In the 1920s the youth made a break from the traditional way of life. This caused much misunderstanding from the old who didn’t like nor wanted to understand the new behaviors of the youth of the day. The decade didn’t just give birth to an age of jazz and rebellious behavior but an age of expression of one’s self, a time of fun and testing one’s human limits. Even though the 1920s were about more than just jazz, Jazz played a big part in the decade.
Louis Armstrong was more than just a trumpet player; he was the father of scat singing which is using syllables instead of words. "Louis Armstrong." This is what Ella Fitzgerald exceled in is the one that really helped her in her career working with Chick Webb? (Gaff) Louis Armstrong was always an entertainer; He claimed he use to dance on the streets of New Orleans for pennies that he hid in his mouth. That story was how he got the name Satchmo which is short for satchel mouth. Armstrong was a man who was privileged with the white side of being famous.
Most African entertainers didn’t have the privilege that Armstrong had. He was in class all of his own, as the public looked at him more as a white entertainer than an African. He tried to stay politically neutral to segregation and other political problems of the time. Many people think that’s what gave him so much access to the white world. Unlike Armstrong, many African entertainers had to stand in the back while preforming, but Armstrong insisted on standing in the front. Armstrong was renowned for his unique singing voice; his voice was a mix of deep and gravely tones.
Mr. Armstrong used to have a tendency to forget people’s names so he called them pops and was later dubbed the name pops in a biography about his life by...
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Changes in the women’s view point of the 20s were less looked down upon as they were for men. Along with drinking, parties, and premarital sex, the change in popularity of music to jazz became just as hated by the elderly. "Culture in the 1920s: Loosening Social Structure." The rebellious behavior of the decade gave birth and made the building blocks of society we have today, without the change in youth of the 20s traditional view of life, who knows what kind of society we would have today. We may be looking at a world with women that wore skirts past their knees. Along with that, we may be living in a society where premarital sex in still frowned upon. Where what we say is limited to using words without slang or not having the same music we have today. Those brave youth who broke the traditional view of life made our great society what it is today.
But Armstrong and his jazz, more often than not, supported the civil rights movement. For example, in his 1929 song, “Black and Blue,” Armstrong speaks out, or moreso, sings out, against racism. This was a precarious topic to sing about as a black musician, let alone in front of white audiences. And later, in response to the Little Rock Crisis in 1957, Armstrong openly criticized the prevention of desegregation and canceled his tour in the Soviet Union as cultural ambassador of the United States in retaliation
The 1920's was a time of great social change with new prosperity, new ideas but most importantly a time of heroes. These so called heroes defined the era and were the role models for the people of this time period. They brought on hope and enlightenment after the horrific times that they had gone through with the depression and the war. The role of women changed, sports and entertainment stars were celebrated and modern technology changed America's landscape. The twenties were a time when people laughed more often than cried, partied more often than worked, and dreamed more often than faced reality.
The 1920’s was a period of extremely economic growth and personal wealth. America was a striving nation and the American people had the potential to access products never manufactured before. Automobile were being made on an assembly line and were priced so that not just the rich had access to these vehicles, as well as, payment plans were made which gave the American people to purchase over time if they couldn't pay it all up front. Women during the First World War went to work in place of the men who went off to fight. When the men return the women did not give up their positions in the work force. Women being giving the responsibility outside the home gave them a more independent mindset, including the change of women's wardrobe, mainly in the shortening of their skirts.
The Roaring Twenties were a time of prosperity, happiness, liveliness, and new ways. One of the many new ideas that were introduced was jazz music. Jazz fit the atmosphere perfectly, with it's upbeat and exciting sounds. Although jazz seemed to be a new world-wide obsession, there were people who saw it in a different light, one that was a lot darker, perhaps even evil. These people had negative opinions about the music, and saw it as a, "cause of loosening morals and frightening dislocation". The different generations had completely different views on the rapid change, and both views were just as correct, but only one was logical. The music brought change, freedom, and brought black America together with white America.
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...
In the 1920's women's roles were soon starting to change. After World War One it was called the "Jazz Age", known for new music and dancing styles. It was also known as the "Golden Twenties" or "Roaring Twenties" and everyone seemed to have money. Both single and married women we earning higher- paying jobs. Women were much more than just staying home with their kids and doing house work. They become independent both financially and literally. Women also earned the right to vote in 1920 after the Nineteenth Amendment was adopted. They worked hard for the same or greater equality as men and while all this was going on they also brought out a new style known as the flapper. All this brought them much much closer to their goal.
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.
