Generation

Historical Context

The concept of the teenager is one starting point when considering the vast history of generational difference and rebellion. The time in a youth's life when one is no longer a child but not perceived as an adult with traditional social responsibilities (marriage, parenthood, and financial independence) is associated with desires for personal identity, privacy, love and sex, and differentiating oneself from her/his family unit. Experimentations with style, ideologies, gender performance, and artistic expression are part of teenage identity formation, as are rebellion against social norms, traditional values, beliefs, or presumed paths forward into adulthood. It is this moment when youth most often discover new means of self-expression, connection with peers, and distancing from parent and guardian figures.

Roaring Twenties (Charleston and Jazz)

The Roaring Twenties were a period in which free expression in music was breaking the traditions and strictures of popular music. Radical in its rhythm and dance moves that accompanied the music, jazz came onto the scene at the beginning of the 20th century, stemming from African American songs that bore influences of traditional African percussive rhythms. The word jazz, a euphemism for sexual intercourse, hints at the dangerous, exotic, and sexual nature of the music, which older generations saw as inappropriate, encouraging, and inducing risky and immoral behavior. While often performed by African American musicians, jazz was not strictly limited to the realm of black popular culture; often it was performed by African Americans for white audiences, perpetuating white privilege. Certain artistic hubs like Harlem housed underground clubs primarily for black patrons only.

The Charleston, a dance created in 1923 by James Johnson, reached its height in the mid-1920s, a time when the pace of dance increased from a slower to moderate to a faster tempo, influenced by African syncopation or Latin rhythms. It is a dance that frequently features solo performances but can be performed with a partner. Either version was seen as radical because of how people moved, most notably the spreading of legs, which was especially problematic for women who were wearing skirts and dresses that were cut higher than ever before, and frequently exposing their knees. It was thus seen as a sexual dance, unladylike, and impure, especially if partners danced closely and touched torsos. The Charleston served as the foundation for future dances such as the Lindy Hop, which became popular in the 1940s during the swing era.

Swing

Swing dancing and music, especially during the period leading up to World War II, had a great influence on the generation of men and women who served in the war. In the 1930s, swing music grew to be widely popular in America, becoming its own distinctive style by 1940. Musicians such as Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller, Duke Ellington, [Page 499]and Artie Shaw, among many others, led bands that played music from the Great American Songbook: jazz standards that used rhythm, improvisation, and a big, bright sound to breathe new life into old songs. Swing is often thought of as Big Band sound with full bands of trumpets, trombones, saxophones, double bass, drums, piano, and sometimes vocals. Swing dancing, born out of dances like the Charleston, became popular among men and women and defined much of the swing period as fun and light hearted. The genre was the escape for people who were living through the war, whether at home or abroad, a creative space in which to shake off the horror of loss, battle, rationing, and traditional gender roles. Style very much influenced the swing genre, and the acrobatic nature of the dance made it necessary for women to wear comfortable shoes for dancing and something beneath their skirts (knickers, for example) because of the possibility of being flipped upside down by their dance partners.

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