Swing music has, over the years, left a strong impression in the minds of the audience. It had not only seen a steep rise when it was originated, but it was also known for its dance-worthy tunes. Music lovers all over the world have admitted to swing music being a style that can be instantly connected to a certain era. Just like all the other styles, even swing music lent its magic to time and became popular, before dissipating into thin air. The good news is, you can still listen to these evergreen tunes by turning into a swing music radio station. This blog would give you a glimpse of what swing music is and how is big band music similar to swing!
Swing Music: The History
The popularity of swing music can be credited to Benny Goodman, back in the year 1935. Yes, the groundwork of the genre was set by stalwarts like Duke Wellington, Henderson, Bennie Moten, and even Count Basie, but Goodman ensured that the genre reaches the masses, even today. One of the defining moments of swing music history is when Benny made his appearance at the Los Angeles based Palomar Ballroom.
The ballroom, needless to say, saw a flock of youngsters of the time coming in and showing off their dance moves. Athletic dancing, during that time, was very popular, and thus fused with swing music. The musical quality of the band attracted several dancers to them, ensuring that swing music, as a genre, has a whole new audience. It was also one of the first genres that were exploited commercially.
It is also known to be one of the highly democratic forms of music, which relaxed the racial divisions of the country by a lot. The genre slowly saw audiences, across age groups, embrace the tone, irrespective of the race that they belong to. This also panned on to the venues where such musicians performed.
Big Bands: The History
If swing is known as a style, a big band is a format. Throughout history, you would find bop big bands, progressive big bands, and experimental big bands along with those playing swing music, led by renowned bandleaders. While the terms big band and swing are not interchangeable, they are often used to explain the same concept. This is because big bands dominated the music circuit in the swing era. Such groups are also known to be the “Golden Age” of jazz music. If you tune into a big band radio today, you will be able to get a true sense of the subject.
Now that you are aware of the primary differences between swing and big bands, you must also be aware of the fact that swing was mostly viewed as dance music. The groups that used to play in clubs during that time were meant for the dancing crowd. Big bands had the capability of playing jazz music of any kind.
Musicians such as Stan Kenton, Duke Ellington, and Count Basie tried to live on to the tradition of big band music even when swing music was slowly a dancing style. The 1930s music had a lot of influence from larger bands led by Duke Ellington and Fletcher Henderson, who had around ten to fourteen members in them.
Slowly big bands saw the replacement of the standup guitar and bass with the banjo and tuba. The two beat emphasis during its origin shifted to a four-to-the-bar beat in the rhythm section. This also gave a paradigm shift of the music and turned them towards being more arrangement specific.
When swing music was at its peak, people could recognize each band based on their leader’s instrumental style and their arrangements, apart from the voices of the lead soloists. Some of the ensembles during this time also gave weight to the improvisations and experiments.
Conclusion: Swing and big bands are both part of a cultural history which has slowly risen to the fore in recent times. Big band radio stations such as Swing Street Radio with over 15000 recordings of big bands and musicians of the time have kept the tradition alive to date. Should you want to listen to these evergreen tracks and dance to the tunes of yesteryear, all you have to do is write to requests@swingstreetradio.org or info@swingstreetradio.org.
