Event Title
Watching Swing Music: Visual Culture of the American Dance Orchestra, 1935-1941
Location
Panel 24: Kearney 310
Start Date
27-10-2012 1:15 PM
End Date
27-10-2012 2:45 PM
Description
This paper examines the role of visual culture in American popular music before World War II. In particular, this inquiry identifies the development of a standard protocol in the observable presentation that existed among commercial big bands. This target of this performance practice (i.e. the cultivation of optimal consumer appeal) created a visual norm or language (Jay, 1998) that served to cue expectations of entertainment and convey assurances of pleasure among audiences through the standardized arrangement of how a swing band looked and its “society” image. This case study considers the role of marketing and popular visual media in the codification of a homogenous template that became fundamental to popular dance orchestras not only in this context but in the enduring understanding by subsequent generations about what constitutes a swing orchestra in American music.
This research presentation, finally, examines historical documents in order ascertain the swing visual performance practice. Key to this enumeration are precise examples of period orchestras led by Artie Shaw, Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey, and Glenn Miller, that reveal the significant “conventions” in the American dance band (Berger, 1972). A closing evaluation of selected secondary sources underscores the importance of accounting for visual culture in order to yield an accurate understanding that acknowledges the “seen” along with the “heard” in comprehensive sense of swing music true to its historical context.
Additional Files
Watching Swing Music: Visual Culture of the American Dance Orchestra, 1935-1941
Panel 24: Kearney 310
This paper examines the role of visual culture in American popular music before World War II. In particular, this inquiry identifies the development of a standard protocol in the observable presentation that existed among commercial big bands. This target of this performance practice (i.e. the cultivation of optimal consumer appeal) created a visual norm or language (Jay, 1998) that served to cue expectations of entertainment and convey assurances of pleasure among audiences through the standardized arrangement of how a swing band looked and its “society” image. This case study considers the role of marketing and popular visual media in the codification of a homogenous template that became fundamental to popular dance orchestras not only in this context but in the enduring understanding by subsequent generations about what constitutes a swing orchestra in American music.
This research presentation, finally, examines historical documents in order ascertain the swing visual performance practice. Key to this enumeration are precise examples of period orchestras led by Artie Shaw, Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey, and Glenn Miller, that reveal the significant “conventions” in the American dance band (Berger, 1972). A closing evaluation of selected secondary sources underscores the importance of accounting for visual culture in order to yield an accurate understanding that acknowledges the “seen” along with the “heard” in comprehensive sense of swing music true to its historical context.