Swing & Big Band

Swing music began in the 1920s, but its prime was in the mid-1930s to mid-1940s. It was one of the most popular styles of American music during that time, and thus it is referred to as the "Swing-era". The gradual expansion of Jazz bands coincided with an increasing demand for escapist music during the 1930s, since the world had just experienced it biggest financial crisis ever. Thus, Big Band Swing allowed every man or woman, black or white, to distract themselves from the harsh realities going on.

Swing started out with bands of ten instruments, but soon orchestras with fifteen or more instruments became standard - hence the term "big band". The setup consists of brass, reed, and string instruments. The music is extremely catchy, with call and response tunes, hooky riffs, and a beat that makes it very hard to stand still. The songs are highly structed compared to other forms of Jazz. First, the melody is played by all instruments. Then, the vocal part comes, with solos. After that comes the chorus, consisting of mostly high notes. The music was even accompanied by its own dance, aptly named "swinging", which has remained popular ever since.

But all things that grow too big will eventually fall, and as was the case with Swing. For one, it became too expensive to maintain such large, expensive orchestras. Another problem was that more white people were copying the style, which led to backlash from black Jazz musicians. More experimental genres were created as a response, such as Bebop.