The Jazz Age in the 20s

[johnnybest]

Why as jazz music so popular

[jno]

goodness... why is rap music popular? Why was it rock music or disco in the 70s? It just was. People liked it. It was fairly new so there was a lot of talent and enthusiasm in the playing. But really, people just took a fancy to it... and then they took a fancy to something else and jazz became a minority interest

[Octavius]

Because of its inventive use of blue notes (pentatonic scales), call-and-response, improvisation, polyrhythms, syncopation and the swung note of ragtime and the fact that it also utilised original tribal and folk/cakewalk music and incorporated music from religious hymns combined with Eurpoean folk and dance music. Many early black musicians used their musical ethnicity to play European instruments (violin etc). It was different, it was a modern blend at the turn of the 19thC and popular because of it.

Don�t confuse modern contemporary �Belgian� jazz with the old, ragtime, Swing and New Orleans jazz. In doing so, you serve the origins a great injustice, since this modern malarkey sounds like twenty people playing together at the same time but each playing different tunes in a different key in a different time signature.

[China Doll]

I'd listen to them both ^^^^

They probably still remember it!

(Is any amount of eyelash fluttering going to get me out of that?)

[Octavius]

Although the fluttering of the eyelashes can lead to certain �.feelings, only shaking your tail-feather would suffice on this occasion.

[China Doll]

Shakes tail feather and looks over shoulder fluttering eyelashes

The things a girl has to do to get by eh?!

[jno]

personally, I was greatly aggrieved when jazz became popular because it pushed the gavotte and the polka right off the charts.

[Lonnie]

This is why, and beats todays music hands down.

This chap was a pioneer, and was arguably the best.

http://www.traditional-jazz.com/mainpages/jazz hist1.htm

[Count_Emmup]

Octavius: -
Scott Joplin - unquestionably the greatest Ragtime composer of all time detested his music being compared with Jazz.

One of his more repeatable quotations on the topic was "Jazz is a just way of playing music, Ragtime is a type of music!".

[Count_Emmup]

Lonnie that is a really fascinating link, I have added it to my 'favourites', thanks!