- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226044941
- eISBN:
- 9780226044965
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226044965.003.0001
- Subject:
- Music, History, American
This book argues that 1930s and '40s dance band music provided listeners new ways to make sense of the changing spaces and places of American life. The popular music of the era significantly acted in ...
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This book argues that 1930s and '40s dance band music provided listeners new ways to make sense of the changing spaces and places of American life. The popular music of the era significantly acted in a larger cultural conversation regarding the radical demographic and geographic changes due to economic depression and global war. Americans were caught between “The Lonesome Road” and the “Street of Dreams.” Dance band jazz united Americans around a cohesive national musical style even as it transported sounds and experiences of distant places. This book also utilizes the music of Jan Garber, Duke Ellington, Charlie Christian, and Charlie Barnet. Music's intimate connection with the human body and its movements was possibly the most basic spatial component of musical experience. This Introduction provides an overview of the chapters that follow.Less
This book argues that 1930s and '40s dance band music provided listeners new ways to make sense of the changing spaces and places of American life. The popular music of the era significantly acted in a larger cultural conversation regarding the radical demographic and geographic changes due to economic depression and global war. Americans were caught between “The Lonesome Road” and the “Street of Dreams.” Dance band jazz united Americans around a cohesive national musical style even as it transported sounds and experiences of distant places. This book also utilizes the music of Jan Garber, Duke Ellington, Charlie Christian, and Charlie Barnet. Music's intimate connection with the human body and its movements was possibly the most basic spatial component of musical experience. This Introduction provides an overview of the chapters that follow.
