JazzThe jazz we know today was only recognized as a genre in its own right in the 20th century. Previously, jazz was considered a music reserved for blacks and rarely appreciated by the common white man. In the 18th century, when African slaves were shipped to America, where the music was later influenced by Western European music. The rhythm inherited from Africa and much of the melody came from Western European music such as folk songs and religious hymns. The jazz genre is therefore a heritage of European folk music and also of certain African music. At the time, only “negroes” listened to their music and white people let “negroes” play black music to calm the slaves. Later, when blacks began to have civil rights, jazz groups began to play. merge and the first groups were created in New Orleans at the beginning of the 20th century. Bands included instruments like trumpets, clarinets, trombones, tubas, banjos and drums. Jazz began to become popular and a double bass or piano was also found in new bands. As jazz became more popular, new styles of jazz also began to appear and "swing" jazz came into existence. In original jazz, only a few instruments played at the same time. But in new jazz, many instruments played at the same time, creating a more organized feeling. “Swing” jazz was much more popular and it was common to dance to swing jazz. Swing jazz became popular in the 1930s after the Wall Street Crash and Depression swept through America. Since it was so easy to dance to swing jazz, people began to cheer themselves up by dancing. Other types of jazz developed over the years and left us with the jazz we have today ... middle of paper ... today and the fast food that is served in America. However, I know it's not like that and that the US is quite similar to Sweden. Markus Berthilsson Na1DWorks Citedhttp://www.allaboutjazz.com/ - They did a bit of advertising but the information the link gave me was very simple and other sources had information similar to this. No one could edit the articles and it was very objective. http://library.thinkquest.org/18602/historystart.html - A nice source that didn't announce anything to me or ask me to donate, I think the source was created for educational purposes. http://www.ne.se/ - Ne.se articles are always verified by professors before being uploaded to the public. http://www.usa.gov/ - Much more objective source than I expected, gave me nice information similar to other sources.