10/23/2014

History And Types Of Jazz Music Genres

By Dominique Martin


It is hard to talk about jazz and not mention the millions of fans who find their comfort zone in listening to this kind of music. Jazz music lifts their souls up when they are down or just when they want to relax in a hot afternoon. There is no occasion known which jazz can fail to fit, making it a full package and the kind of music to play and listen through your device when you are doing any kind of job.

You can't be more mistaken if you think this African-American originated song is new in the music arena. It is century old with a very rich history in the old West African culture. There is nothing to stop the growth and that growth have been accepted worldwide by a fan base which keeps growing with each new generation and great legends adding on to the ever growing list.

Jazz is a very wide type of music with so many sub-genres within it. Each sub-genre has a distinct note from the other ones. The sub-genres are either categorized depending on the period of time they were popular or the tone and tempo. Everything in this world is dynamic and keeps on changing to stay relevant and so has this African-American originated song seen major changes from the way it was done in the past.

Towards the end of the 1800s the African-Americans started their own kind of music which came to be known as jazz. The first place which is credited with the jazz's origin is New Orleans, but other parts of America started playing this African-American originated song almost at the same time. Regardless of the uncertainty of where exactly it started, it has grown to be the greatest song in the world.

New Orleans Dixieland is the first well known genre of this African-American originated song. It's very popular among the people living at the close of the 19th Century up to late 1920s. Ragtime style was the common feature among this genre. Many other genres have since come and gone, reshaping how this African-American originated song is done.

The second genre to have ruled the world immediately after the New Orleans Dixieland up to the end of the Second World War was the Swing. The acceptance of this genre had grown by this time and there were many big bands which rose up during this time entertaining people on live concerts across the country. It was at this time when improvisation started being a feature after the inclusion of an extended tone over another tone.

Up to this period, all was soft and slow. A new generation of high tempo song, known as Bop, took over the sound waves in the late 40s to 60s. Not everyone could keep up with Bop's tempo, so a new genre had to be born for those who preferred slow tempo. The new jazz was Cool and would last up to the end of 60s.

Rapid improvements and changes occurred in the 70s going forward, when the fusion was born from combination of rock and this one. Many combinations have occurred since then, but still jazz stands strong. The latest of these is the pop fusion which is the hit in the 21st Century.




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