Music has been a popular aspect of the social life in the United States. In the U.S, music has acted as an avenue to reflect on the tides and challenges that have rocked the nation from the 19th century up to date. However, the American music mainstream has always been very dynamic. It has featured many types of music among them jazz, Boogie-woogie, country music, craze, Rhythm and Blues, stride and rock-n-Roll Popular.
Some of the music styles have entirely faded while others are struggling to get back to their popularity in olden days. They include country music and jazz. On the other hand, Rock-and-Roll and Rhythm and Blues since they swept the nation have remained dominant. The paper will analyze why the Rhythm-and-blues and Rock-n-Roll still prevailed while bebop Jazz and country music faded from the entertainment.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
The main reason for the prevalence of the genre is because they came at a time when America was in the post-war period (Palmer, 1981). New issues came up that raised concerns for the need of equality. During that time, America was highly dominated by country music and Jazz. However, the black community was discontented, and country music or jazz was only appreciating the culture but not the civil rights problems. After the fusion between the white American and Black Americans, the youth who were flocking the urban centers saw the two types as channels to voice their grievances in the 1950s. Racism was the main issue. Jazz and Country music lost their large following because of the inability to adapt revolve to the life circumstances of the 1950s (Ramsey, 2003). They were attached too much to the ancient African and American culture that was being wiped out with increasing urbanization, and intermarriages between Americans and Africans. A new unified culture was on the rise.
Conclusion
The U.S.A music has long gained worldwide recognition. In the pre-1950 period, Jazz and country music were dominant, but they were overtaken by Rock-n-Roll and Rhythm-and-blues. The latter two prevailed because of their ability to integrate with the daily challenges America faced and voice them through music.
References
Palmer, R. (1981). Deep Blues: A Musical and Cultural History from the Mississippi Delta to Chicago's South Side to the World.
Ramsey, G. P. (2003). Race music: Black cultures from bebop to hip-hop (Vol. 7). Univ of California Press.
