Jazz Influences

[Patterson]

Throughout the history of music one big misconception seen time and time again is that the different genres do not tie together. Most people listen to music and just hear certain characteristics that define this genre or that genre and do not realize how much that they actually tie together. For Example, many people do not see how the music of the 1920’s and 1930’s has influenced the music we listen to. That isn’t exactly one hundred percent true. One genre that many people have known and loved for a while, rock and roll, was inspired from the blues and swing genres. Early rock and roll featured the same rule in chord progression as seen in the other two which featured the first, fourth, and fifth notes of a scale. As well, the genre featured a heavier percussion which can be seen with the swing genre. Another genre that was influenced by the 1920’s and 1930’s is the even more popular R&B. This genre has a huge similarity that singers from the 20’s and 30’s used. Popular singers such as Beyonce and Alicia Keys use bends in their singing or in more simpler terms, changing the note over one syllable, which happened to be a very iconic feature of the 20’s and 30’s. One last person who has been influenced by the Harlem Renaissance was the infamous Frank Sinatra. He managed to be born around the time period of it and witness these genres first hand, and was able to take their influence into his popular hits such as come fly with me and fly me to the moon. These songs featured him singing in front of the dying big bands and he was quite successful through it, becoming one of the biggest singers of all time. To sum up, we can see that many different types of music tie together through different aspects such as style or technique.