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Introduction
Jazz music has progressively gained popularity as a genre for the Black ethnicity. The music has penetrated the mainstream but mainly served to unite blacks during the slavery period. However, its popular adoption fails to reconnect with its history connected to the struggles for liberation by African Americans. Jazz melody reflects the changes in African identity based on a history of prejudice. Nevertheless, the genre has transitioned into a popular style enjoyed by persons of diverse ethnicities. The growing popularity of jazz has led to the integration of cultures. Music enthusiasts from different races can thus enjoy jazz regardless of its history in the freedom struggle. Although Jazz harmony emanates from the societal discrimination faced by Blacks in America, it has attained popular status as a unique genre.
Jazz was an artistic expression of the Blacks in America who have continued to suffer discrimination based on race. In the early American history, Blacks served as forced laborers and progressively lost their culture. Although the declaration of Independence in the US in 1776 promoted the view that all men are created equal, Blacks continued to suffer racial prejudice in free America. According to Méndez and Törngren (2019), the only cultural aspects that consoled Blacks were melody, dance, and religion. Jazz harmony grew out of these frustrations and defined the collective struggles of African Americans. Whereas music generally serves a recreational purpose in the US, it appeals to the social expression of Africans. Jazz tunes are, therefore, a part of the emotional expression of Africans in response to the history of racial prejudice.
Black musicians struggled to integrate their art into mainstream society but have failed in their efforts due to the negative perception. In the 1920s, urban elite black bands attempted to penetrate contemporary American stages, but the Whites considered their genres second-class. The categorization of jazz derived from the ascription of low social status that ex-slaves enjoyed in America (Méndez & Törngren, 2019). The poor popularity of jazz caused some black artists who migrated to North America to adopt the European style of song composition to sustain their careers. However, these artists switched to jazz during the night at parties. In central cities, however, jazz songs began to impact youthful Americans and acted as an integration force.
Jazz Music as a Voice
Jazz music provided an avenue for protest societal ills committed against minorities in America and captured the collective ethos of African slaves. Several jazz artists rose to prominence in the 1960s and 1970s as activists. Méndez & Törngren (2019) observe that enslaved Africans found room for social expression in the 1960s, where they met in the Congo Square in New Orleans. Although it was against the regulations for these slaves to congregate in such a manner, they gathered to sing and dance as this was their only day of rest. The ethos in jazz culture derived from participants inability to speak the same language and singing acted to connect them emotionally in the venue that gained renown as the birthplace of Jazz. Through Jazz, Africans communicated deep sentiments against injustice in a way they had not done before.
Jazz musicians composed songs and raised political attention to the injustice Africans suffered in American society. Famous jazz bands included Billy Holiday, who protested the lynching of Africans in the South, and Paul Robeson, whose song Go Down Moses symbolized the Biblical liberation of Israelites from slavery (Claridad, 2019). Jazz chords in slavery carried deep emotions and appealed to the ethos of cultural togetherness.
According to Claridad (2019), jazz melody obtained salience by transmitting unspoken tension regarding the impact of slavery and its memory among the Blacks. The genre progressively moved to direct aggression in its messages through latter singers causing discomfort among the listeners. An example of a revolutionary song is Drive Man by Oscar Brown conjured memories of the atrocities against Africans in the South. Jazz musicians, therefore, used songs to condemn the injustices faced by African slaves in America.
Ethos of Dominant Culture and Contribution of Whites to Jazz
The interest in Jazz music that began among young Whites spread to other parts of the world, including Germany, to integrate into the dominant culture. During the interwar period, Germans gained prominence as an outlet to the upheavals facing society. In the US, the genre had occupied a diminished space in the rating hierarchy but gained renown in Germany. Following the results of World War 1, America emerged as a leading global force in civilization.
However, Wipplinger (2017) postulates that a rethinking of the racial ramifications of jazz melody led to its popularization among white patrons. Later, analysts saw Jazz tunes as representing the totality of American society generally portrayed as White in conformity with the ethos of the dominant culture. The conceptions of Blacks by Germans were characteristically different from the American perception based on the history of racism, thus communicating the ethos of the dominant culture. The acceptance of Jazz in Germany heralded the songs popularization beyond Black confines based on new conceptualization. In this connection, jazz gained renown as a unifier across the races.
