Jazz is known as one of the most successful and revolutionary music styles of our era. It appeared in the early 20th century in New Orleans, U.S.A. It was mainly invented by black musicians, who did not compose it in the same way as other music genres were created. All the tunes within the first and most popular melodies were passed from ear to ear. Most of its influences come from Spanish folk songs, French military band music, European ballroom dance music, and popular blues tunes of those times.
Throughout the evolution of Jazz, we can appreciate tones of Jazz, Soul, Rock, Rap, Latin rhythms, reaching the present conception of Jazz as “Nu Jazz”.
These changes, present in all music styles, became more and easier to notice than in previous decades because society’s pace of evolution became drastically faster in a parallel.
Music is one of the many arts built throughout the centuries as part of a sociocultural construction. Therefore, it shall naturally evolve at the pace that the human societies do.
Today we can experience technological advances that turned the music industry into one of the most dynamic markets in our globalized world. Currently, sharing and downloading music is within reach of a click. Innovation can be taken as a cornerstone of modern society. Consequently, this feature is also inevitably applied to the racing field of music composition.
To sum up, we can conclude that jazz has changed a lot over the years because art itself will always reflect the ever-changing society we live in.
