Jazz in the 30’s: The Rise of Racial Tension

There have always been racial tensions in the world of jazz. There was racial tension between the creoles and blacks in New Orleans, tension in Chicago from the mob bosses controlling the lives of the musicians, and racial tension in New York from the segregation in the clubs. However, even though there was racial tension throughout the history of jazz, it was never a serious issue until the 1930’s. There were three major reasons for the increase of racial tensions in jazz: the high unemployment due to the depression, the increase in the number of white musicians as jazz became main stream, and new technology that changed the way the people listened to music.

Since coming to America, blacks had been treated as inferior to whites. They started as slaves, and even after gaining their freedom, were never really given equal rights. In spite of not having equal rights, after being freed the living conditions of African Americans in America was slowly increasing (or at least remaining constant), so they did not see a need to complain. Even if they did not have the opportunities of the white counterparts, at least they were free, were able to get some jobs, and had the right to vote; a significant improvement over slavery.

This changed after World War 1. During World War 1 the economy in the U.S. exploded, especially in the north. This led to a mass migration of blacks to the north where they were able to improve the quality of their lives. The problem is that after WWI when the depression hit there were no longer extra jobs available in the north, so white people took most of the jobs back from the blacks. As the economy collapsed, blacks lost most of the jobs that were previously available to them. This felt like a step down to them, which led to increased racial tensions.

Jazz also became much more main stream in the 1930’s. According to Gioia “if jazz ever enjoyed a golden age this would be it…Never again would popular music be so jazzy or jazz music be so popular”. This increase in popularity (possibly along with the simpler style of swing) led to the rise of more white jazz musicians, such as Benny Goodman and Glenn Miller, and white critics, such as John Hammond. Although white jazz musicians had been around for quite a while (The Original Dixieland Jazz Band), the rise in prominence of white musicians in a previously African American style contributed to racial tensions.

The final reason for the increase in racial tensions in the 1930’s was the development of new ways to listen to jazz. In the 30’s live jazz declined, and most jazz was either heard on the radio or over records. For the most part, white people had better access to both radio shows and record companies, and because of this they had an easier time in the jazz industry. Since it was harder for blacks to get on the radio, the number of black jazz musicians declined. Many popular black musicians (such as Billie Holiday) were only able to become popular with the help of John Hammond, and musicians such as Duke Ellington suffered because of his criticisms. The ability of white men to control which black musicians were heard/successful caused tensions between the races. There had been racial tension since the start of jazz; it just became a more prominent issue due an evolving society that was going through a depression, the rise in its popularity, and new the new technology of the 30’s.