Black vaudeville and musical theater performances

Summary of the Reading
Timelines
Jazz in the 1920s
Jazz’s roots can be found in black vaudeville and musical theater performances from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Jazz was extremely popular in America in the early 20th century, and it was a common motif in everything from clubs to cartoons to realism novels. For the culture’s producers, consumers, and arbiters
Everything was jazz. A worldview, a sense of who you are, a sense of metaphysics, a sense of epistemology, a sense of ethics, a sense of eros, a sense of sociality—a whole way of being. It was a musical genre that, through the fusion of seemingly opposing impulses, seemed to represent so much of the world at the time: the discordance of Modernism, on the one hand, with jazz’s refusal of concise classical music, and, on the other hand, its class-transcending popularity, whereby both rich and poor could, in theory, dance to similar music. Its improvisatory orchestration, sophistication, and danceable melodies.
Focus
Famously, in his essay “Echoes of the Jazz Age,” published in 1931, Fitzgerald described the 1920s as “an age of miracles, an age of art, an age of excess, and a time of satire.” However, he did think that jazz music, to which he made numerous references in his work, encapsulated the decade in a way that no other label could. The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald’s best-selling novel, features jazz as a pervasive soundtrack element. Jazz is obligatory to imitate the 1920s in the modern craze of ‘Gatsby parties,’ celebrations meant to capture the air of the titular Jay Gatsby’s famously opulent, bacchanalian gatherings.
Topics Discussed
What was the Jazz Age
“The Jazz Age” is a term used to define the 1920s in the United States. Despite being in usage before Fitzgerald’s time, the phrase became widely known because of his work, particularly in his 1922 collection Tales of the Jazz Age. It was an era in which jazz music and forms garnered attention all across the United States in the wake of the First World War. Radio disseminated the genre all through the nation and the youth often turned to it as a way of rebellion against older generations who considered its influence as morally damaging.
Jazz Music and Prohibition
The Jazz Age would not have been the same without Prohibition. Put into force in 1920, the restriction of the selling of alcohol was produced in a new underground crime syndicate. Throughout the 1920s, the law was extensively violated, and alcohol was fairly easy to come by. People, just like Jay Gatsby in Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, built their fortunes off the bootlegging business. Throughout the narrative, characters party, drink, and brazenly flout the prohibition rules.
While reading Fitzgerald’s works, it’sevident that alcohol and music had a major role in crafting the culture the characters engage with. The stories set in the Jazz Age attest to this fact. This anthology of short stories chronicles the protagonists’ responses to life in the years following World War I.
Wealth, Sex, and Race
the middle class, the lower class, and the upper class alike all saw their wealth grow throughout this time in American history. Both the economy and the stock market thrived after World War I. Many of the people who were living on the brink before the War suddenly had money to spare and were eager to spend it. Fitzgerald frequently depicts the Jazz Age’s preoccupation with the finer things in life, including mansions, couture, parties, and automobiles. However, this is not the case for every single American.

Analysis
Although Fitzgerald does not link the Jazz Age to jazz music, he does link it to free-spirited men and women. Fitzgerald thinks that the Jazz Age was a time when people lived carefree and to the utmost. Therefore, eat, drink, drink, and be merry for tomorrow is our last day (16). This demonstrates that the Jazz Age population didn’t give a damn about the future if they lived each day to the fullest. He explains why people were so gregarious when he states, “that something had to be done with all the anxious energy bottled up and unexpended in the War” (13). Fitzgerald is arguing that people had to live in the now and not wait for the future because they did not know when they would die or if there would be another war.
How did this add to your understanding of the period?
From the reading, it is evident that “The Jazz Age” is a term used to define the 1920s in the United States. Despite being in usage before Fitzgerald’s time, the phrase became widely known because of his work, particularly in his 1922 collection Tales of the Jazz Age. It was an era in which jazz music and forms garnered attention across the United States in the wake of the First World War. Radio disseminated the genre all through the nation and the youth often turned to it as a way of rebellion against older generations who considered its influence morally damaging.
It was also around this time that movies, telephones, and other electrical gadgets were developed. There was a surge in the economy, a proliferation of radical new fashion and linguistic trends, a zenith in the advertising industry, and the achievement of universal suffrage for women. Even while things were improving all around, there was still some darkness for those who dared to look for it.
How does this fit with what was covered in the class? How does this fit with similar readings assign?
This work perfectly fits with what was covered in class as it describes the events that changed American society.
The other similar readings assigned in this class also define and elaborate in the various events that changed American society.
There is no doubt that jazz music contributed greatly to the development of 20s American culture and society. As a result of this impact, Fitzgerald would label this time “The Jazz Age.” Jazz’s allure rested in the fact that it was inherently unpredictable due to its reliance on improvisation, which allowed the best jazz performers to adapt their performances to the audience’s emotions. Consequently, there was never a repeat performance. This resulted in large audiences and the creation of new dances to the music of jazz performers. The music’s untamed energy inspired a new emotion in those in attendance. Like the music, a new carefree and improvisatory American culture emerged.

Fitzgerald, F. Scott. Echoes of the Jazz Age. Charles River Editors via PublishDrive, 2018.