Research: Music - Jazz

To begin my research on music, I started looking at its history. Where did it come from? How old is it? What defines music?


The oldest form of noted music was found carved on clay tablets dated from around 1400BC, but instruments have been discovered from as early as the prehistoric age. A flute made from a cave bear femur was discovered, and it thought to be around 40,000 years old. See, even the cavemen partied after sundown!


However, I am not necessarily interested in the oldest instruments found. I am particularly interested in the evolution of music through the 20th century to present day.
The first genre of music which I looked at was the 1920's Jazz.
Jazz was born from the Ragtime music of the early 1900's consisting of 'ragged' riffs. It pulls together aspects of blues, pop, and swing, and relies heavily on repeat patterns mixed with improvisation.
By the 1920, Prohibition in the United States led to the 'Jazz Age', where Jazz became popular genre to host show tunes, novelty and dance songs. Jazz musicians would play in clubs to liven the atmosphere and to get the audience dancing due to the strict no-alcohol laws. Despite this, the economy at the time was at an all time high, as soldiers returning from World War 1 had their pay packets to spend, and many wanted to cut loose. This made a lot of the older generation frown upon Jazz, as it was promoting the 'new decadent values of the Roaring 20's'.

Louis Armstrong - singer/trumpeter

The 1930's saw jazz develop into Big Band, throwing in a whole concerto of musicians together, saxophone, trumpet, bass, drummers, singers, all put together to create huge brass bands of around 10-25 members.

Dolphy Boys Big Band

However, tastes in music change with each new generation, and by the 1940's people were starting to like new genres.