Jazz and Popular Culture Within Term Paper

It is likely that because of Jazz innovators, the fusion of musical styles has grown to the level it has. It is also likely that the desire of Jazz to encourage the rethinking of harmony and melody away from a simple chord progression to a haunting, rather primal emotional experience will have an influence on musicians for decades to come.

Certainly, this has been seen in recent years with the advent of global communication via the Internet. Almost any genre of music is now universally available to anyone with an Internet connection, and in the case of Jazz, allows for an American art form to be transposed into an international phenomenon. One of the ways most younger musicians are able to learn about jazz, to experience the new harmonies and structures, is to listen to the manner in which it has progressed over time. Classical musicians have an international heritage and tradition going back millennia, and now jazz has that same global impetus. In fact, there are Jazz Festivals in almost every country of the world, dedicated to promulgating the art form and allowing a venue for new artists (see: ijfo.org). Jazz has become such a seminal part of popular culture, in fact, that most colleges and universities now offer degrees in the subject- even famous conservatories like the Julliard School in New York.

From the early 1900s, particularly the 1920s and 1930s, a new Harlem Renaissance emerged with Jazz and African-American poetry and literature as its locus. Many scholars believe this pushed acceptance of the African-American experience to the point in which the Civil Rights movement gained such momentum that by the 1970s, Dixie style racism was a thing of the past. Indeed, Jazz, as part of American popular culture contributed to a changing American landscape -- political, socially, and culturally -- and continues to embrace multiculturalism and musical experimentation (Townsend, 2000).

What then ties Jazz together -- there are of course, "schools" and types of jazz -- each with its own ideals, goals, structures, etc. However the number of similarities, the definitions of utilizing primitive rhythms, different scales, or even chromatics and new instrumentations, it is the emotional vitality and the manner in which jazz has become part of popular culture that seems more generalized to the form. So integrated into the modern American psyche, one is instantly transported into the years of World War II with a simple Benny Goodman "In the Mood," or the smoky and steamy lounges of the 1950s and 1960s with "Take Five," the 1970s with the mellow flugelhorn of Chuck Mangione or the stratospheric high notes of Maynard Ferguson; and how few notes does it take to realize that Ella Fitzgerald or Nancy Wilson are singing the blues -- the longing and unrequited love just flows from their vocal chords. Indeed, as one famous Jazz musicians said, "Ah, yes, isn't that something? We all came up with our own music -- and all using the same notes" (Mandell, 16).

REFERENCES

Cook, M., et.al. (2002). The Cambridge Companion to Jazz. Cambridge University Press.

Kidder, D. And N. Oppenheim. (2008). The Intellectual Devotional Modern Culture. Rodale Press.

Mandel, H. (2008). Miles, Ornette, Cecil: Jazz Beyond Jazz. Routledge.

Taylor, a. (1993). Notes and Tones. Da Capo Press.

Townsend, P. (2000). Jazz in American Culture. University of Mississippi Press.

(See: http://www.juilliard.edu/college/music/jazz.html/).