Swingin' the Dream: Big Band Jazz and the Rebirth of American Culture

by Lewis A. Erenberg

During the 1930s, swing bands combined jazz and popular music to create large-scale dreams for the Depression generation, capturing the imagination of America's young people, music critics, and the music business. Swingin' the Dream explores that world, looking at the racial mixing-up and musical swinging-out that shook the nation and has kept people dancing ever since.

" Swingin' the Dream is an intelligent, provocative study of the big band era, chiefly during its golden hours in the 1930s; not merely does Lewis A. Erenberg give the music its full due, but he places it in a larger context and makes, for the most part, a plausible case for its importance."—Jonathan Yardley, Washington Post Book World

"An absorbing read for fans and an insightful view of the impact of an important homegrown art form."— Publishers Weekly

"[A] fascinating celebration of the decade or so in which American popular music basked in the sunlight of a seemingly endless high noon."—Tony Russell, Times Literary Supplement

Genres: Jazz, Music, History, Nonfiction

344 pages, Paperback

First published May 13, 1998

Reviews

[Brit Corm]

Erenberg uses his narrative on the big band music and swing movement of the 1930s and 1940s, to inform the reader that jazz had a significant impact in rejuvenating American gender and race relations as well as political changes. The author’s main argument is that the swing subculture and the big band leaders, which originated due to the societal and political changes during the Depression, created a cultural rebirth in American democratic culture.

Erenberg defends his argument in the book by splitting it into three parts. Part One: From Jazz to Swing, 1929-1935 is almost entirely dedicated to the origins of swing music, the transformation from jazz to swing from 1929-1935. In part two Erenberg finally begins to try to support his argument by using Benny Goodman, Count Basie, and Duke Ellington as main examples. This unfortunately makes the book very selective, particularly because an entire chapter is dedicated to Goodman because his orchestra was racially mixed. Part Three: Culture Noir, 1942-1954 is the conclusion of Erenberg’s book and it primarily covers America’s entrance into World War II, from a swing and cultural perspective. Erenberg uses Glenn Miller, who left his band to enlist, to show the "powerful role that swing played in World War II and helps explain the effects that the war had on American music and culture."

This book is a fantastic read for those who are music lovers, particularly jazz/swing music lovers. However, if you are reading it for academic purposes, you must analyze it well because Erenberg does not actually begin to properly argue/prove his argument until the reader is well into the narrative.

[Kristen]

Fascinating look at the societal implications of jazz and swing music from the late 20's to the mid 40's. Erenberg illustrates how swing was thought of by its players and fans as the embodiment of a more open democracy. Most of the book is concerned with how swing was affected by racism and vice verse. There was a constant pushing of social and racial boundaries and and almost always a pushing back and a pulling away by those hiring the bands, trying to make a living. The author also addresses the commercialization and sort of sanitization of black music into swing, and the rebellion against it with the rise of the more political bebop.

[Andrew]

I read it concurrently with another stoop-find on the same general subject, "Swing Changes." It was interesting reading about all the politics associated with the Swing Era - WWII, Swing vs.Bop, Fascism, Communisim. Best quote from Sinatra, might be the other book, Frank Sinatra:
"The minute anyone does anything for the little guy, he's called a communist."

[Frank]

A great scholarly study of the period when jazz was America's popular music.