1. Jazz In the Years of World War IISounds That Had a Nation Dancing 2. A Look at Popular Culture in a Broad SenseDuring the WarSome of the most memorable American popular culture came from the shadowed times of the darkestwar in history. In a way that you would expect from popular culture, though, music themes that werewritten exclusively about the war, the majority of the time, went unnoticed, and the songs that werenoticed, did not become very popular. In fact, the only people that seemed to want popular war musicwere military and government officials. The government formed two committees to attempt to find awar theme that would get the adrenaline pumping for the soldiers, the National Wartime MusicCommittee, and the Music War Committee. Both embarrassingly failed in their attempt to do so.Understandingly, it seemed as if no one, neither soldier nor civilian, wanted to hear depressing songsabout the sad times of war. Most people wanted to get their minds off it as much as possible.Understanding this, the music industry kept going on with business as usual. Especially during the earlyyears of the war, the music industry and the movie industry shared an apparent ignorance of the warsexistence in popular hopes that the war and its horrors would go away if people didnt think about it .Some memorable marks of popular culture that are still relevant today came from the years duringWorld War II, but had nothing to do with the war. In 1939, the American classic, The Wizard of Oz,opened in theaters, and along with it, the unforgettable tune, Over the Rainbow, topped the musiccharts. A young man named Frank Sinatra was was getting his highly recognized career off of the ground.Between 1942 and 1944, popular Christmas songs White Christmas, Ill Be Home For Christmas, andHave Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, were topping the pop charts. And Rodgers and Hammerstein IIwere starting off their illustrious careers. In all of these cases, (except for Hammerstein II who aided on acommittee to help find a war theme fit for pop culture,) these artists and pieces of pop culture held nolink to the Second World War. There were some good efforts, but never was there a solid popular wartheme that every American could chant to together. 3. Jazz: The Sounds that Brought a NationCloserIt has been argued that the time during World WarII was one of the most united time periods in U.S.history. While there is a lot of evidence to combatthat idea, there is no doubt that progress inequality was made during the time period of WorldWar II for both racial status and gender status. Thestate of jazz music in the U.S. during that timeperiod shows a good representation of thatprogress. Jazz was effecting the whole nation, notjust the men on the battlefield, but also the hardworking people within the nations borders that hadtheir own hardships to deal with. 4. Swing Jazz and Its Powerful InfluenceOn World War II AmericaDuring the war, there was no more popular andmore influential form of music than swing. Betweenthe time that the war took place, swing haddominated the popular music charts. From itsbeginnings, swing, as well as many other jazz forms,was born in poor and working-class blackneighborhoods. As the style began to evolve andtake shape, it began to gain the attention of thewhite community that liked what it was hearing.White musicians began to adopt it in the later 30s,and by 1940, it was the most popular style of musicin the whole United States. 5. A Quick Lesson On Black PopularMusic HistoryIn a general sense, African Americans have faced a lot ofhardship due to discrimination in American history. After thetimes of slavery, African American opportunity in terms ofmaking money and having rights was vacant to the point thatfor a long time, Black culture would not escape the poor andworking classes. Blacks would find many of their opportunitiestaken or even stolen by whites who had the samequalifications. In terms of the music profession, this was nodifferent. Black musicians have a history throughout the alarge portion of the 1900s of having lesser opportunities ofpromoting their music nationally and/or getting to play withmusicians of similar or better quality. There is even a historyof white musicians recording and/or playing music createdand played by black musicians and getting more popular thanthose black musicians because it. (Some of these whitemusicians asked for permission while others didnt.) 6. Popular Swing of the WarBy the time that the war had begun, Swing hadreached the height of its popularity, and it had theUnited States dancing. Radios and Jukeboxes wereamong the premiere entertainment of the day.Millions of working Americans after a long day atwork were going home and listening to the latestand most popular swing of the day on their radios.As well, millions of Americans were going torestaurants and playing their favorite tracks on ajukebox.What really brought the swing era into a whole wasthe rise of what were known as the Big Bands.Swing had evolved beyond a few musicians playingas a band into orchestras with entire sections ofvarying instruments creating large, full, andpowerfully dynamic sound. It was the big bandsthat were usually creating the most popular swingtracks. 