Jazz and Changing Style
In contemporary terms, jazz evokes different perceptions away from its historical connection to liberation. Scholars have hailed jazz for its development of intellectual qualities among listeners. Wipplinger (2017) established that listening to jazz can significantly Improve social awareness and spur interest in learning. The mainstreaming of jazz into academia has, however, attracted criticism from the jazz community. Some scholars argue that jazz originated from artists with no formal education, and the genre does not, therefore, trigger creativity. However, analysts have postulated that Jazz artists obtained self-learning and drawn attention to the informal pedagogy adopted by performers.
The alternative approach to learning focuses on the product but places greater significance on the process. The method could explain the strength of harmony among American slaves who sang only for social expression. The widespread acceptance of jazz music shows the ingenuity of the composers to communicate to all ethnicities.
Jazz and Racial Integration
Although the racial injustices condemned through jazz music continued to prevail in society, the piece attracted both While and Black races in America. The melody had begun making inroads into the White American society through the youth. According to Méndez & Törngren (2019), White critics ascribed the popularity of jazz to reaction to Melody Parker and Dizzy Gillespie that gained renown as anti-jazz.
Some multiracial bands emerged, but the Whites joined from the main door while Blacks entered from the back door whenever they performed in public. The integration forces of the songs continued to suffer critical racial undercurrents in later years. The racial prejudice in songs manifested in the award of awards to jazz artists. Chet Baker, a White trumpeter, won the DownBeat poll over talented Black performers like Dizzy and miles. Despite the discrepancies, the acceptance of jazz by the White Americans reveals the pervading power of this genre to appeal to multi-ethnic communities.
Jazz and Civil Rights
Jazz artists expressed a willingness to collaborate with civil rights advocates in their service to the community. Much of the jazz tunes bore African string jargon and had titles with veiled messages. Besides, there was a notable transformation of the genre from its signature hard bop style to avant-garde versions (Méndez & Törngren, 2019). The new forms of music seemed to destroy the erstwhile melodic norms. However, the black listeners were more assertive in their quest for freedom and often shouted slogans during performances. By transforming the tunes into popular sounds, Jazz bands sought to win the mainstream. Previously, the style served private purposes and comforted the slaves in their agonies. The elevation to the national stage heralded a period of civic expression outside the cage of recreation.
The popularity of jazz across the world emanates from efforts by White artists to disseminate it through performances and records. In the slave labor period, Blacks enjoyed the genre in private as a form of consolation. The meaning of the word jazz remained unknown, and many early performers feared that Whites created the term to demean their creativity (Early & Monson (2019). However, in the 1990s, the term refers to music enjoyed by a wide section of society. While the genre derives from the Black struggle, Whites immensely contributed to its popularity beyond its narrow application. Jazz has evolved as art for self-expression by oppressed Blacks in the US to a popular genre enjoyed by persons from diverse ethnicities and cultural construct.
Conclusion
Jazz music originated as a form of expression by Oppressed Black slaves in the 20th century but has grown into a popular genre in modern times. Disgruntled Blacks gathered at the Congo Square and expressed their frustrations through song, thus giving birth to jazz tunes.
Early attempts to introduce jazz into the American mainstream suffered failure due to prevailing negative perceptions about slaves. Blacks continued to grow the genre from the private sphere to the public space as a form of protest. Many early civil rights practitioners used jazz music to express their sentiments. However, the style of the genre mutated to accommodate a wider listenership and was widely adopted by the Whites. The jazz genre grew out of freedom struggles by the Black ethnicity in the United States and has grown as a popular genre because of the efforts of White artists.
References
Claridad, J. (2019). Leaders and players: The role of Jazz artists as civil rights activists. Historical Perspectives: Santa Clara University Undergraduate Journal of History, Series II, 24(1), 148-159. Web.
Early, G., & Monson, I. (2019). Why jazz still matters. Daedalus, 148(2), 5-12. Web.
Méndez, N., & Törngren, S. O. (2019). Jazz and Blues: Ethnic and racial identity through music. Malmo University. Web.
Wipplinger, J. O. (2017). The Jazz Republic: Music, Race, and American Culture in Weimar Germany. University of Michigan Press.
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