Time/Date
11-13-2009 10:00 AM
Abstract
According to historian David Stowe, it is possible to think of America ca. 1935-1945 as "swing shaped." That is to say, swing pervaded American popular music in a way that no genre had before. It embodied a certain spirit of the age, including new ways of thinking about race, cultural difference, and what it meant to be an American. To what extent does this interpretation ring true in the South? Some of the most important venues for swing in the south were those found in summer beach resorts like Wrightsville Beach and Atlantic Beach in North Carolina and Myrtle Beach and Pawley's Island in South Carolina. How were national bands received in these venues? Furthermore, how did "territory bands" like North Carolina's Hod Williams and His Orchestra interpret swing?
When Big Bands were 'Beach Music': The Swing Era in the Coastal Carolinas
According to historian David Stowe, it is possible to think of America ca. 1935-1945 as "swing shaped." That is to say, swing pervaded American popular music in a way that no genre had before. It embodied a certain spirit of the age, including new ways of thinking about race, cultural difference, and what it meant to be an American. To what extent does this interpretation ring true in the South? Some of the most important venues for swing in the south were those found in summer beach resorts like Wrightsville Beach and Atlantic Beach in North Carolina and Myrtle Beach and Pawley's Island in South Carolina. How were national bands received in these venues? Furthermore, how did "territory bands" like North Carolina's Hod Williams and His Orchestra interpret swing?
Comments
Presented in the First Plenary Session: American Popular Music and the South
Video footage of presentation