MUS 505 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Benny Goodman, Fletcher Henderson, Swing Era
17 Apr 2016
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Document Summary
Swing- a jazz-inspired dance music, developed in new york, chicago and. Swing refers to both a rhythmic feeling that is typical of african american music and a general feeling of personal freedom. Characterized by big bands- 5 saxophones, 4 trumpets, 4 trombones, piano, bass, guitar, drums- playing notated arrangements with occasional solos. Bands played on radio broadcasts and toured the country. Music performed in big halls that allowed for dancing. Commercially successful - pulled the record industry out of the depression the music of the swing era. Big band swing music and dance humanized the cold, rational machine world created and fetishized by technical corporate elites in the 20th cent. Through swing vital aspects of human life returned to american culture. Primary social forces of the day: industrialization and mass production, shift to an urban society. Two narratives of the industrial epoch in america- 1870 to 1939:
