Big bands were not new to American society during the 1930s. Its
origins go back to black folk music of the 1800s. Back in the 1800s, this
kind of music was referred to as ragtime. Ragtime was also known as the
blues. The term "blues" stems from the fact that the lyrics of the songs
were often sad, or were generally on the down side. Music gave the African
American population of the time a means of escape from the pressure and
stress from everyday life. Most music was either rooted in the blues style
or religiously based. During the early 1900s, white artists trying to
imitate this style of music started to incorporate it into their own
music and came to call it jazz. The blues and jazz are often hard to
distinguish and are considered closely related. (Encarta, 1997) It was
slow to catch on at first but within a few years, it's popularity was
astounding.
Big Bands were present during the 1920s and the early 1930s, but
not much attention was given to them. These bands included future legends
like Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, and Louis Armstrong. Not much attention
was given to them and the general public was generally interested in
sweet pop music (Kinkle, xxxvii) The first person to actually revitalize
and at the same time reintroduce jazz/ragtime to the public was jazz
great, the King of Swing, Benny Goodman. Benny Goodman was on a national
tour with his band in the fall of 1935 and had nearly given up hope about
the band's future when on one of his supposed last stops in Los Angeles,
he was received by a more than enthusiastic crowd at the Palomar Ballroom.
This led to a national craze and within a matter of a few weeks, Benny
Goodman went to the top of the charts. This also led to an increased
interest in the already good bands led by Count Basie, Fats Weller, Tommy
and Jimmy Dorsey (Kinkle, xxxvii).
Many new artists made a name for
themselves during this resurgence of jazz. Most of these artists were part
of larger bands under great jazz musicians and they soon made a name for
themselves. Among the most prominent of these people were Frank Sinatra,
a twenty-something crooner who took young women's hearts in a snap
with his boyish handsome looks and hopeless love songs, Ella Fitzgerald
and Billie Holiday. Of the three, Frank Sinatra went onto enjoy much
success during the 1940s through today as a solo artist.
Big band music was everywhere during the late 1930s - radio
shows of the time would especially devote time to big band music - most of
the time, the music would be broadcast live instead of through records.
Shows like Your Hit Parade, a show that broadcast the number one
song each week, generally had music from big bands as the number one song.
This popularity led to issues of sponsorship and big companies came to
back prominent artists like Benny Goodman and sponsoring shows that
promoted big band artists music. (Smith, 56) Big Band music continued its
popularity reign until the late 1940s when more pop-oriented music once
again starting to gain a large audience. The original great band leaders,
however, did not diminish in their popularity and they remain popular to
this day. Big band music or jazz evolved into a genre referred to as
'bebop' or simply 'bop'. Leaders in this kind of music were Dizzy
Gillespie and Thelonious Monk (Kinkle, xxxix) "This [shift] marked the end
of what has since been termed the Big Band Era. It also ended a great
half-century of music, years filled with enduring songs, great
performances, talented artists." (Kinkle, x|)
For a more in depth look at the Big Bands during the 1930s and 1940s nd
Jazz music in general,
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