Randano's article “Hot Fantasies: American Modernism and the Idea of Black Rhythm” describes the creation of Jazz as a controversial form of music due to the association of the African Americans with the hot rhythm of jazz. As the emergence of jazz proliferated through the 1920s, many white Americans disregarded this new and uprising music because they stemmed from a class of people thought to be inferior to the white American race. But who decides this hierarchy? According to Radano, this type of sexual, promiscuous, and wild rhythm came to represent the primitive. Through colonialism, the whites established their superiority by defining the other – “uncivilized non-white; in this case, blacks. The creation of jazz can be traced back to the field songs sung by the African American slaves, which was later incorporated in the American minstrel shows of blackface parody. Since the inferior Africans were commonly thought of as the “wild man” figure, rhythm was considered to be uncivilized, savagery, and irrational form of syncopated noise. Radano states that the concept of descent and displacement are two distinct figures that explains, what he calls, the “black music's 'unspeakability”. As depicted in the video “The Devil's Music: 1920s Jazz”, jazz was believed to be an evil influence to the younger generations, causing them to revolt against authority.
Although the documentary portrayed the white American fear of this “offensive” music, it failed to present the perspective of those who appreciated the improvised sounds of jazz. Many people, especially younger generations, widely accepted the changing music of jazz in the 1920s. The video showed Paul Whiteman playing jazz at Carnegie Hall, which elevated this syncopated music. However, the video disregarded the fact that James Reese Europe, an African American ragtime and early jazz bandleader, performed at Carnegie Hall twelve years before Whiteman. Radano also mentioned Irving Berlin, an influenced white...