7. America Shows Steps Toward EqualityThrough the Use of Popular SwingDuring this era of swings peak in popular music, an interesting glimpseinto equality was coming to light. At least in the areas of popularmusic, it seemed as though for every big white swing artist and everybig white swing artist that conducted a big band, there was big blackswing artist and a big black swing artist that conducted a big band tocounteract it. The first big swing artist to gain real popularity was DukeEllington, a black pianist, composer, and bandleader whose recognitionin the genre would persist for over a decade. Ellington had a slew oftop 10 hits, but most of them would come in the 30s. At the sametime, beyond the conductor, it was not uncommon to see all blackbands, all white bands, or a combination of the two. In that regard,America did not seem to be nitpicky with race, at least on the surface,when choosing what swing music it enjoyed listening to. No otherpopular music style outside of the jazz subgenres (which includedswing) of this era had this characteristic. 8. The Giants of Swing in the World WarII EraSwing was already well living its popularity by the timethe war started, but at Swings height during World WarII establishment of the unbreakable masters of popularswing was coming into light. From the early 30s to thelate 30s, it was Duke Ellington and his big band thatwere dominating the popular charts. From thebeginning of the war to the end of the war Ellingtonspopularity was still strong, but was slowly beingreplaced by the likes of Harry James, Bob Crosby, BennyGoodman, Woody Herman, Artie Shaw, Tommy Dorsey(who worked closely with Frank Sinatra), and thebiggest of them all, Glenn Miller. Glenn Miller had morecharted hits throughout World War II than almost allthe other artists just mentioned combined. Sadly, in theprime of his outstanding career, Miller had disappearedwhile flying over the English channel on December 15th,1944 These are among the artists that transcendedtouring and recording and began to write for movies,theater, and regular radio shows.Glenn Miller (1904 1944) 9. Hard Times Descend upon WorkingJazz Musicians in World War IIMany difficulties, both caused by and not caused by the effects the war, befell uponjazz musicians during World War II. The main places to have found a jazz band playinga show during that time period were at a restaurant, a concert hall that doubled as aneatery, a bar venue, or a dance hall. Due to economic influences during the war,though, establishments were limited in their hours of business, so finding a time slotto be able to play had shrunk. Food rations during the war limited how manycustomers restaurant businesses received so bands were being hired to play less.Economic changes in transportation limited gig goers. Frequent blackouts shut downsome venues totally. A twenty percent, amusement tax was instilled to raise militaryrevenue and sought to place an anchor on the foot of venue managers. Also, manyjazz bands found a majority of the work they received in time slots at late night venueswhere people went to unwind. A government enforced curfew from midnight untildawn completely ended ideas of being able to perform then, as well.If it wasnt enough to completely desert the amount of places to play and the amountof people to play for (the amount of work to receive,) the military draft effectivelydeserted the amount of members in a band (amount of workers in that business.) Thedraft weaned down members of bands big or small, gradually disbanding many bandstotally, making the musicians left in the country scramble for work. 10. Problems Unrelated to War Effects ForMusicians During the WarThere were two significant events that took place during the war thateffected all professional musicians, not just musicians in a specific genre.These events were unrelated to the war, but made the lives of musicians evenmore difficult. These effects combined with the effects caused by the warmade for a truly difficult time for the professional musician. The firststemmed out of a feud between radio stations and a performance rightsorganization called ASCAP (the American Society of Composers, Authors, andProducers). ASCAP attempts to keep the rights of the writers who are signedto them safe from other people who might perform their works withoutgetting permission from the original writer to do so. Radio stations foughtASCAP in court in 1939 for asking for a payment for each time a radio stationplayed a song by one of their writers. ASCAP lost and large radio corporationsdecided to form a new performance rights organization in response calledBMI (Broadcast Music Incorporated). ASCAP decided to raise fees for all itsartists which, in turn, caused a massive boycott of ASCAP music. BetweenFebruary 1940 and December 1941, all music by ASCAP artists (which madeup about eighty percent of music regularly heard on the radio at the time)were not played on the radio. Popular musics main form of promotion, at thetime, was dead, and it remained dead until the boycott was lifted. 11. Problems Unrelated to War Effects ForMusicians During the War (Cont.)The second significant problematic event that took place was when the AFM(the American Federation of Musicians) hired their new president, James C.Petrillo, in the summer of 1940. He eventually took strong action, demandingradio broadcasters pay fees to play music by AFM members. When radiorefused, Petrillo initiated an all-encompassing ban on recording activity for allAFM members. AFM members (which included an extremely large amountartists) were not allowed to make any new recordings from then on until hisdemands were complied with. Between August of 1942 and September of1943, the music industry halted. Petrillo allowed old recordings to be played,but no new ones were allowed to be recorded. Only vocalists, whom the AFMdid not allow membership for found their ways into the studios, andthroughout the time period of the ban, a lot of recorded acapella can befound. This time period, in a largely general sense, was difficult for allmusicians in the United States, popular or otherwise. Many musicians hadtrouble finding places to play and promote themselves, other musicians hadtrouble being promoted, and others had trouble finding ways to record.Whatever the situation was for each musician, adversity had to be fought byevery musician during this time period. Some made it, and others didnt. 