Playboy's History Of Jazz And Rock

June, 1990

Part One: The Devil's MusicThe history of jazz and rock is the history of American popular culture in the 20th Century. Over 100 years ago, the cornerstones of blues, ragtime and jazz were laid by the first generation of African Americans born out of slavery. The new music introduced African-style syncopation into popular American music and breathed a spirit of boundless human creativity into a stale and sexually repressive Victorian culture.Jazz and its antecedents provided a new paradigm of an...

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