Swing, that Modern Sound

Book excerpt: How America invented swing, how swing energized America. It was for stage bands, for dancing, and for a jiving mood of letting go. Throughout the nation swing resounded with the spirit of good times. The swing era was America's segue into modernity. But this pop genre, for a decade America's favorite, arose during the worst of times, the Great Depression. From its peak in the 1930s until bebop, rhythm and blues, and country swamped it after World War II, swing defined an American generation and measured America's musical heartbeat. In its heyday swing reached a mass audience of very disparate individuals and united them. They perceived in the tempers and tempos of swing the very definition of modernity. What fed the music? And, in turn, what did the music feed? What social structures encouraged swing's creation, acceptance, and popularity? This book analyzes the cultural and historical significance of swing and tells how and why swing achieved its audience, unified its fans, defined its generation, and, after World War II, fell into decline. As it examines the role of race, class, and gender in the creation of this music, this book tells how the genre came to symbolize the modernist revolution taking place in America. The author was associate professor of history at Kent State University, Trumbull Campus, in Warren, Ohio, and the author of "All of This Music Belongs to the Nation: The WPA's Federal Music Project and American Society, 1935-1939."