12. American Culture Suffering Due to ProblemsCreated in the Music Industry During the WarBeyond the problems created for musicians, American culturewas suffering due to hardships created for working musicians.Some Americans only escape from the stresses of the war wasthrough radio, recorded music, and live shows that allowedpeople the chance release their stress. American laborers allhad their share of stress be it from unfair work conditions,economic worries, or maybe even worries of a loved onefighting over seas. Nightly radio tunes of the time period afterstressful days was, for many, one of only ways of relaxing andbeing entertained during the time period. With DJs havingdifficulties finding ways to bring full entertainment value topeople at home, especially due to dilemmas having nothing todue with the war, hardworking listeners were being shortedwhat they deserved. 13. Being a Black Jazz Musician in theWorld War II EraBeyond the surface of popular swing music where many artists and playersboth black and white seemed to thrive, in the general sense, white musiciansreceived a lot more recognition. Black musicians in the jazz circuit found itproblematic to find ways to promote themselves beyond their local areas, toget on to labels, and to find bands that would accept them in a society thatfavored whites over blacks. Also, a large problem during the time of WorldWar II for black musicians was the draft. Black musicians, prime in theircareers, were drafted and had to give up on their career ambitions for awhile. This was no different for white musicians, but all black bands whorelied on each other because they werent accepted in the, more numerous,white bands were torn apart, and the other members, if they didnt getdrafted, had to scramble to find work. Few opportunities existed for black jazzartists during the World War II era, but there were outlets that existed in thatof independent labels that were open to experimental music and sought tocapitalize on non-generic styles through creative black musicians. This wouldlater prove prosperous in the growth of black music, and the acceptance ofblack culture. 14. Being a Woman Jazz Musician in theWar World II EraWomens culture all over America was finding its way to progress awayfrom formal discrimination during the World War II era. While the draftwas an unfortunate truth that was on the minds of all men in the U.S.during the war, it was a tremendous advantage for women. While moreand more men were being sent overseas to fight, it was decreasing thepopulation of industry workers. Industries had to find workers to keep upwith the wars production efforts, and a whole population of women,ready to work, were available. At least for the duration of the war,women were being accepted into jobs and professions that they hadnever been allowed to work in before. In the ways of jazz music,specifically popular style swing, women were finding their ways intobands both large and small. Bands made up of all women were becominga popular novelty during this time period, some even finding their wayson to big broadcast radio stations like CBS and NBC. While not all of themgot popular, many of these women groups formed during this timeperiod in an enthusiastic showing for womens progress. Unfortunately,this enthusiasm in womens culture was short lived. Upon returning atthe end of the war, war veteran men expected their jobs back, andwomen were expected to hand them over. Housewives were forced torevert back to life at home, and women that worked for their own livinghad to return to a life of scrambling to find steady work, usually receivingmenial pay. Womens jazz group popularity fell at the end of the war, andmany women that were in mixed gender bands for the duration of thewar were finding themselves replaced by a male veteran. All and all, thisenthusiasm would not die, but rather be carried on to the WomensRights Movement a couple decades later.A picture of Rosie theRiveter, a symbol ofwomens empowermentduring the war. 15. Jazz in the MilitaryWhile being away from home, men overseas found it difficult,if not, impossible to remain in touch with American culture.But, due to many popular jazzmen being enlisted, sometimes,the music went with it. Some of the popular swing greats likeArtie Shaw, Wayne King, Bob Crosby, and Glenn Miller formedor joined their own military bands and performed while onleave or oversea to entertain their comrades.Also, in 1943, the Office of War Information (OWI) orderedthat music records be shipped overseas for the entertainmentof the troops. Shellac (which was used to make phonographsat the time) was flimsy and easily breakable, not to mentionthat much of Americas supply of shellac was being used bythe military for other purposes at the time. Vinylite, aprecursor to vinyl, was used to create what were known as V-Diskswhich were a lot more durable than shellacphonographs and could handle the rough journey overseas.This would become the standard recorded music listeningformat for all recorded music, both in the U.S. and overseas.It would persist as the premiere popular format for decades.Within the 6-year life of this program, 8 million disks wereshipped to men overseas. Military men decided they wantedto hear only the most popular tunes of the day, so millions ofmen overseas were finding themselves listening to andenjoying the most popular swing of the day.Photo of a Vinylite Disk 16. Other Important Jazz Styles During theWarThe two most important jazz