Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

New Democracy and Alternative Culture: Jazz in West Germany after the Second World War

New Democracy and Alternative Culture: Jazz in West Germany after the Second World War The American Forces who occupied Germany in 1945–46 had hoped that popularising jazz music might assist in the redemocratisation of Germans under the age of thirty. The Amerika‐Häuser established by the US State Department to build a cultural foundation for democracy amongst younger Germans, and American Forces Network radio each contributed to the gradual emergence of a West German jazz culture which was marked by a series of jazz festivals and the development of a viable recording industry. However most strata of German society neither understood nor cared about jazz. Jazz became confused with — and diluted by — rock ‘n’ roll. Both were rejected as unwanted “Americanization”. Fewer than ten percent of teenagers acquired any taste for jazz. Its appeal was confined to the more privileged and educated. Hence the jazz culture which did recruit itself from the surviving remnants of the Third Reich did not provide an impetus toward democracy. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Australian Journal of Politics and History Wiley

New Democracy and Alternative Culture: Jazz in West Germany after the Second World War

Loading next page...
 
/lp/wiley/new-democracy-and-alternative-culture-jazz-in-west-germany-after-the-xCY03ZTCND

References (0)

References for this paper are not available at this time. We will be adding them shortly, thank you for your patience.

Publisher
Wiley
Copyright
Copyright © 2006 Wiley Subscription Services, Inc., A Wiley Company
ISSN
0004-9522
eISSN
1467-8497
DOI
10.1111/j.1467-8497.2005.00413.x
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

The American Forces who occupied Germany in 1945–46 had hoped that popularising jazz music might assist in the redemocratisation of Germans under the age of thirty. The Amerika‐Häuser established by the US State Department to build a cultural foundation for democracy amongst younger Germans, and American Forces Network radio each contributed to the gradual emergence of a West German jazz culture which was marked by a series of jazz festivals and the development of a viable recording industry. However most strata of German society neither understood nor cared about jazz. Jazz became confused with — and diluted by — rock ‘n’ roll. Both were rejected as unwanted “Americanization”. Fewer than ten percent of teenagers acquired any taste for jazz. Its appeal was confined to the more privileged and educated. Hence the jazz culture which did recruit itself from the surviving remnants of the Third Reich did not provide an impetus toward democracy.

Journal

Australian Journal of Politics and HistoryWiley

Published: Jun 1, 2006

There are no references for this article.