Substance Abuse during the Jazz Age

Paper Summary:

This paper analyzes the topic of drug abuse and alcoholism during the Jazz Age and specifically discusses the history of abuse and its effects on musicians and the music itself. It looks at how jazz music has a long and varied history in the United States and how, unfortunately, it includes a long history of drug and alcohol abuse among performers, too. It attempts to show how this abuse helped give jazz an undeserved reputation among many listeners and how it also created a sub-culture among performers that has been difficult to overcome.

From the Paper:

"Jazz is more than music and enticing rhythms, jazz is a state of mind for many, and that may be why so many jazz musicians and performers alter their states of mind with alcohol and drugs. Jazz music first came into being in the early 20th century, and the word was first noted around 1913 (Teachout 58). A jazz writer notes, "That word jazz is ambitious. [?] The origin of the word is uncertain. The term has been applied also to noisy proceedings, to loud writing, to eccentric and discordant coloring'" (Osgood 10). Often performed by black musicians, jazz played a part in the Harlem Renaissance in New York, and remains one of the most popular forms of music today."

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