Discussion Jazz

Watch the following video that features Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers. What are your thoughts? You may want to consider:

What is the role of music in dancing?

What is the setting in which this scene takes place?

What role does race and society play in this scene?

What type of music do you hear? Can you relate it to any specific music we’ve listened to thus far?

Who was the intended audience and why do you believe that?

Please respond to this peer discussion

Wow, this video was fun to watch! It almost seems impossible that people can even move that way! The dancing in this video was very energetic and seemed to be purely for fun and entertainment as a response to the music. The music was very upbeat and would be impossible not to dance to. Music like this was designed to gather a crowd of dancers. I would say the music starts off with more of a jazz feel and then moves to full swing music. I feel like they tie in a lot of different elements of music with the slower start with the bass and piano and then you really get a good example of that “growling” sound with the trumpet playing using the mute. They really mix it up once they start on the drums, then moving into the swing style of music similar to Louis Armstrong’s style or Benny Goodman’s song, Sing Sing Sing. The scene appears to take place in a large room that almost looks like it’s being set up for a performance. It also seems to take place in a time where segregation was still a big part of society. It shows the Caucasians and African American more separated and the African Americans being more a part of the working class in areas such as maids, cooks, cleaners, etc, but it also showed that the music brought both African Americans and Caucasians to the area and everyone was enjoying the music. In this scene the African Americans seemed to be taking a break from their duties at the call of the music to have some enjoyment and the Caucasians seemed to be very entertained to watch. Although when the dancers and musicians saw that they were being watched they ran as if they were caught doing something they shouldn’t or would get reprimanded for. I would say that this scene was intended for those who love music and dancing, but also with an African American leaning since they were the ones performing the music and the dancing.