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=== Popular jazz (1920–1935) and swing (1935–1947) ===
{{More citations needed section|date=March 2021}}
[[Image:Vallee, Rudy.jpg|thumb|right|225px|[[Jazz]] artist [[Rudy Vallée]]. An American singer, actor, and bandleader who rose to fame in the 1920s and 1930s.]]
[[Jazz]] is a kind of music characterized by [[blue note]]s, [[syncopation]], [[swung note|swing]], [[call and response (music)|call and response]], [[polyrhythm]]s, and [[improvisation]]. Though originally a kind of [[dance music]], jazz has now been "long considered a kind of popular or [[vernacular music]] (and has also) become a sophisticated art form that has interacted in significant ways with the [[European classical music|music of the concert hall]]".{{ref|artjazz}} Jazz's development occurred at around the same time as modern ragtime, blues, gospel and country music, all of which can be seen as part of a continuum with no clear demarcation between them; jazz specifically was most closely related to ragtime, with which it could be distinguished by the use of more intricate rhythmic improvisation, often placing notes far from the implied beat. The earliest jazz bands adopted much of the vocabulary of the blues, including bent and blue notes and instrumental "growls" and smears.{{citation needed|date=February 2022}} [[Jazz]] artist [[Rudy Vallée]] became what was perhaps the first complete example of the 20th century mass media [[Celebrity|pop star]].<ref name= "Crooners" >{{cite web |author=Whitcomb, Ian |title=The Coming of the Crooners |url=http://www.shsu.edu/~lis_fwh/book/roots_of_rock/support/crooner/EarlyCroonersIntro2.htm |access-date=June 24, 2010 |publisher=Sam Houston University |archive-date=June 7, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100607074153/http://www.shsu.edu/~lis_fwh/book/roots_of_rock/support/crooner/EarlyCroonersIntro2.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> Vallée became the most prominent and, arguably, the first of a new style of popular singer, the [[crooner]].<ref name= "Crooners" />

[[Paul Whiteman]] was the most popular bandleader of the 1920s, and claimed for himself the title "The King of Jazz." Despite his hiring many of the other best white jazz musicians of the era, later generations of jazz lovers have often judged Whiteman's music to have little to do with real jazz. Nonetheless, his notion of combining jazz with elaborate orchestrations has been returned to repeatedly by composers and arrangers of later decades.{{citation needed|date=February 2022}}

[[File:Duke_Ellington_-_publicity.JPG|thumb|left|[[Duke Ellington]] was a prolific composer, bandleader, and pianist who helped shape the sound of jazz during the 1920s and 1930s.]]

Whiteman commissioned Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue", which was debuted by Whiteman's Orchestra. [[Ted Lewis (musician)|Ted Lewis]]'s band was second only to the Paul Whiteman in popularity during the 1920s, and arguably played more real jazz with less pretension than Whiteman, especially in his recordings of the late 1920s. Some of the other "jazz" bands of the decade included those of: [[Harry Reser]], [[Leo Reisman]], [[Abe Lyman]], [[Nat Shilkret]], [[George Olsen]], [[Ben Bernie]], [[Bob Haring]], [[Ben Selvin]], [[Earl Burtnett]], [[Gus Arnheim]], [[Rudy Vallee]], [[Jean Goldkette]], [[Isham Jones]], [[Roger Wolfe Kahn]], [[Sam Lanin]], [[Vincent Lopez]], [[Ben Pollack]] and [[Fred Waring]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=2016-09-28 |title=Fred Waring History |url=https://libraries.psu.edu/about/collections/fred-warings-america/fred-waring-history |access-date=2023-10-11 |website=Penn State University Libraries |language=en |archive-date=October 8, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231008020538/https://libraries.psu.edu/about/collections/fred-warings-america/fred-waring-history |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[File:Bing_Crosby_1942.jpg|thumb|200px|[[Bing Crosby]] is best known for his smooth baritone voice, relaxed singing style, and numerous hit recordings.]]

In the 1920s, the music performed by these artists was extremely popular with the public and was typically labeled as jazz. Today, however, this music is disparaged and labeled as "sweet music" by jazz purists. The music that people consider today as "jazz" tended to be played by minorities. In the 1920s and early 1930s, however, the majority of people listened to what we would call today "sweet music" and hardcore jazz was categorized as "hot music" or "race music." {{citation needed|date=February 2022}}

[[File:Lena_Horne,_1946.jpg|thumb|right|200px|[[Lena Horne]], with her captivating beauty and distinctive voice, became a popular singer and actress during the Swing era.]]

The largest and most influential recording label of the time, The Victor Talking Machine (RCA Victor after 1928) was a restraining influence on the development of "sweet jazz" until the departure of [[Edward T. King|Eddie King]] in October 1926. King was well known as an authoritarian who would not permit drinking on the job or severe departure from the written music, unless within solos acceptable by popular music standards of the time. This irritated many Victor jazz artists, including famed trumpeter Bix Beiderbecke. Sudhalter, in Lost Chords, cites an example of a 1927 recording by the Goldkette Orchestra in which musicians were allowed considerable freedom, and remarks "What, one wonders, would this performance have been if Eddie King had been in charge, and not the more liberal Nat Shilkret. Since the Victor ledgers show no less than five recording sessions in January and February 1926, when King actually conducted Goldkette's Orchestra, comparison between the approach of Goldkette and King is readily available.{{citation needed|date=February 2022}}

An early genre of American pop music was the [[swing (genre)|swing]] craze, a popular dance style in the early part of the 20th century.<ref>{{cite book |author=Garofalo, Reebee |url=https://archive.org/details/rockinoutpopular00garo_0 |title=Rockin' Out: Popular Music in the USA |publisher=Allyn & Bacon |year=1997 |isbn=0-205-13703-2 |url-access=registration}}</ref> In 1935, [[swing music]] became popular with the public and quickly replaced jazz as the most popular type of music (although there was some resistance to it at first). Swing music is characterized by a strong rhythm section, usually consisting of a double bass and drums, playing in a medium to fast [[tempo]], and rhythmic devices such as the [[swung note]]. Swing is primarily a kind of 1930s jazz fused with elements of the blues and the pop sensibility of Tin Pan Alley.{{ref|Garofalo}} Swing used [[big band|bigger band]]s than other kinds of jazz had and was headed by bandleaders that tightly arranged the material, discouraging the improvisation that had been an integral part of jazz. David Clarke called swing the first" jazz-oriented style (to be) at the center of popular music... as opposed to merely giving it backbone ".{{ref|swing}} By the end of the 1930s, vocalists became more and more prominent, eventually taking center stage following the [[American Federation of Musicians]] strike, which made recording with a large band prohibitively expensive.{{ref|Garofalo}} Swing came to be accompanied by a popular dance called the [[swing dance]], which was very popular across the United States, among both white and black audiences, especially youth.{{citation needed|date=February 2022}}