He had exposure to several different genres growing up in his St. Louis, MO hometown. He heard country from the whites, rhythm & blues (R&B) from mostly blacks, even Latin music. His family environment set him up well for future success while growing up in a middle class home in the middle of the Great Depression of the 1930s. His parents sun...
He was known as the Father of Jazz. He was most notable as an entertainer, however, he was a soloist that provided improvisations in regards to tunes. Louis Armstrong's “What a Wonderful World” is the first song that comes to many minds when discussing jazz. He is also well known for his scat singing, However, he also had a political side. In his song “What Did I Do To Be So Black and Blue,” Armstrong talks about the color of his skin as a bad thing and how blacks were treated. In World War II he fulfilled by performing for the soldiers during a recording
Armstrong is not only a trumpet player, as a singer, he was also very successful. For many years, jazz lovers tried in ecstasies to imitate his unique voice and scat singing which was nonsense but with a rhythmic. Armstrong was the first to successfully use scat singing, which eventually became a major feature of jazz concert. His singing method affected almost every jazz singer, including Coypin Crosby in 1940s, most charismatic singer in jazz history Billie Holly and Frank Sinatra.
On a trip to Ghana as Ambassador Satchmo, he recognized the struggles the people still faced with slave trading and colonial subjugation and was reminded of the American South’s “vigilante violence against black people.” (Eschen 62). The sympathy that he felt for their struggles inspired him to play “Black and Blue” and the “sense of shared struggle was reciprocated” (Eschen 63). Through “Black and Blue” Armstrong remembered the struggles that the blacks were suffering in the United States just like the people of Ghana. This was a turning point in his life and ultimately led him to work harder at helping his fellow black brethren to obtain their rightful civil privileges. This conversion was illustrated when he cancelled a trip for a Soviet tour in order to help the African American kids in Little Rock. Armstrong accused President Eisenhower of being “‘two-faced” on civil rights and allowing ‘Faubus to run the government.’ ‘It’s getting so bad a colored man hasn’t got any country’” (Eschen 63). In response, Eisenhower sent federal troops to assist with integration. However, the actions of the musician at other times bought forward harsh feelings like “What have you done for your people, except hurt them?” (Meckna 37) He was criticized for wearing leopard skins in a film and using minstrel humor which made him appear as playing into the degrading stereotypes of the time. In a
Louis Armstrong, born August 4, 1901 in New Orleans, was a jazz musician with gifted performing skills ranging from playing the trumpet and composing music to singing and occasional acting. His career was most prominent from the 1920s through the 1960s playing songs such as “What a wonderful world” and “Hello, Dolly”. Armstrong had multiple nicknames such as Pops, Big Papa Dip, and Satchmo his extraordinary jazz performances not only influenced jazz but American culture and the world as a whole. His perfect pitch and rhythm spread throughout America like a freight train. His music supplied such revolutionary vocabulary it soon became commonplace, like forks and knives. Armstrong once said “If you have to ask what jazz is, you'll never know”.
Louis Armstrong once said, “When you play jazz, you don’t lie. You play from the heart. If ya ain’t got it in ya, ya can’t blow it out.” Armstrong truly had “it” in him; there is no doubt that his heart was completely full of jazz. Because of this passion deep in his soul, he made a lasting impact on the world of jazz that still continues to affect our lives. The life, role, and contributions of Louis Armstrong helped lay the foundation of jazz music and helped it become what it is today.
African-American culture was spread through several artistic forms and mediums through the decades that the Harlem Renaissance took place in. One of the biggest and arguably the most important forms that Black culture was spread in was the form of music. During this era, music was an indispensable form of artistic expression that conveyed the thought and feeling of the Black people occupying Harlem and the surrounding areas. Music was an important art form at the time as “No aspect of the Harlem Renaissance shaped America and the entire world as much as jazz. Jazz flouted many musical conventions with its syncopated rhythms and improvised instrumental solos. Thousands of city dwellers flocked night after night to see the same performers”. This music created by the African-Americans in Harlem transformed the negative outlook of many into a positive one or one of some understanding toward the Black populus. This introduction of Jazz and Blues into the society of the era gave birth to several influential and pivotal artists such as Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong. This popularized the Jazz and Blues music genres and brought major notoriety to African-American bringing much needed change in the perceptions of Black
The history of jazz has many innovative and outstanding musicians that it is difficult to find somebody with as much influence on the genre as Louis Armstrong had on jazz. His legacy is much more than just his phenomenal trumpet playing, but also for his amazing innovations he contributed to the genre of music. Armstrong committed countless hours to putting on jaw dropping performances that will always be remembered and has made Armstrong into a jazz icon. Armstrong’s contributions to the jazz genre has created and entire culture of the 20th century