The Great Migration led to the urbanization of the American population, which led to the expansion and development of music to the rest of America. The Great Migration marked one of the critical events of the twentieth century. One of the significant changes the migration developed is the development of music to form modern music. As a result of the movement, music styles and genres became more influenced to form national trends. As a result of gatherings, the artists would play various music along different instruments, such as the banjo and the violin, which made it more widespread. The music genre most affected by the Great Migration include jazz, country, and blues. The essay will discuss the effect and transformations on music during and after the Great Migration. The essay will use the great migration as the critical element to showcase some of the cultural changes, the centrality of music, and the new activities that led to the development of music to modern American music.
Musicians told their stories through music and improved dance styles that melded the blues and jazz. During the great migration, the musicians adopted more to becoming city ambassadors which led to the growth of music from south to North. According to Hine et al., (34), through stories, the artists were able to move from the South to the West and occupied a big part of the United States. It is through this that people gained some sense of possibility and aspiration where they felt connected to other people’s stories. Through the movements, stories were made in the form of songs that grew to be a key constituent element of the various American cultures. Through much understanding of the culture, the people got to motivate and entertain others with various forms of music composition which included jazz, and the blues. The major well-known artists took up the role of teaching others of ways to compose and come up with different rhythms for the songs. It is through this expansion of music knowledge in composition and rhythm that the people adopted new regional musical styles and also through it, the modern artists adopted the story form when composing and singing of music.
The Great Migration came along with better economic and social aspects. With the active movement, came the building of a more robust economic face for the people. This assisted the people to confront prejudice and form an active public life. As a result of this, music would get a front page in making more development in terms of social and economic. Socially, people were able to socialize freely unlike before. As per Steptoe et al., (76), it is through the Great Movement, blue musicians would also meet and become successful in their craft as they also made others adopt the craft. This brought along an increased audience for the blues and also adopted others to increase the number of musicians. It is through this those cities in the West and North became a place where the people adopted more African American musical innovation. The search and activities to have a better life for the people resulted in the growth of the cities economically.
Jazz music grew as a result of the expansion of the localized African American music style. Before the Great Migration, jazz music only existed as a form of the marching bands of New Orleans. As a result of the economic growth experienced, jazz music was positively influenced. The people who moved through the Great Migration acquired job opportunities that were paying as opposed to the slavery practices they had adopted before. With the economic growth, people were now able to buy and also listen to jazz music while in their homes as opposed to before. This was adopted along with the musical instruments which the people purchased to play while others practiced. With time, a great population of people were able to play jazz music while the population that listened and bought jazz would increase with time.
More blues styles were adopted. During the Great Migration, some of the originators and the early masters of music moved to the North in search of better opportunities. In the North more positive venues, and audiences were available. Recording facilities were set up by well-known musicians creating an effective and good foundation for the people. It is through this that the generations became well exposed to creative musical artists. Musicians such as Birmingham gave the music a new phase that resulted in improvised and composed music. As per Hine et al., (7)The expansion of jazz music in the 1960s led to the formation of the African-American musical collective which was referred to as the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM). The expansion of music also led to the establishment of musical territories and concepts which are being utilized in the jazz music world to date.
The Black Southerners made use of the blues as a soundtrack during migration. This is contrary to what most people think. People associate the blues with slavery. According to Hine et al., (45), the Great Migration was what was used to spread jazz and blue music as the people moved, they reflected on the new life, culture, and experience through music. The music was also used as a method of composing and tracing back to the slave days. This was done through the composition of stories which were performed as music sung by the freedmen and women. Throughout the migration journey, the Black men would rekindle to form new versions of music with different rhythms which in the end gave birth to the more revolutionized music of blues and Jazz.
The growth of black businesses and entertainment services. The first and fast form of music that led to the major spread of the blues and Jazz was through recordings. The black jazz musicians held to the belief that the most earnings and recognition were attained through playing the music in the music joints. With the Great Migration came the growth of entertainment services and houses that would bring people together. The investors of the African American culture were behind the major setup of entertainment joints that brought in some of the major artists to perform the jazz and blues which formed some of the best achievers in the music industry. In addition, the movement from Mississippi to Chicago brought along the birth of the Mississippi Delta blues, which adopted more of the twentieth-century American folk music. With the Great Migration came the adoption of other styles that complemented the traditional culture and brought up more modern music.
