“The Jazz Age” was first coined by F. Scott Fitzgerald in reference to the rise in popularity of jazz music during the 1920s, coinciding with the Roaring Twenties. The genre of Jazz thrived in the 1920s. Jazz in the 20s was the result of a melting pot of black music, spirituals, and blues gospel. It was a good way for musicians to express themselves. Despite the fact that jazz music has created positive social effects among the black community, it has created more negative ones for black jazz musicians, such as exploitation and jazz appropriation, some of which are still occurring today (The Jazz Age).
Recognizing the African origin that jazz music came from will help create a more extensive understanding of the social effects that jazz music during the Roaring Twenties had on African Americans. Jazz music developed from Afro-American music. This can be seen in their tradition work songs, spiritual music, and minstrelsy (Early). Jazz is considered an integral part of African American culture. It was born out of the cultural experience of African Americans and can be traced in a direct line to the slave songs of the plantations through the Negro Spirituals, Ragtime, and the Blues. Music was an essential aspect of African American life. Many of the great spirituals expressed faith, perseverance, and a passion for freedom. Blues were a reflection of the trials and tribulations of life. The cultural experiences of African Americans weave in and out of the lyrics and reflect emotions ranging from lamentation to exuberance (Early). The history of jazz proves that black musicians are the inventors and innovators of jazz. Their development of jazz music has become one of the major accomplishments of the black community.
As World War I came to an end, people were celebrating. The old-fashioned Victorian morals were being pushed aside for values of the desire for freedom. Jazz music represented and expressed this freedom and helped it to succeed. Jazz was also a relaxed, more spontaneous genre of music, the type that was favored by the general public. After World War 1, many African Americans moved from the South to the North in search of better living conditions. Some left in search of economic and political opportunity in the North, while others were trying to abandon legal and extralegal lynching, racial violence, and domestic abuse from the South. Due to the circumstances that African Americans were facing, including racism, segregation, and discrimination, they found a comfort and sense of peace in their music. This led to a great development in jazz music. The introduction of the radio allowed for jazz music to disperse across the nation, causing the commencement of the New Negro Renaissance, also known as the Harlem Renaissance. African American leaders like W.E.B. Du bois, James Weldon Johnson, Charles S. Johnson, and Alaine Locke made several attempts to create schools of black music and literature because they believed that it is necessary to create great art in order to achieve greatness.
The growing popularity of jazz music during the Roaring Twenties not only started to bring more favorable recognition towards African Americans, but it also in a way helped bind and slowly close the gapes of color. The “primitive” jazz sound that had originated in New Orleans diversified, and thus appealed to people from every echelon of society. Jazz musicians during this time period were typically African Americans, but the music appealed across racial lines (Anderson 1). This was extremely shocking with the social circumstances during the 1920s. The introduction of Prohibition in 1920 brought jazz into gangster-run nightclubs, the venues that served alcohol and hired black musicians. These speakeasies allowed whites and blacks to mingle socially for the first time; they also draw young audiences from all social classes, attracted to both the music and the increasingly suggestive jazz dances (Anderson 3). The growing popularity of jazz music created opportunities for black musicians as they became wanted by the radio and recording industry. Recordings and radio broadcasts allow the music to reach beyond nightclubs, and the arrival of virtuosos such as New Orleans-born cornet and trumpet player Louis Armstrong and composer Duke Ellington propel the art form to a higher level. Popular black bands were promoted as long as there was a demand for jazz music by white Americans (Newton-Matza 4). Jazz music created a sense of integration between blacks and whites in the industry. African American jazz music swept throughout the country during the 1920s. Jazz music was able to gain respect as an African American art form. For the first time in history, the culture of a minority became the desire of the majority.
Although jazz aided in reducing racial segregation and the elevation of the status of African Americans, there were a great number of very serious white reactionary movements against this success. Conservatives viewed jazz music as vile, primitive, and destructive to morals of society because it appealed to society’s most base instincts (Newton-Matza 2). These conservatives opinions generally stemmed from racism. Along with these opinions, many also saw jazz music as an attempt of the African American community to undermine the morality and the superior lifestyle of whites. Jazz’s popularity grows, and as it attracts a wider audience, so do campaigns to censor this “devil’s music.” (The Jazz Age) Early detractors like Thomas Edison, inventor of the phonograph, ridicule jazz, saying it sounds better played backwards. A Cincinnati home for expectant mothers wins an injunction to prevent construction of a neighboring theater where jazz will be played, convincing a court that the music is dangerous to fetuses. By the end of the 1920s, at least 60 communities across the nation enact laws prohibiting jazz in public dance halls (The Jazz Age). Although jazz musicians helped to erode racial prejudice, they were sometimes unable to break down long established barriers. At the same time Black musicians were opening doors, Harlem’s Cotton Club, the most popular New York jazz club of the 1920s and 1930s, featured Black entertainers but seated only white patrons (Newton-Matza 3). In Chicago, Black musicians were prohibited from playing at downtown clubs but became well established in enclaves outside the center city. Despite the talent that black jazz musicians brought to the community, they were often less credited for their invention and innovation of jazz music. Jazz created a sense of identity, originality, and social cohesion among black musicians, but they were seldom credited with inventing it. Jazz music and the music industry during this time caused exploitation and discrimination by whites against blacks (Newton-Matza 3). Whites in the jazz industry got rich while black musicians did not reap equal benefits. Some whites held the belief that the tradition of African American was not art. Instead, to them, it was worthless, trivial, and only tolerated for profitability.
Many similarities can be seen between Gabriel’s Rebellion and the growth of jazz music during the 1920s. Gabriel Prosser—a literate enslaved blacksmith—planned the revolt that came to be known as “Gabriel’s Rebellion.” Gabriel’s uprising was notable because it demonstrated the potential for mass resistance and revolution in the American South.
The rebellion had severe effects on the treatment of blacks in the American South; consequences included more rigid emancipation laws, restricted travel between plantations for slaves, and legislation designed to limit the growing free black population. Gabriel’s Rebellion widened the gap between the opposing sides of the slavery argument. White slave owners saw it as a sign that blacks needed to be forcibly contained and controlled, while antislavery proponents took it as proof of the inconsistencies of freedom within American society. The rebellion and jazz music were both meant to improve African American rights but failed to do so. In different ways they both managed to even worsen their conditions. Despite the fact that jazz music has created positive social effects among the black community, it has created more negative ones for black jazz musicians, such as exploitation and jazz appropriation, some of which are still occurring today.