The Impact of Jazz on Modern Music
The impact of Jazz on modern music is at the core of EDM’s structure and indeed its very existence. If Jazz hadn’t been, EDM wouldn’t be! The American Dictionary of Music defines Jazz as, “A music created mainly by black Americans in the early 20th century through an amalgamation of elements drawn from European-American and tribal African musics. A unique type of music, it cannot safely be categorized as folk, popular, or art music, though it shares aspects of all three. It has had a profound effect on international culture, not only through its considerable popularity, but through the important role it has played in shaping the many forms of popular music that developed around and out of it.”
Jazz really was the first “Pop Music”. Its development set the stage for the development of Breaks, Jungle & Drum-N-Bass, Electro, Hip Hop, Funk, Disco, and every other modern style of music that uses syncopated rhythms! Syncopated rhythms have their roots in African tribal rhythms that were used in ecstatic dancing as well as religious ceremonies! I don’t know about you, but I love me some ecstatic dancing that feels like a religious experience!
The Rhythms
Syncopated rhythms can be defined as “a temporary displacement of the regular metrical accent in music caused typically by stressing the weak beat.” That definition can be a bit confusing, but in layman’s terms, syncopated beat patterns do not have the regular “4 on the floor” pattern, or 4 consecutive, evenly spaced beats like you would find in House, Disco, Trance, NRG, etc. Syncopated beats are often referred to as a “break”, hence “breakbeat music”! It creates a funkier, more abstract sound that offers a more freeform approach to the 4/4 pattern of dance music! Jazz relied on these abstract yet regular beat patterns for the other musicians to improvise over. It’s not unlike a scratch DJ performing over music like Hip Hop, Breaks, or Drum-N-Bass.
The first “modern” DJs curated their sound by splicing together the “break” from various Disco, Jazz, and Funk songs. The “break” is a breakdown section that used a breakbeat and funky percussion to accent the structure of a song. DJs would take 2 copies of the record and juggle the short section of the break of the song. They would play them back and forth to create an elongated version of the song’s best element. It was the root of Hip Hop. DJs like Grandmaster Flash and DJ Kool Herc made a name for themselves during the birth of Hip Hop in the late 70s and early 80s by doing just that at house parties and public gatherings in New York’s various ghettos!
Here’s a simple sample of a drum break that will show you what a syncopated rhythm is:
The Parties
Jazz begin to hit prominence in the 1920s, or the “Roaring 20s”. All night parties that had mixed race crowds, which was both unheard of and illegal at the time, raged with bands playing up-tempo music to dance to from dusk till dawn! It really can be viewed as the first “Raves” ever! Jazz continued to evolve into various other forms like Be Bop and Swing and was the first “Pop” music ever! Jazz continued to be the standard for what was cool, hip, and cutting edge for both music and for nightlife and parties for decades, from the 1920s through the 1960s!
One of the best aspects of the impact of Jazz on modern music is that it really set the stage for showing us how to party! Jazz events and clubs are notoriously well known to be dens of iniquity and regular Bacchanalian Feasts! Liquor flowed freely and Jazz types were known to smoke reefer and even do harder drugs like heroin to accentuate their appreciation of the music. It presented a wild time for one to delve into the world of Jazz! All night parties were wild and dancing the night away was the norm. It may have been the first Pop music but it was also the first Underground music movement!
More on Jazz
Jazz has a rich and varied history as it progressed from its inception in the early 1900s until its many current forms it now has. You can certainly benefit by exploring Jazz and learning more about its many different styles! Go through the PowerPoint lesson on Jazz to learn more about it!
To get Jazz music on digital, follow the link below on Amazon Music:
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Very cool to see the evolution of Jazz music! Can’t wait for the next episode! So neat!
Seeing videos of people like Cab Calloway bop around, you know those parties were wild!
Thanks for the article!
I would have loved to go to those parties! I bet they were raucous!
That is so cool that the Jazz scene had the first underground parties. Bless them!! Love this article.