In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s, “The Great Gatsby,” the “Jazz Age” or “The Golden Age” as the backdrop to this novel. Jazz culture in the 1920s was mainly influenced by the African American soul and R&B style of music. The Jazz age also influenced swing dancing, which was a popular style of dance during this era. But little credit is given to the African American culture for birthing this particular style of music. Jazz was first originated in New Orleans at the turn of the century, when not too long after, white culture adopted it and called it their own.
This is an example of cultural appropriation. In “The Great Gatsby,” cultural appropriation occurs through whites altering black culture. A particular scene in which one of Gatsby’s famous parties takes place the announcer of the band mocks black culture. “At the request of Mr. Gatsby we are going to play for you Mr. Vladimir Tostoff’s latest work, which attracted much attention at Carneige Hall last May. If you read the papers, you know there was a big sensation.” He smiled with jovial condescension, and added: “Some sensation!” Whereupon everybody laughed. “The piece is known,” he concluded lustily, “ as Vladimir Tostoff’s Jazz History of the World” (Fitzgerald, 49). Here, the commentator recognizes the piece of music that falls under “Jazz,” without mentioning or crediting where Jazz actually came from.
In fact, there is a book that goes into depth about this issue. Written by Greg Tate, “Everything But The Burden – What White People are taking From Black Culture” is a novel that discusses the issue of white people adapting, and even ridiculing black culture. This book includes relevant voices from music, pop-culture, literature and the media. This book talks about how white people take on the black culture, but do not take on the burden and the struggle of what is it like to actually be black in today’s society, as well as in the past. Tate discusses the problems with white people adapting black culture and glamorizing it, fetishizing it, as well as making it their own.
The novel opens up by introducing a quote from his sister, explaining where the title of the book came from, “Mom once write a poem of the same name to decry the long-standing, ongoing, and unarrested theft of African American cultural properties by thieving, flavourless whitefolk. A jeremiad against the ways Our music, Our fashion, Our hairstyles, Our dances, Our anatomical traits, Our bodies, and Our soul continue to be considered ever ripe for the plucking and biting by the same crafty devils who brought you the slave trade and the Middle Passage.” This quote relates back to when the commentator at Gatsby’s party mocked the African-American jazz culture, and yet introduced it at a mainly white event. Tate’s mother mentions that these “flavourless whitefolk” stole “[their] music” and that is what occurs in The Great Gatsby, and is the backdrop to not only the novel, but the “Jazz” or “Golden Age” also known as the 1920s.
Works Cited
Fitzgerald, F. Scott. "Pg. 49." The Great Gatsby. Scribner Trade Paperback ed. Print.
Tate, Greg. "Introduction, Pg.3." Everything But the Burden: What White People Are Taking from Black Culture. New York: Broadway, 2003. Print.
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