Figure 1.--.

Jazz dominated the inter-wars years much as rock music dominated the babby-boom generation. American music in the 1940s, like the rest of the country, went to war. White jazz reigned supreme, most Americans did notcall it jazz. It was restyled as swing music so as to seem less black. Whatever it was called--jazz or swing was all the rage. The NAZIs supressed jazz as "degenerate" in Germany. In America it was all the rage. All the big bands like Cab Calloway, Less Brown, Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey, Glen Miller, and many others played it. Miller enlisted to bring his music to the troops. He was killed in a plane flight in the closing months of the War.

History

Swing music dates back to the 1920s. At the time jazz was seen s "black music". Black Americans dancing to contemporary jazz music, discovered the Charleston and the Lindy Hop. It was in New York that white Americans began to take the step toward accepting jazz. New York is an important city in America, but in the 1920s New York was THE American city. It was both the financial and cultural capital of America. It was also the home of the largest black community in America and a black community uncowed by the vicious Klu Klux Klan and southern Jum Crow laws. The Savoy Ballroom in New York opened its doors on March 26, 1926. It was a hughe success. The block-long dance floor had a raised double bandstand. The Savoy attracted the best dancers in New York, black and white. All of the dancers wanted strut their stuff at the Savoy Ballroom. The best black bands played at the Savoy. These great muscisians were undoubtedly stimulated by the presence of great dancers. It was t this time thar the term "swing" appeared. It was related to the tyleof dancing to jazz music. The term was much more acceptble to the larger white public who at the time denegrated anything black and the term "jazz" was largely seen as black music. The term "swing" was, however, a race-free term without the connotation of black music.

The Dances

The Lindy Hop

The popular dance in the 1920s was the lindy hop. It was jazz enthusiast "Shorty George" Snowden who fashioned the "Lindy Hop". A newspaper journalist asked Shorty just what dance the dancers were doing. There happened to be an open newspaper with an article about Lindbergh's flight across the Atlantic on the bench next to them. The article was titled, "Lindy Hops The Atlantic," and George just just blurted out, "Lindy Hop". It immediately spread wkith the dance itself.

The Jitterbug

The popular dance of the 1930s was the jitterbug. It was animated by bouncy six-beat jazz music. Famed band leader Cab Calloway introduced a tune in 1934 which he called "Jitterbug".

White Bands

The 1930s was the era of the "big bands" which played at ball rooms packed wkith teenagersand youths. White bands at first played traditional dance music. Gradully white bands began making a name for themselves by playing jazz music. It was, however, called swing which was more acceptable to the white public. Dance leaders lile Benny Goodman pioneered swing music to white audiences. While black bands were acceptable to New York audiences, most white audiences wanted white bands. Dancers soon incorporated tap and jazz steps pioneered by black dancers into their dancing. By the the late 1930s , the terms "Lindy Hop", "jitterbug", "Lindy", and "swing" were used interchangeably by the news media to describe popular dancing occurring in the streets, at night clubs, in contests, and in the movies. The one term that was not used, at least in the popular media was "jazz"--at least in America. Jazz was also sweeping Europe and there the ter "jazz" was used.

American Rection

While yong people embraced swing, the established music and dance estanlishment had a very different opinion. Philip Nutl, president of the American Society of Teachers of Dancing, in 1936 expressed the opinion that swing would not last beyond the winter. Donald Grant, president of the Dance Teachers' Business Association, said in 1938 that swing music "is a degenerated form of jazz, whose devotees are the unfortunate victims of economic instability." Dance teachers refused yo teach these new dances. Teenagers had to learn on the fly. It was not only the music and dance establishment that objected, but clerguman, esecially fundamentalist preachers, sall swing dancy as the work of the devil. The same senario would be repeated in the next generation for rock music and dance.

German Reaction

The NAZIs who seized power in Germany at the beginning of 1933 were also offened by jazz. Not only did it seem to defy he great classical musciscians, many of whom were German, but it was created by blacks--who the NAZIs viewed as an inferior race. Worse still, many young Germans were entralled by jazz. oon the NAZIS were calling jass degenerate music, sounding not unlike some Americans. The NAZI campaign against jazz was caught in the film Swing Kids. Note that the title of the film is "Swing Kids" and not "Jazz Kids".

Jazz Purists

It was not just consevative elements that objected to swing musics. Jazz purists objected to swing, describing it as jass that had been waterdown so that it was acceptable to white audiences and thus of greater commercial value.

Created: June 8, 2002
Last updated: June 8, 2002