Jazz has a long and colorful history within American popular culture. It is truly an original American tradition, and has mesmerized music lovers for generations now. Part of its rise in popularity was its use in early film history as the medium began adopting elements that allowed for the recording of sound to go along with motion pictures. The first successful talkie film, The Jazz Singer, was about a want to be Jazz musician. From these early starts came popular short films featuring popular artists as well as spots in major Hollywood films thanks to technological developments that allowed for an entire orchestra to be recorded and incorporated onto the silver screen.
There is a long history of the musical tradition before film even burst onto the scene. As a true American original, “Jazz originated from pop music styles of the 1800s that were blended to satisfy social dancers,” (Gridley 28). It included a unique blend of African and European musical influences. Elements such as improvisation and call and response, crucial elements which help to define the nature of Jazz itself, came from African musical traditions. These elements were then blended with classical European instrumentation. These traditions came from the heavy European influence in areas like New Orleans which then became the birthplace of Jazz itself. This new and vibrant musical trend then was mixed with sorrowful melodies of the blues (Gridley 30). Before the era of film, there was a need for live music. Jazz fit that need nicely and bands played on stages to accompany films live in person. Ragtime became a popular accompaniment of early silent films. This tradition is an early form of jazz, and “some scholars consider ragtime to have been the first jazz style,” (Gridley 31). However, it lacks the traditional swing feel and beat to what we know of Jazz today. Thus, jazz even played a crucial role in film before the incorporation of recorded sound.
