Big Blog no. 1: American Roots Music
Swing Music
Hello everyone and welcome back to my blog! I hope everyone is doing great. This week in class we are getting the chance to teach a genre to the whole class. With that being said, today I will be talking about Swing Music. There are so many things that I personally found intriguing and hope to share with everyone today. I hope you like it and enjoy it!
Before The Swing Era
(I want to give you a little bit of what was happening before this period happened before i introduce you to swing)
America was in the depression era. Money was in short supply in the country at that time. There was very little work, especially for musician. Many record sales dropped so musicians that were more talented or had connections started to get jobs on the radio studies. This is when radio started to become a household appliance. This era was known as the "Golden Age Of Radio". Even thought the economic condition of the time was critical; microphones and jukeboxes were made better.
The jukebox changed a lot of the popular music because they made new tunes. That's when Swing music was brought up. Jukebox made it easier for speakeasies, dance sports, and many more. At first they thought that the new device was going to cut record sales. But they were surprised to see how the exposure of the music made the sales increase.This is why swing was spreading across america.
What is Swing Music?
The meaning of "swing" has many meanings in music. It can mean a rhythmic style of a beat or it can also mean a way of dancing. Benny Goodman was one of the first to dominate this form of American popular music. But in this case I'm going to be talking about this style in jazz. The swing style grew from African American roots and took over a lot of American popular music. This all started around the 1930s to 1945s.
Swing music is a subgenre of jazz. The name of swing emphasizes the off beat of the music. They are usually played in big bands. Below I mention Benny Goodman, Buddy Rich, and Glenn Miller. These people and many more artists brought swing music to America. In the article I read it mentions how the "this feel is achieved by accentuating beats 2 and 4, replacing steady eighth notes with lilting, "swinging" eighth notes, and adding accents and syncopating-anchored by a walking bass line." (I wasn't sure how to explain it better but I hope you understood what it was talking about) This is how they made the music up beat.
In the top paragraph, I talked about the many meaning of swing. One of the types I fail to mention is how certain types of orchestral music can also swing. Isn't that strange to believe! The bands feature a soloist who improvises the melody over the arrangement.The way they do this is by different musicians playing off each other's ideas at the moment. They play together with a fresh mind and spirit. it is like a beat, a bounce, or a rhythm moving forward. The typical style of swing features a strong rhythm which is supported by loosely tied woodwind and brass sections with a call and response to each other. Sometimes the beat is off and sometimes the beast is quick. Overall they respond to each other with joy and happiness. This music is a groove, which is hard to explain in words, swing makes people want to get up and dance. It is like a whole new kind of music that includes a dance. Louis Armstrong once said "if you don't feel it, you'll never know it"
Early Musicians in Swing Music
One of the many things that people don't know about me is that I love to collect a lot of antiques. And one of the things that I'm proud of is my vinyl collection. When I found out that we were going to talk about other genres I wanted to do something around jazz. In this case, I will be talking about three of my favorite swing musicians. It was quite hard trying to narrow down who to talk about but I hope you enjoy it!
- Benny Goodman -
Benny Goodman was a clarinetist and bandleader. Before World War II, he had produced many hit singles. By the age of 14, he had left school to join the American Federation of Musicians. His success began when the swing era was popular in the 1930s. He was one of the world's first wing bandleaders to become popular and to perform at Carnegie Hall. Below, you will find one of my favorite and popular song called "Sing, Sing, Sing." I hope you enjoy it!
- Buddy Rich -
Buddy Rich was one of the most iconic drummers in jazz. He's one of the many musicians who helped the swing era to power. Which led him, in the late 1940s, to own one of the largest orchestra bands through the following years in World War II and in the 1960s. In the following video, you will see the battle between Gene Krupa and Buddy Rich. This is one of the most Famous drum battles that caught the people's ears and eyes. I hope you enjoyed it like I did!
- Glenn Miller -
Gleen Miller was also one of the biggest leaders in the Big Band era (also known as the swing era). His band shared the story in the Great Depression. In which he did as well as in World War II. In 1942 he joined the U.S. Army as a Captain and proved musical support to all the soldiers. In the following video below you will find the song "In The Mood". One of the reasons that I really like this song is the spirit as well as the great dancing. I hope you enjoy it!
Instruments
Something that I found interesting is that they follow jazz tradition but change certain things. Swing uses the jazz tradition in which they organize musicians into big groups of 12 to 16 players. They have to play a lot of high portions of music. Many big swing bands separate their players into section brass, woodwinds, and rhythm. They would hire skilled orchestrations to write music. The way they structure the players they play off against each other, sometimes in counterpoint, and in dialogue. In the article, I read it explained how they use a device like a riff. This is a musical phrase by a band or by a counterpoint with section riffing. It says that it a sheer power of repetition and it becomes hypnotic when playing.
Sources:
Big Bands and the Swing Era. (2018, November 07). Retrieved from https://acousticmusic.org/research/history/musical-styles-and-venues-in-america/big-bands-and-the-swing-era/
Swing music. (2020, October 09). Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swing_music
What is Swing. (n.d.). Retrieved October 18, 2020, from https://www.carnegiehall.org/Education/Educators/Link-Up/National-Program/The-Orchestra-Swings/What-Is-Swing
Swing. (2020, October 01). Retrieved October 18, 2020, from https://www.britannica.com/art/swing-music
Benny Goodman. (2020, May 04). Retrieved October 18, 2020, from https://www.biography.com/musician/benny-goodman
Johnson, D. (n.d.). Put On Earth To Play Drums: The Buddy Rich Story. Retrieved October 18, 2020, from https://indianapublicmedia.org/nightlights/put-earth-play-drums-buddy-rich-story.php
Swing Era & American Big Band. (2019, June 18). Retrieved October 18, 2020, from https://www.colorado.edu/amrc/swing-era-american-big-band
Great blog Christina! I for one have always enjoyed jazz and swing music. They put me in a nice calm and happy mood haha. But I am glad you chose this topic to talk about because you have informed me of so much.
ReplyDeleteHey Christina! I really enjoyed reading your blog about Swing. Jazz is one of my top favorite music genres, especially the oldies. And I'd like to add that I use to play in an orchestra and we used to play jazzy kind of songs that required us to "swing" notes, it's loads of fun, I remember tapping my foot a lot when we would play these pieces. I also enjoyed learning about the early musicians in swing, I personally never heard of them. Thank you for teaching me about this genre Christina, great post!
ReplyDeleteWow it was so interesting to learn more about Swing Music. I have always heard about it but I never knew what it was. It is really groovy and upbeat. When I listened to "Sing, Sing, Sing", it made me want to dance.
ReplyDeleteI liked your blog because I've never been interested in swing music so I didn't have much prior knowledge before reading your blog. The Benny Goodman and the Glen Miller song is definitely something I've heard in movies. I can't pin which movie, but I immediately recognized those songs. The drum battle was very fun to watch because they're having fun doing what they're passionate about.
ReplyDeleteI really find swing music interesting, especially the era of time that I was popular. I enjoyed your blog because you began talking about the era of depression that the country was in - and how swing music still advanced through these tough times. I really liked the song "Sing, Sing Sing" that you included. It's almost impossible not to tap along to!
ReplyDelete