preview

Burton W. Peretti's Jazz In American Culture

Decent Essays

An entire era was dedicated to a form of an indigenous art; however, many do not know jazz has shaped the society and humanity of American culture. Recently, I checked out the book “Jazz in American Culture”, a book written by a jazz performer and professor Burton W. Peretti, from the University of Tennessee. Jazz is the subject that shaped an entire society in the Jazz Age and during the wartime in the early twentieth century. The book organized the creation of jazz and the original founders, but it mainly introduced everything in a chronological order. Jazz was introduced in the first introductory chapter, it was introduced after the civil war by African Americans. Jazz was founded and created by several types of immigrants in New Orleans, …show more content…

Jazz is an art form that had shaped the youth, middle-class whites, and immigrants during the early 20th century. Jazz had a massive effect on the era and its youth. The Jazz Age youths revolted with how they dressed, how they spoke, and how they acted. Youth had acted differently, because they spent more money, stayed out later, and disobeyed their parents. The writing was done so well that any reader can sense or imagine what this time looked like. The book grabs my interest because it shows how people can change due to art or music, in my opinion, I feel like today’s youth follows after hip-hop or rap artists. The book was not bias in anyway; however, the society during the era was bias against blacks being the founders of jazz and ragtime music. The subject of jazz and the immigrant founders were treated so unfair with low pay, and even Ku Klux Klan attacks on black jazz performers. The book presented its data with accurate information, for example, Peretti used over 127 textbooks, articles, and academic journals to condemn the research for the writing of the book. Peretti explained, “the reexamination of twenties jazz and its simplistic cliché of the Roaring Twenties hides complex dimensions of American thoughts and behavior.” Peretti was right, because nobody really knew the effect of jazz until studies have be done. From my stand on the book “Jazz in

Get Access