Jazz music began being recorded back in 1920. During this period jazz music gained a lot of popularity. However, most African American musicians argue that they were not well recognized nor did they receive better compensation for being the inventors of jazz music. However, there is still significant debate on whether jazz music was first recorded by black musicians. Music plays a very significant part in African Americans. Most African Americans are faced with discrimination, segregation, and racism, therefore, music gives them a sense of peace and comfort. However African musicians are faced with a lot of challenges when it comes to realizing their music, and most of the people who end up benefiting are white.
Apart from jazz music having a positive effect on society it has exposed most of jazz musicians to a lot of challenges. Most of these challenges can be associated with exploitation. Jazz was invented from Afro-American music which was made up of minstrelsy, work songs, and spiritual songs. Out of this, jazz music was recognized as part of African American culture. Despite jazz music having roots in African American culture, it is said that it has some European features. Upward social mobility was not a typical issue in jazz music, but it was frequently observed. Before the African Americans could record their music in radio or other recording industries, there had to be a demand for jazz music by white Americans. Most of the black musicians came from poor backgrounds. However, jazz music, most of them became popular, and this became a source of composure for them. Jazz music helped in bringing together both the white Americans and the black Americans in society. However, they were still discriminated against in the music industry. White people could perform in black music bands. It also brought together various countries. In recent years jazz music has dramatically been doing well. Despite it declining in popularity because of the new upcoming type of music like pop, rock, and rap jazz music has been struggling to survive. Jazz music has taken a huge responsibility of educating little children on how to appreciate the history of jazz music. Jazz music has had great concerts and seminars all across the globe making it possible to survive the test of time.
However, the recording industry has played a significant part in making jazz music popular and also promoting equality. As a result, black musicians were significantly affected and had to come up with music that was pleasing to the white Americans. Because of this, the music started to lack creativity and people could no longer rely on it. To add to it, most of the black musicians who came up with this type of music were not well recognized or compensated. Most of the writers argue that it was because most of white men do not want to acknowledge anything that originates from blacks as good. It can also be associated with the fact that most of the white were greedy and wanted to benefit from African Americans. These issues ended up causing more anger, resentment, and fear among the African American musicians.
These issues created a situation in the jazz industry where the white musicians continued to be rich, and this was not equal to the black musicians hence most of the black musicians were exploited and discriminated against. The white musicians were in complete control of the music industry and therefore ended up utilizing the black since their economic status depended on them. Jazz music created all these negative social issues, but the worst of them all was that it became the origin of more racism and segregation of the blacks than could have been thought. Therefore jazz music should be taught in school for scholars to understand its origin.
