preview

How Did Jazz Contribute To The Civil Rights Movement

Good Essays
Open Document

Jazz and Civil Rights : Hand In Hand

Jazz contributed to the civil rights movement by allowing people to listen to African American opinions through musical beats and lyrics. Giving the world a new wide spectrum from what they were listening to before.
The current definition of jazz is American music developed from ragtime and blues. In some ways blues and jazz go hand in hand. These types of music emerged in the Deep American South around the end of the 19th century, spread north and formed various sub-genres. Jazz and blues are connected by their influence from African beats and culture to traditional African-American work songs. These rhythmic a cappella work songs originated with agricultural slaves, from synchronizing physical movement …show more content…

As slaves improvised and modified verses, the songs also became a subversive form of expression and rebellion,
The History of Jazz
The Jazz Age was a post-World War I movement in the 1920's, from which jazz music and dance emerged. Although the era ended with the beginning of The Great Depression in 1929, Jazz has lived on in American pop culture. Later on in time jazz was brought back by mostly African Americans. In New Orleans during the late 19th century, brass marching bands gave lengthy performances during funerals and parades this is one way jazz was used to express others emotions . Musicians had grown bored and begin to improvise, using the syncopated rhythms of African-American vocal music into traditional military tunes. The way Jazz got around was by musicians being able to move state by state to perform. The music eventually spread north, taking root and evolving in cities such as Chicago and New York City. With a wide range of audience jazz came to be one of the most popular musical genres in America. The term jazz or jass derives from a Creole word that means both African dance and copulation. Also The term jazz referring to peppy dance music first appeared in a March 1913 edition of the San

Get Access