. Alcohol was corrupting the 1920s even though some did not recognize it. In the Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald displays the corruption during the 1902s through his main character, Jay Gatsby, and his illustration of prohibition.

    Read More

  • The Great Gatsby: America in the 1920s

    2392 Words  | 5 Pages

    Also known as the Jazz Age and the Roaring Twenties, the American people felt that they deserved to have some fun in order to forget the emotional toll and social scars left from the war. The Jazz Age was appropriately named due to the illegal activities and good times, which included music, parties, and flapper girls. Jazz was a new style of music that originated out of the New Orleans area, where one of the greatest jazz musicians of all time – Louis Armstrong – began his career. The energy of jazz was a very new and almost uncomfortable style for the very traditional, rigid family of the 1920s. Young people in particular seemed to enjoy this new music the most, as it made them feel carefree. The energy of jazz was symbolic of the era’s trans...

    Read More

  • Benny Goodman's Jazz, And The Swing Era

    863 Words  | 2 Pages

    The word “jazz” is significant to America, and it has many meanings. Jazz could simply be defined as a genre or style of music that originated in America, but it can also be described as a movement which “bounced into the world somewhere about the year 1911.”. This is important because jazz is constantly changing, evolving, adapting, and improvising. By analyzing the creators, critics, and consumers of jazz in the context of cultural, political, and economic issues, I will illustrate the movement from the 1930’s swing era to the birth of bebop and modern jazz. As the 1930’s began, the effects of the Great Depression still ravaged the United States, which in turn caused a dramatic change in the music industry.

    Read More

  • Louis Armstrong And The Jazz Age

    925 Words  | 2 Pages

    Jazz was a unique form of music, there had never been anything like it before. It was rebellious, rhythmic, and it broke the rules- musical and social. It started a musical revolution, “With its offbeat rhythms and strange melodies, jazz was blamed for everything from drunkenness and deafness to in increase in unwed mothers.” Jazz was seen as immoral and worried the older generation that their kids would lose interest in classical music. It was also seen as against society because it came about from the African- American culture, but despite all of that, jazz led to a new era of music that still prevails today.

    Read More

  • Jazz and The Charleston in The 1920's

    1664 Words  | 4 Pages

    What comes to mind when thinking of the 1920’s? Most people think of the freedom the United States felt after World War I and that is exactly what jazz and the Charleston symbolize (Boundless.com par. 1). Jazz and the Charleston were extremely controversial in the 1920’s because they promoted a new way of thinking, which outraged the older generations (Knowles 160). Older generations did not like the fact that young people were becoming more and more daring with their actions just by playing music and dancing (Boundless.com par. 6). Today, jazz and the Charleston are thought of as out of date, but without them, music today would be completely different. Jazz and the Charleston revolutionized modern music and dance by altering the rhythm of classical music, changing the culture of American society (Boundless.com par. 1).

    Read More

  • Sonny's Blues

    1744 Words  | 4 Pages

    Jazz music prospered in the 1940’s and 1950’s. Jazz was created by African Americans to represent pain and suffering and also represented the adversity that racial tension brought. (Scholastic) African American performers like Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie “Bird” Parker came to be recognized for their ability to overcome “race relati...

    Read More

  • The Jazz Age

    1605 Words  | 4 Pages

    Watching a movie in the 1920s was a cheap and easy way to be transported into a world of glitz and glamour, a world of crime, or a world of magic and mystery. Some of these worlds included aspects of current events, like war, crime, and advances in technology; while others were completely fictional mysteries, romances, and comedies. Heartbreakers, heartthrobs, comedians and beautiful women dominated movie screens across the country in theaters, called Nickelodeons. Nickelodeons were very basic and small theaters which later transformed into opulent and monumental palaces. When sound was introduced into film by Warner Bros. Pictures, “talkies” took top rank over silent films. “Movies were an art form that had universal appeal. Their essence was entertainment; their success, financial and otherwise, was huge” (1920-30, 3/19/11). Films offered an escape from the troubles of everyday life in the 20s, and moviegoers across the country all shared a universal language: watching movies.

    Read More

  • Roaring Twenties Essay

    978 Words  | 2 Pages

    It was a known as a colorful time, the jazz age and the dollar decade. As World War I (WWI) came to a close many Americans wanted to simply forget about the Europeans and the war and live life to the fullest. Some chose to amuse themselves with soaring stock profits, illegal liquor, short skirts, and what many would look upon as shocking morals. This was a time of dramatic social and economic change. Many people were uncomfortable with this sometimes-racy “mass culture.” The Roaring Twenties was a time filled with youth hosting wild parties. Everything had a feeling of carelessness to it. People from all around the world were doing the same type of things as Americans were. As for the economic change, the total wealth of the U.S. nearly doubled from the year 1920 up until the great crash in 1929. Most African Americans knew this period to be the Harlem Renaissance. Many famous Jazz artists, playwrights, and sculptures came from the Harlem Renaissance. Some of which were Duke Ellington, Langston Hughes and Augustus Savage. Many other discoveries included sports legends, writers and gang life. Some of which were Babe Ruth, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Rudolph Valentino.

    Read More

  • The Great Gatsby A Criticism Of The Twenties (grade 11 Essay)

    1454 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Roaring Twenties is considered a time of mass corruption and excessive absurdity. F. Scott Fitzgerald uses his novel, The Great Gatsby, to criticize the American society and its values in this era. This criticism is best shown in the behaviour of the people who go to Gatsby's parties; they are careless, rude and only looking out for themselves. It is also shown in the corruption of the police, who are easily paid to look the other way. It is finally apparent in the corruption of friendship and love, the truth being that there is none. This society and its values are self-centered and materialistic, caring very little for consequences and others. Fitzgerald's message is delivered magnificently and causes one to be appalled by the behaviour of the people during this time in history.

    Read More

  • How Did American Culture Change During the Jazz Age?

    1131 Words  | 3 Pages

    What was the Jazz Age in America? Also known as the Roaring Twenties’, it was when American ways were beginning to modernize. Before the stock market had crashed and the Great Depression started, culture was booming in America. Dance was changing rapidly and new styles of dances were being created. Women began to wear shorter clothes, cut their hair, and some even had jobs, while the Flapper girls gave other young women an outlook of freedom. People began to go see films and movie stars became famous worldwide. During the Jazz Age, American culture was changing and Americans were becoming more finically affluent.

    Read More

  • Influence of Jazz on American Culture

    1953 Words  | 4 Pages

    Now a days, many believe that jazz is not that important of music genre, but with our history, jazz plays a big role. “Jazz does not belong to one race or culture, but it is a gift that America has given to the world.”, quoted by Ahmad Alaadeen. Jazz in the 1920’s opened the eyes of whites and invited them into African American culture; it evolved Americans to where we are today since it brought a change to the music scene, an acceptance of African Americans, and a change of lifestyles.

    Read More

More about The Jazz Age: Hear It Roar

Open Document