Jazz music has been a part of America for many centuries. It has influenced many time periods and ways of life in America. "‘Tin Pan Alley was a real alley on East Fourteenth Street near Third (in New York), but it was never just a place. Tin Pan Alley has come to be known for an era of songwriting when many musical ideas mixed together to form American popular music. Tin Pan Alley brought together many styles: blues, jazz, musical scores, and ragtime"' (Burton Lane qtd. In "Tin Pan Alley"). What are the various jazz styles? Not only has jazz affected people and time periods, but it has also affected places. The popularity of jazz in America is attributed to the various styles, which are indicative of specific time periods.Jazz has been popular since around the late 1800s. Ragtime was the first form of jazz. It was developed in the 1890s in Louisiana (Jazz Styles 2000). Jazz is said to be the fundamental rhythms of human life and man's contemporary reassessment of his traditional values. The early influences of tribal drums and the development of gospel, blues, and field hollers seem to point out that jazz has to do with human survival and the expression of life. The origin of the word "jazz" is most often traced back to a vulgar term used for sexual acts. Some of the early sounds of jazz were associated with whore houses, but the meaning soon became a musical art form ("Introduction"). Those who play jazz have often expressed the feelings that jazz should remain undefined and should be felt. The standard legend about jazz is that it was conceived in New Orleans and moved up the Mississippi River, although the influences go back to tribal African drum beats and European musical structures. In reviewing the background of jazz, one cannot overlook the evaluation over the decades and the fact that jazz spanned many musical forms such as spirituals, cakewalks, and the blues ("Introduction").Although one man may en...
