Early Viewpoints of Jazz

While millions celebrated Americas popular music culture, jazz was not free of critics. In
1921, Anne Shaw Faulkner published an article in The Ladies Home Journal claiming that, "Jazz
disorganizes all regular laws and order; it stimulates to extreme deeds, to a breaking away from
all rules and conventions; it is harmful and dangerous, and its influence is wholly bad."
(Faulkner, "Does Jazz Put the Sin in Syncopation") Faulkner joined a movement of Americans
who resisted the evolution of Jazz music, claiming it was an evil in nature.
Anne Shaw Faulkner held strong convictions against the development of Jazz music. She
believed that America was facing a serious problem with this new popular Jazz music and
claimed that it was having a negative influence over the younger generation. To best
understand her views on the matter, it is important to understand her ideas of what separates
Jazz music. In her article, "Does Jazz Put the Sin in Syncopation?" Faulkner defines the
difference between Ragtime and Jazz compositions and establishes that they are not
synonymous.
Jazz does for harmony what the accented syncopation of ragtime does for rhythm. In
ragtime the rhythm is thrown out of joint, as it were, thus distorting the melody; in jazz
exactly the same thing is done to the harmony. The melodic line is disjointed and
disconnected by the accenting of the partial instead of the simple tone, and the same
effect is produced on the melody and harmony which is noticed in syncopated rhythm.
The combination of syncopation and the use of these inharmonic partial
tones produces a strange, weird effect, which has been designated "jazz." (Faukner,
1921)
She blames the combination of syncopation and inharmonic partial tones for confusing our
human nature to relax to musical tones. She goes as far as saying that Jazz disorganizes all
regular laws and order; it stimulates to extreme deeds, to a breaking away from all rules and
conventions; it is harmful and dangerous, and its influence is wholly bad.
Faulkner makes many serious claims against Jazz music but lacks reliable and credible
sources to back up her theories. It is understandable that society goes through periods of
rebellion especially minorities and youth and they may be drawn to music that is new and
exciting. However her evidence and argument of detrimental societal impacts related to Jazz
music is weak. She cited that scientific men were working on experiments in musico-therapy
with the insane and that they claimed that regular rhythms and simple tones produce a
quieting effect on the brain of even a violent patient where as the effect of jazz on the normal
brain produces an atrophied condition on the brain cells of conception. Even worse she stated
that Jazz originally was the accompaniment of the voodoo dancer, stimulating the half-crazed
barbarian to the vilest deeds. The weird chant, accompanied by the syncopated rhythm of the
voodoo invokers, has also been employed by other barbaric people to stimulate brutality and
sensuality. These claims seem extreme and used to evoke fear in the American public.
Due the cultural shifts during the 1900s, Jazz music found its place in establishments
that were associated with prostitution, alcohol, drug addiction, gambling, and organized crime,
jazz was considered immoral and viewed as symptomatic of cultural decline. It is clear why
many Americans would resist the progression of this musical movement. Although Anne Shaw
Faulkner made some extreme claims against the new Jazz style of music, it seems that her
convictions were based on a general resistance to the societal changes linked to the Jazz style.
This is a pattern of resistance continues to repeat itself in our society as music evolves into the
21
st
century.
Over the past twenty years, the music industry has changed incredibly and music styles
have exploded with many successful markets from Punk Rock to Heavy Metal, Hip Hop to R&B.
There have been a few styles of music that have received similar resistance and created fear in
parents and society as a whole. Toward the late 1990s a large movement against Rap music
took over the media market with parents raising awareness of the dangers involved with
allowing children to listen to Rap music. They staged protests where CDs were destroyed.
Professionals joined this fight with their expert opinions. Dr. Domenick J. Maglio writes in an
article titled Rap Music Warps the Souls of Kids, In the world of Rap music children from all
backgrounds are being inundated with dehumanizing images. They are relentlessly desensitized
with word messages, which are attached to a powerful beat and pornographic videos that warp
their sensibilities. (2001) Although Rap music has definite alarming visual images associated
with their music videos and lyrics, these anti-Rap movements are very similar to the anti-
Jazz movements in the early 1900s. Which leads one to ponder, are the fears associated with
modern music styles, valid? Will resisting them matter in the long run? Do they effect younger
generations the way we fear they will? Or is this the natural progression of society where older
members try to preserve what they feel is appropriate and protect younger generations? Anne
Shaw Faulkner was a woman who was concerned about the direction that society was taking
and this is a natural motivation for action of change. It is interesting to look back at the history
of jazz and understand how it was changing the American landscape and then to fast forward it
to today and realize that this is a continuous cycle.