Swing Changes: Big-Band Jazz in New Deal America

By David W. Stowe

Book Overview

Bands were playing, people were dancing, the music business was booming. It was the big-band era, and swing was giving a new shape and sound to American culture. Swing Changes looks at New Deal America through its music and shows us how the contradictions and tensions within swing--over race, politics, its own cultural status, the role of women--mirrored those played out in the larger society. Drawing on memoirs, oral histories, newspapers, magazines, recordings, photographs, literature, and films, Swing Changes offers a vibrant picture of American society at a pivotal time, and a new perspective on music as a cultural force.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0674858263
• ISBN13: 9780674858268
• Release Date: October 1996
• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Length: 299 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.9" x 8.9"