White Elitism and Jazz Music

The American Way. Americana. American. Jazz. Does anyone really know the form of music known as Jazz is America’s only true art form? Certainly we must credit Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Fats Domino, and the other influential black musicians that shaped Rock ‘n’ Roll. The British Invasion by the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and later The Who almost overtook Rock ‘n’ Roll by sheer willpower and intellectual prowess. Who can argue the Beatles catalog is on of the most substantive and significant bodies of music written in the popular style? Still American gospel music, blues, and rhythm and blues were the building blocks of Rock ‘n’ Roll. Berry Gordy exploited these original forms of music and in the wake of a racial crisis watered them down so they were palatable by a mostly white listening audience. This was the only way that primarily owned and operated white radio stations would play the music. Unlike shimmy shake dance moves utilized by Duke Ellington as early as l928, original black popular music other than jazz had to struggle to be heard. It was thought too primitive. Back water juke joints along the Mississippi River weren’t as sophisticated as The Cotton Club in Harlem. Were white people in America unable to understand, appreciate, and synthesize this early black popular music? Were elitist ideas all ready in place in America that attempted to stifle the expression of the negro race? Today jazz music is mostly unknown primarily because it embodies an intellectual understanding of the world as we know it. It does not spin. It does not sell. Conversely as an art forms it reflects and teaches the utter realities of life in the United States. During those seminal years when it was created citizens could not coast along on corporate-offered credit. You had to work to earn an honest dollar to put food on your family’s table. As a result the trying experiences of trying to live in America were embodied in her music. Isn’t this the music as a country of which we should be aware?