HOME   Reading Texts   "The Cult of Bebop"       ISSUES:   JAZZ CULTURE RACE

LANGUAGE In the Post-War period there was interaction between musical and subcultural slang, which reflected the social interactions.  Different groups which were outside the mainstream, such as certain musicians, youth, drug users had common attitudes or lifestyles and language was exchanged.  By the 1950s, much of this slang had entered mainstream in some form.  The slang of this time, is the basis for many of the words and concepts still used today. Jazz slang Many jazz slang words were dervied from musical or lifestyle meanings or made fun of the titles of old jazz standards.   Eg. ‘Flattened Fifth’ was a bebop musical signature.  Considered dissonant, it did not conform to European conventions of resolution at the end of a phrase.     50s slang Culture of 1950s involved unprecented fads, fashion and commercialism.  Many slang  terms derived from the awareness of subcultural groups which existed in opposition to the mainstream, for example 'hip/hep' and 'square'. Another list of slang explanations.