When I think of jazz, the first thing that comes to mind is it’s connections to the working class and African American populations within the US. Jazz also has a reputation for being distinctly American, which is why I was surprised to see how influential it was in the Soviet Union due to their detest of the West.
A lot of the criticism around jazz and the New Soviet Person was that it was uncultured and decadent which is similar to the discourse in the West about jazz. American jazz was incredibly decadent and even could be called bourgeois with it’s connections to parties and clubs (literally just think of a party a la the Great Gatsby). Critics in the Soviet Union called the dancing ‘tasteless’ and others said it was a “roadblock on the path to socialist utopia” (3). Similar criticisms were echoed within the US when jazz gained popularity. The Soviet Union wanted the New Soviet Person to be cultured, much how like the West wanted American citizens to be cultured as well.
It is interesting to see how a lot of the same trends transcend political ideologies and country lines at the same time and face the same types of criticism. While the Soviet Union tried endlessly to create their brand of entertainment, they can’t change what interests the human mind, and for some that’s jazz.
