Why is jazz considered America’s only truly American art form? What makes jazz more American or more of an art form than country music?
1: It isn’t. Tap dancing, banjo, comic books/strips and the musical comedy (distinct from light opera, though I’m not sure how) are all American artforms.
2: American country music is strikingly similar to English and Irish rural music, which have longer histories. Not sure where Skiffle falls into this. Jazz, as it developed in America, has an improvisational quality that differentiates it from the prior musical forms that influenced it. And it happened here first.
Just curious, but why shoudn’t rap music or hip-hop be considered American art forms?
Or Rock 'n Roll?
Marc
Someday I intend to put together a complete list of all the “One & only true art forms ever created in America”.
I expect it to be book-length.
Jazz ISN’T the only true American art form, just as prostitutions isn’t really the world’s oldest profession, and dance is not demonstrably the world’s oldest art form, and baseball hasn’t really been America’s pastime in ages.
But such assertions have been tossed around for so long, writers find it easier to repeat the cliches than to offer any original commentary.
Hip-Hop has been said to be the only culture/artform born exclusively and demonstrably within the United States.
Sitcoms.
Disgruntled postal workers with guns.