[Dixielandjazz] Was Jazz ever popular music?

[Rocky Ball]

Maybe I'm disagreeing with you, maybe not...

BUT

...the PBS Ken Burns' JAZZ series clearly notes that before the 1929  
Stock Market crash JAZZ accounted for 70% of the profits of all  
American Record Companies! I remember reading in one of the Louis  
Armstrong biographies that Louis' record sales (actual platters, not  
money!) were over a million and that was primarily sold through  
grocery stores at a nickel a disk... all in the 20s and 30s. Burns  
makes it clear in his research (and I have read it independently in  
many places before and since JAZZ) that early Jazz (ESPECIALLY before  
the Depression) WAS THE POP MUSIC (most popular music) of the day.  
The country was in the infancy of disposable income in the 1920s (at  
least until the Depression sidetracked that for 20 years) and  
American YOUTH were leading the way in an unprecedented surge of self- 
indulgence. Of course it would take another cycle of that in the  
1950s for youth and their disposable income to usher in the  
popularity of Rock n' Roll.

To me the evidence is clear that early JAZZ hit the country in 1926  
the same way that early ROCK N ROLL did in 1956 and habits, social  
mores and the music business were forever changed by it. Was Jazz  
ever POPULAR MUSIC? YES! It was THE popular music of its day and the  
repercussions of its innovations continued through the more  
commercial swing era, Rock N Roll era and into popular music today.  
The foreword to the Rolling Stone History of Rock N Roll cites Louis  
Armstrong as the most influential musician that made Rock N Roll  
possible! Ken Burns (and his celebrity contributors) affirm this  
throughout the 10 part JAZZ series.

~Rocky Ball
Atlanta

> On Jan 11, 2007, at 5:49 AM, pat ladd wrote:
>
>> After WWII the public didn't want the fast pace of
>> the swing bands that had dominated for a decade but something to  
>> relax
>> by, romantic stuff.>>
>>
>> Not sure about the `fast pace` Charlie.  A lot of the WW2 swing Bands
>> tunes were sentimental ballads. Thousands of people weere away from
>> loved ones. There was a focus on a `great day` when the war would end
>> and everyone could return home. Sure there were bands producing
>> fireworks but Moonlight Serenade was the top tune. Blue birds over  
>> the
>> White cliffs, Silver Wings in the Moonlight and so on made up a major
>> proportion of a bands  pad.
>>
>> Cheers
>>
>> Past
>>
>
> You're totally right of course, Pat. And it was the dreamy sweet stuff
> of the swing bands that people wanted to continue after the war, not
> the hot swing, so the vocalists held sway.
>
> Which raises another point. It's been said that the Swing Era of about
> 1935-45 was the main one in which jazz was THE popular music. Very  
> true
> when we think only of the hot big band stuff by Basie, Goodman, Shaw,
> Duke, Woody, etc.. But sooo much of  the sweet material bears so  
> little
> resemblance to jazz that you can almost call it anti-jazz. A stretch,
> but not by much when you listen to some of the innumerable icky  
> ballads
> in the books of lesser and even better swing bands. It served a social
> function both during and after the war, but it's ever farther from  
> jazz
> than the post-ragtime/pre-Mickey dance bands of the 20's and  
> before. At
> least, the latter had a kick to them.
>
> Charlie
>
>
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