Does it mean a thing if it does have that swing?

Where is jazz today? Sure it's there, but it exists in the public view only in the form of high school jazz bands and "Jazz at Lincoln Center" specials on PBS. Jazz only accounts for three percent of all music sales today. What's wrong with that? Jazz has just fallen into the same category as classical music: just another genre that old people hang on to to avoid listening to today's music. So what's the big deal? Well, really, it comes down to the fact that jazz is really the only true "American" music. Just like many Americans, its roots originate from many different places; from Southern folk music to African tribal music. And it was almost definitively invented in the heart of New Orleans. (And if you don't believe that argument, you can just ask Congress, who, in 1987, wasted their time just to declare that jazz is American) Shouldn't it be important that we preserve the only music we have to ourselves?

Well, you may be thinking, jazz is not the only form of American music. Rock is certainly considered American, but it really has its origins in the UK. Rap and hip hop can be traced directly to West African music, so technically it didn't originate in the US like jazz did. How about that crazy new genre, dubstep? Nope. Dubstep and most other forms of electronic music are European. How about modern pop music? Well...come to think of it, the music that is so perennially the most bought music on iTunes and in record stores also is a uniquely American thing. So much so that many consider the export of our modern music to the rest of the world as just another example of the Americanization of the world.

So we can talk about jazz and we can talk about pop. There was a time though when jazz was pop: the Swing Era of the 1930s and 40s. Bandleaders like Duke Ellington (seen below), Count Basie, and Benny Goodman ruled the scene just like Lady Gaga, Rihanna, and Justin Bieber do today:



Why was jazz so popular then? Actually, for the same reason music is popular today: people liked to dance to it. Just listening to Ellington's big band makes you want to get up and dance, right? Well, maybe not, but for people in the 1930s and 40s, it was the best dance material around. And people needed the pep in jazz for the same reason the entertainment business is flourishing so much today. We are in a recession, and they were in a depression (quite a large one, too). When people are down on their luck financially, they turn to forms of entertainment.

So really, if you think about it, jazz music of the twentieth century, and pop music of the twenty-first century have a lot more in common than you might notice at first glance. The mission of this blog is to explore these similarities, and what we can learn about our modern music by looking to the past. And hopefully, we can also learn to appreciate our American musical roots. I mean, seriously, how can you not enjoy this even a little?: