pre-jazz era

On the surface, jazz is an art form recognized to be uniquely American and barely a couple hundred years old. Its roots go back to West African tradition, where people emphasized rhythm. Jazz at its beginning was the combination of appreciation for rhythm and European influences by black Americans around the early nineteenth century. Eventually, jazz would be geared towards the mainstream audience, and musicians consequently had trouble balancing the raw, improvisational nature of the genre with the expectations of commercialization. As jazz gained popularity in the early 20th century, it became a reflection of the complexities of Black American identity, navigating between its cultural roots and the pressure to appeal to wider, often white, audiences. This tension led to debates over authenticity, with some musicians striving to maintain jazz’s original spirit while others embraced its evolution into more structured, polished forms like swing and bebop.