Blog 3

Throughout the rise and popularization of jazz music, racial injustices and segregation had always been an underlying issue.  Breaking grounds musically, socially, and culturally jazz had become a beacon for a new age in the black community, gaining its momentum in the 1930’s Swing Age. With the help of radio and magazines, a large scale market for swing music developed pushing not only music critics to address racial implications in jazz, but for society to acknowledge the injustices as well, thus propelling the discussion of race and jazz into the public light.   

A huge market for Swing music became nationally known and admired throughout the 1930’s and this was in part due to the radio. The radio allowed jazz music to be heard anywhere. Audiences no longer had to go to concert halls to hear “hot jazz” and instead could listen to it in the comfort of their homes. However this growing popularity began to draw more and more people to live performances and this, “required deference to the rituals of Jim Crowe segregation which meant black musicians were unable to play from the front line delivering music to the white audiences” (Stewart Lecture). This restriction directly displayed the racial injustice in jazz and sparked discussion and thought that would eventually lead to the push to break down racial barriers. 

With its successful integration into American Pop Culture, jazz began to receive more attention from music critics and these critics in turn brought light to the issue of race and jazz.  The most acknowledged critic was John Hammond. Hammond was the most prevalent writer that looked at the correlation between race and jazz and was an advocate of racial equality. He stated, “only by unity between Negroes and whites will they be able to survive and flourish” (Swing Changes 61). He wanted to bring light to the injustices against blacks in the music industry and attacked those who hindered his efforts, such as Duke Ellington. Hammond believed Ellington to be a betrayer of his race and that he had, “shut his eyes to the abuses being heaped upon his race and his original class” (Swing Changes 51).  Ellington was backing the abandonment of black culture in favor of white acceptance.

Black artists constantly faced the issue of respectability. The foundation of jazz music was built in bars and brothels. To counter this some black artists took on an air of sophistication to put the whites at ease and further their career; Duke Ellington was known for this sophistication (Swing Changes 53). This abandoning of black culture perpetuated white privilege as well as racial indifference and prompted Hammond’s comments. Hammond’s goal was to break the hegemonic role of the whites and expose the injustices as well as the creativity and beauty of the black role in jazz (Stewart Lecture). Some examples of his efforts include his discovery and push of Fletcher Henderson into Benny Goodman’s band. This racial mixing not only broke down racial barriers, but led to competition between black and white musicians in which the music not skin color took president (Swing Changes). The Savoy in Harlem was a music battle between two of the father’s of swing Benny Goodman and Chick Webb. Thousands of people from all social, cultural, and economic classes were coming to view both a black and white artist perform which helped to validate jazz as a genre and gain respectability for the craft (Stewart Lecture).

      The Swing Era led to the development of a market that popularized the genre bringing racial barriers and inequalities into light. Due to the determination of key figures such as John Hammond to ignite the push for equality in society, the 1930’s was a time of cultural and musical change that revolutionized the music and the message.  The direct attack on racism in the 1930s came about through the discussion of racial injustice, which in turn changed to action. Swing not only brought about a musical revolution but gave way to a racial revolution as well.