styles to evolve out of the warincluded Bebop and Rhythm and Blues. Swing during the1930s to the early 1940s was an immoveable juggernaut inthe world of popular jazz, but by the time that the war hadended in the later 1940s, it had become stale and overlygenericized in the minds of the U.S.s popular music listeningpublic. Many of the big popular swing artists had eventuallybeen shipped overseas and had to disband from the bandsthey led. Upon their returning from the war, their popularityhad faded, their reputations had withered, and forminggroups that would reestablish themselves back into the publiceye had become impossible. Swing was dead, and somethinghad to replace it. 17. BebopThe bebop scene was formed in the early 1940s by jazzinnovators trumpeter John Birks Dizzy Gillespie andsaxophonist Charlie Parker, who got their start in the band ofthe famous jazz pianist, Earl Hines. They presented their style ina small Harlem club that brought in crowds of jazz listeners. Astheir style caught on, jazz up-and-comers like Lester Young,Thelonious Monk, Max Roach, Oscar Pettiford, and CharlieChristian wanted in on it. Bebop was not easily appreciated atfirst, and it took a while before it gained any real appreciationat all. Bebop was a musicians form of music, and even manymusicians had trouble appreciating it. While it combined swingand the blues, it also had rhythms and improvised solos thatwere sporadic, difficult to follow, and most importantly, difficultto dance to. Beats that could be danced to made up what madeswing so popular, and even while swing was dying, America stillwanted to be able to dance to the music that it was listening to.A couple bebop big bands eventually formed and receivedmoderate recognition, but bebop never fully reached a widelypopular status. Even so, it eventually became, and still is, apopularly appreciated style in the jazz community.John Birks DizzyGillespie (1917 1993) 18. The Birth of Rhythm and BluesThe end of the war also equaled the end of swing as popular as genre. At this time, aproblem faced the jazz community as to what would keep jazz in the popular light.Bebop, as new and enthusiastic as it was, was difficult to listen and move to; and whileit had its following, America as a whole shied away from it. Rhythm and blues, likeother jazz styles that preceded it, was born during local band sessions and inindependent label studios. Rhythm and blues was first considered a racial form ofmusic since black artists were the first begin innovating it. Like swing, even though itwas tried to be kept an underground genre due to its discriminatory racial status,pioneer rhythm and blues artists like Jay McShann and Louis Jordan caught Americasattention both white and black. Unlike swing, rhythm and blues was new and fresh,and unlike bebop, it was very danceable. Rhythm and blues had simple patterns butthose patterns were moveable. It was organized, but not genericized. It kept the jazz-likemovability, but the soulfulness of grassroots blues. It was this pioneering timeperiod that would carry this genre on a journey thats still recognized, and is stillshelling out new artists to this day. Less than a decade later, it would find itself beingcombined with country, another growing popular genre of the time period to formrock and roll, a genre that would come to define not just American popular music, butAmerican popular culture as a whole. 19. ConclusionWhile the bleak and dark times of war were changing U.S. citizens demeanors and lifestyles, the rise ofthe popular big bands were keeping them company. American laborers had many troubles and worriesto face throughout the day, and in order to take their minds off them, millions of Americans could turnon their radios and pull out their record players to listen to the beautiful love songs and driving swingsongs of the day. Even the men overseas were sent records to listen to while nesting in the heat ofbattle. African Americans were getting their first hints of being in the popular light in both movies andmusic. Many African American musical artists, mostly in the swing genre, were finding themselves beingrecognized on the popular charts, and millions of Americans, both black and white, were listening toand enjoying music made by African Americans. Women were finding themselves to be more and moreprominent to the importance of American progress during World War II, and that sense of importancewould be a benefactor in the progress toward the Womens Rights Movement. This was no different forwomen musicians, who found more opportunities than ever before throughout the war; this carrieddown to jazz women who found many opportunities to be in popular big bands. Jazz musicians both inand not in the popular scene fell upon hard times both due and not due to the effects of war, findingtroubles recording, promoting, and playing. While the end of the war meant the end of an era, and areturn to old standards, Americas boomed economy, due to the benefits that came with being a largefactor in winning the war, meant the dawn of a new era when the traditional ideas of labor werechanging, and a push for more jobs in the Arts was becoming feasible. This would contribute to the riseand cultivation of popular music that would come with the explosion of rock and roll a decade later. 20. Works Cited Young, William H., and Nancy K. Young. Music ofthe World War II Era. Westport, CT: Greenwood,2008. Print. Garofalo, Reebee. Rockin' Out: Popular Music inthe USA. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1997. Print. Rosenzweig, Roy, Nelson Lichtenstein, JoshuaBrown, David Jaffee, and Stephen Brier. Who BuiltAmerica?: Working People and the Nation'sHistory. Boston: Beford/St. Martin's, 2008. Print.