An edition of Swing Changes (1994)

Swing changes

big-band jazz in New Deal America

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Last edited by MARC Bot
July 14, 2024 | History
An edition of Swing Changes (1994)

Swing changes

big-band jazz in New Deal America

"Bands were playing, people were dancing, the music business was booming. It was the big-band era, and swing was giving a new shape and sound to American culture. In Swing Changes, David Stowe looks at New Deal America through its music and shows us how the contradictions and tensions within swing - over race, politics, its own cultural status, the role of women - mirrored those played out in the larger society.

In its simultaneous acceptance and challenge of contemporary attitudes and stereotypes, swing reflected broader cultural impulses at the same time that it modified them.".

"Although its musical roots extended back to the 1920s, swing seemed to many to come out of nowhere in 1935, inspiring a welter of conflicting descriptions and explanations. Stowe explores this history to suggest why the music of Goodman and Ellington caught so many unawares, and why it fired so many - and so many different - imaginations when it emerged in full force.

He links the music to the politics of the time, to prevailing ideas about race relations, and to the complex culture industry that was evolving in the 1930s. At its commercial apex in the early 1940s, swing was readily adapted to World War II, and Stowe reveals how the music served the cause as a symbol of national unity, even as this service worked to undermine the utopian values swing expressed. He follows the failure of swing to keep its unlikely cultural coalition together and describes the subsequent attempts of bebop to pick up where the big band left off.

Drawing on memoirs, oral histories, newspapers, magazines, recordings, photographs, literature, and films, Swing Changes offers a vibrant picture of American society at a pivotal time, and a new perspective on music as a cultural force."--BOOK JACKET.

Publish Date
Language
English
Pages
299

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Previews available in: English

Edition Availability
Cover of: Swing Changes
Swing Changes: Big-Band Jazz in New Deal America
June 24, 1998, Harvard University Press
Hardcover in English
Cover of: Swing Changes
Swing Changes: Big-Band Jazz in New Deal America
October 1, 1996, Harvard University Press
Paperback in English
Cover of: Swing changes
Swing changes: big-band jazz in New Deal America
1994, Harvard University Press
in English

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Book Details


Edition Notes

Includes bibliographical references (p. 247-288) and index.

Published in
Cambridge, Mass

Classifications

Dewey Decimal Class
784.4/8165/0973
Library of Congress
ML3518 .S8 1994, ML3518.S8 1994

The Physical Object

Pagination
xi, 299 p. :
Number of pages
299

ID Numbers

Open Library
OL1435045M
Internet Archive
swingchangesbigb00stow
ISBN 10
0674858255
LCCN
93047000
OCLC/WorldCat
29565574
Library Thing
955055
Goodreads
243066

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July 14, 2024 Edited by MARC Bot import existing book
December 4, 2022 Edited by ImportBot import existing book
September 17, 2022 Edited by ImportBot import existing book
November 17, 2020 Edited by MARC Bot import existing book
April 1, 2008 Created by an anonymous user Imported from Scriblio MARC record