Music formed an essential part of the Great Migration experience. Before the Great Migration, the people faced negative aspects such as Racism, segregation, and discrimination. During the migration, the people used the songs to find peace and comfort after the major negative experience. It is through this that the people began to compose blues and jazz music that highlighted the people’s desires, compassion, grief, and anger. The adoption of the music slowly led to more positive energy among the people and it eased the social conditions. It is through this line that the people began to have and adapt to the blues for energy giving and transformations. The spread was a result of the positive social effects that came along with the blues and jazz music.
Jazz was considered a great and crucial part of the American music. According to Steptoe (56), Jazz music was more of defined to be a combination of improvisatory styles of the 56western and the European that formed some great harmonies. According to Steptoe et al., (40), the harmony, style, and structure pulled the people close to the African roots. With this music identity, many people wanted to adopt and be considered ambassadors of the music. They yearned to inherit and identify with the already-formed traditions of music. As a result of slavery and freedom that occurred through the Great Migration, the people figured out fine ways to adapt to the instruments and jazz sessions that were played. This created a black way of spreading the music that was readily copied by other races which resulted in its wide spread.
Upward social mobility resulted to spread of the music during the Great Migration. Social mobility played a crucial part in the migration. It allowed the blacks to meet, and form radio and recording stations which led to the spread of the music among the whites. The Great Migration also resulted in artistic innovation that came along with social, political, and economic progress. Primarily, the jazz musicians were considered to be of lower class while the composers and the orchestras were thought to be highly productive and innovative. As per Deveaux et al., (102), this led to serious recognition of the black jazz players which led to major invitations for concerts especially in the Carnegie Hall in the United States. Early artists that were at the time known for their major contributions to the jazz industry include; Charlie Christian and Lionel Hampton.
Music was considered a form of integration among the people. This was first contributed by the first artists. The music artists during the Great Migration were considered to be equal as opposed to before. The blacks were hired together with the whites to perform in concerts while several black bands introduce jazz to the world. Also, during migration, the people would compose songs that would tell of the hard conditions that they went through and also of the joy as a result of the freedom acquired. This not only integrated the people but it also brought the people together throughout the world. It influenced the majority of the countries to join in through music and invest in blues and country music. Some of the countries that were influenced include the Middle East, Africa, and also India. The integrated music ideas were transformed to form the jazz and blues which have since spread wide across the world.
The growth in the cities led to more artists and more learning of the music craft. With the increase in halls and entertainment joints, more people paid to see local musicians, increasing music’s economic value and creativity. These factors contributed to the growth of different forms of music. The halls and entertainment joints would require people to pay for them to enjoy music which formed an economic basis for the cities. In addition to this, the more people who attended the joints, the greater number of people that were exposed to increasing music popularity and growth. According to Hine et al., (46), the people also got the chance to learn and experience firsthand music as it was performed which gave it some good basic roots. The more the business in the joints grew the more creativity the people had. The exposure to different situations and circumstances during and after the Great Migration gave the people the creative energy that they needed. Also, the fact that the people were free to decide on what to compose the music on formed a good base to start music for most people. Years later, music has been composed as a result of great creativity among the people. The blues, country, and jazz music have been composed of different ideas and aspects.
Conclusion
The emergence and spread of various music genres were considered with the Great Migration. This resulted in the formation of new musical styles and the expansion of traditional American music to form modern music. The Great Migration also increased the levels of music creativity to form American music today. From the analysis, it is clear that the Great Depression not only led to the spread of music but also to the formation of other styles of music. The upward social mobility, economic growth, and the growth of black businesses formed some of the major reasons why music spread at a high speed and was adopted by other countries and cultures. The artists that existed before the Great Migration formed a basis for the foundation of blues and jazz music. They prepared a path for the growth and spread of music.
Work Cited
Deveaux, Scott and Giddins, Gary. Jazz. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2015.
Hine, Darlene Clark, and John McCluskey. The Black Chicago Renaissance. The New Black Studies Series. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2012.
Steptoe, Tyna L. Houston Bound. Oakland: The University of California Press, 2016
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