Quote:

the G-man said:

Prior to the rock and roll era, black musicians were largely segregated from white listeners.

Jazz was played in Harlem clubs, not on the radio.

It wasn't until rock and roll that you began to regularly hear "negro music" played on radio aimed for white teenagers.



That's not true at all.

American jazz, in all its forms (Early, Swing, Boom, Bebop, etc.), was huge from the 1920s on, and had countless fans both black and white. Musicians such as Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Billie Holiday, and Paul Whiteman toured all across the United States during the early days of jazz.

To say that white audiences did not listen to "negro music" until later is a HUGE misconceptual error. You're ignoring the flappers, New Orleans, the vaudeville shows, the beboppers, the cakewalk, the shimmy, and Betty Boop, etc. etc., blah, blah, blah. Heck, Minnie Mouse loved jazz.

There's a reason the 1920s is known as the Jazz Age.