In the 1920s, talent scouts from northern record companies turned their attention to the South. They recorded black and white musicians, paid next to nothing, and made fortunes selling music to southern audiences. The varied and colorful strains combined to create a multitude of folk and popular music. They contributed to the development of jazz, one of America’s most unique and highly developed arts, and influenced the work of American classical composers. Jazz was born about the turn of the twentieth century in New Orleans, which was a crossroads of musical culture. Jazz had its basis in the religious shouts and hollers, dances, work songs, and blues of African American people.
