Harlem In The 1920's

In the 1920’s New York was more important to jazz than Chicago. Although Chicago had this larger than life aspect Giola says it was often less glamorous and that the “nightspots were often makeshift rather than opulent” New york, on the other hand, African Americans created these new societies with the development of Harlem. New york was the 2nd most segregated city and this lead to black living in congested areas one of which being Harlem. Harlem was overpopulated with African American living in the city this lead to the concept of blacks being whites due to the fact that there were more black people in the area than whites, which made the minority. Harlem allowed for two types of African Americans to emerge. The first type of blacks were
ones who had “high culture and higher aspirations”; they embraced the white molds of a society by presenting themselves as sophisticated and clean with money. The other type of African Americans who emerged in Harlem was ones who endured harsh surroundings with low wages and whites owned buildings causing inflation in the rent. Social conditions in which the second type of Harlem African American lived in cultivated Jazz music because “rent parties and underground economies created music.” This underground culture plays into the black spatial imaginary, and it showed the other type of Harlem because underground there was lots of dancing and drinking which didn’t fit the white gaze. In Harlem Jazz style transformed more into Swing. Swing emerged after Louis leaves Chicago and comes to New York to join Fletcher. Fletcher embraces the underground type of Harlem through changing his band's feel and increased the size of the band. Fletcher’s band lead to more dancing and it made band move which brought New Orleans tradition to New York. He and Louis made the music move a way it hadn’t before. The artists had to live in the blues because it's the concept of Jazz music for African Americans to use it as a way to take their struggles and put it in and art form.