Chapter 7: Swing and Big Bands
IIn the aftermath of World War I, the United States entered a period of unprecedented economic growth and cultural exuberance known as the “Roaring Twenties.” Although the war began in Europe in 1914, the U.S. initially remained neutral. That changed in 1917, when a combination of factors—including Germany’s unrestricted submarine warfare, the sinking of the Lusitania, and the interception of the Zimmermann Telegram—pushed the U.S. to join the Allies in the war effort. American troops arrived on the Western Front in 1918, tipping the balance of the conflict and helping to bring the war to an end. More than four million Americans served, and over 100,000 lost their lives. Domestically, the war had accelerated industrialization and urban migration, setting the stage for economic expansion.
This post-war era saw rapid urbanization, the expansion of consumer culture, and the rise of new technologies like radio, talking films, and phonographs. In 1927, the release of The Jazz Singer—the first talking motion picture, originally known as a “talkie”—revolutionized the film industry and signaled the growing importance of synchronized sound in entertainment. Yet while the film marked a technological milestone, it also reflected the deep-seated racism of the era. Its star, Al Jolson, famously performed in blackface, echoing the minstrel traditions that remained embedded in American popular culture. Meanwhile, jazz music flourished, Prohibition gave rise to an underground nightlife, and dance halls pulsed with hot jazz and syncopated rhythms. Americans turned to entertainment as a way to embrace the spirit of modernity.
Prohibition, enacted in 1920 through the Eighteenth Amendment and the Volstead Act, emerged from decades of temperance activism driven by religious leaders, progressives, and women’s groups who saw alcohol as a root cause of crime, poverty, and moral decay. This reformist impulse had already appeared in American music by the mid-nineteenth century. Groups like the Hutchinson Family Singers, best known for their abolitionist anthems, also performed songs supporting temperance, using their music to rally public support and frame drinking as both a personal vice and a societal evil. One popular example was the refrain, “Lips that touch liquor shall not touch mine,” a slogan that became a widely circulated musical catchphrase for the movement. The temperance cause gained further traction during World War I, when anti-German sentiment targeted breweries and wartime austerity encouraged national sobriety.
Although Prohibition was intended to instill discipline and moral order, it ultimately produced the opposite effect. A vast underground economy emerged around bootlegging and speakeasies, secret bars where illegal alcohol flowed freely and live jazz reigned. In cities like Chicago and New York, jazz musicians found consistent work in these venues, where their energetic and improvisational music provided the soundtrack for dancing, drinking, and defiance. As jazz became associated with youthful rebellion and urban sophistication, it moved from the margins to the mainstream. At the same time, it brought African American musical traditions to wider audiences, even as racial segregation continued to limit recognition and opportunity for many of its creators.
This cultural high came to a sudden halt on October 29, 1929, Black Tuesday, when the stock market crashed and the nation plunged into the Great Depression. Over the next several years, economic devastation swept the country. Nearly 25,000 banks failed, 30,000 businesses closed, and by 1931, more than 10 million Americans were unemployed. Bread lines, soup kitchens, and free milk depots became part of daily life as families struggled to survive in a nation where prosperity had once seemed boundless.
The impact on the music and entertainment industries was swift and severe. Record sales plummeted. In 1921, Americans spent over $100 million on records; by 1933, that number had dropped to just $6 million. Many nightclubs, theaters, and dance halls shut down, and concert attendance reached historic lows. In an era of shrinking paychecks and growing uncertainty, music, particularly live music, had to adapt in order to survive.
Despite economic turmoil, technological advances in music and media created new possibilities. By the 1930s, electric phonographs had replaced hand-cranked models, offering improved sound quality. The 78 RPM shellac disc, which had become the standard format for records by the 1920s, made recorded music more portable and accessible. These innovations allowed swing and big band music to reach audiences across the country, even during the nation’s darkest economic years.
It was in this environment of hardship and reinvention that swing was born. Evolving from earlier blues, ragtime, and dance band traditions, swing offered a new sound for a new era. It was more than a musical style; it was a cultural movement that lifted spirits, brought people together on the dance floor, and for a time, redefined American popular music. The big band, a larger, more orchestrated ensemble than the small jazz combos of the 1920s, became the primary vehicle for this sound. These bands featured arranged music, powerful horn sections, and driving rhythms designed to keep audiences moving. The style drew from “society syncopators” and jazz pioneers alike, blending sophistication with groove, precision with improvisation.
As we’ll see in the chapter ahead, swing became the soundtrack of the 1930s and early 1940s, offering hope, joy, and escapism during one of the most difficult periods in American history. It also marked a turning point in the integration of American popular music, as Black and white musicians began to influence and collaborate with each other in new, though still unequal, ways. Music came directly into the home through radio, making the sounds of swing and big bands accessible to a broad audience regardless of location or social status. It was a time when music became more organized, more orchestrated, and more widely disseminated—ushering in a new era of American cultural identity.