Essay on The Jazz Age is published for informational purposes only. The free papers are not written by our writers, they are contributed by users, so we are not responsible for the content of this free sample paper. If you want to buy a quality essay paper on Essay on The Jazz Age at affordable prices please use our essay writing services offered by EssayEmpire.

During the 1920s, America appeared to be moving in opposite directions simultaneously. On the one hand, a conservative, even reactionary, tide emerged in the wake of World War I that stressed isolationism and intolerance, evident in the U.S. Senate's rejection of Woodrow Wilson's proposal for a League of Nations; in the reemergence of the Ku Klux Klan; in the Red Scare, epitomized in the Sacco-Vanzetti Trial; and in the passage of the Prohibition amendment. On the other hand, the era also saw the passage of the women's suffrage amendment, a stock market boom, the development of technological advances, and the mass production of the automobile--a form of transportation that would revolutionize the social and cultural mores of the country. It also produced the reaction against Prohibition: The wild, intoxicating "roaring twenties," in which the speakeasies and the gangsters who ran them demonstrated that while traditional, puritanical values might still reign in the hinterlands, the days of those values were numbered in an increasingly urbanized America.

One expression of this divided sensibility was the African-American musical form jazz. Combining syncopation and improvisation, jazz seemed both to mirror and create the new spirit of individual freedom that swept the urban areas. New Orleans, Chicago, Kansas City, and New York all became jazz centers, a list to which a short while later would be added Paris and London. Generally acknowledged as the greatest jazz musician, Louis Armstrong was also a representative one. Born in New Orleans, he was sent, at the age of 12 to a reform school, where he learned to play the cornet. In 1922, he joined King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band and soon became famous for his superb trumpet playing. With musicians of Armstrong's caliber, jazz earned the respect of serious, classical composers, who began to include jazz passages in their works. The composer who celebrated jazz most extensively was George Gershwin. His Rhapsody in Blue (1924) introduced a new form, "symphonic jazz." At the same time, jazz set off a powerful negative reaction. Conservative forces--black as well as white--railed against this "devil's music," seeing in it an occasion of sin.

The emergence of jazz coincided with the Harlem Renaissance, the flowering of African-American literature, music, and dance that took place in New York's Harlem district in the 1920s. Nightclubs like the Cotton Club, reserved for white patrons only, and dance halls like the Savoy, frequented by local Harlemites, were just two of the hundreds of places in Harlem where jazz could be heard. It formed the background of the creative achievements of young African-American artists who had found their voice in this era of "flaming youth."...

Free essays are not written to satisfy your specific instructions. You can order a term paper, research paper or custom essay on Essay on The Jazz Age at our site which offers professional essay writing services. Get your high quality custom paper at affordable price. EssayEmpire is the best solution for those who seek help in essay writing related to Essay on The Jazz Age and other relevant topics.