Swing music, or simply Swing, is a form of American music that developed in the early 1930s and became a distinctive style by 1940. Swing uses a strong rhythm section of double bass and drums as the anchor for a lead section of brass instruments such as trumpets and trombones, woodwinds including saxophones and clarinets, and sometimes stringed instruments such as violin and guitar, medium to fast tempos, and a "lilting" swing time rhythm.The name swing came from the phrase ‘swing feel’ where the emphasis is on the off–beat or weaker pulse in the music (unlike classical music). Swing bands usually featured soloists who would improvise on the melody over the arrangement.
The danceable swing style of big bands and bandleaders such as Benny Goodman was the dominant form of American popular music from 1935 to 1945, a period known as the Swing Era.
The verb "to swing" is also used as a term of praise for playing that has a strong rhythmic "groove" or drive.
Read more about Swing Music: Notable Musicians
Famous quotes containing the words swing and/or music:
“And I have asked to be
Where no storms come,
Where the green swell is in the havens dumb,
And out of the swing of the sea.”
—Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–1889)
“Since a man must bring
To music what his mother spanked him for
When he was two ...”
—Gwendolyn Brooks (b. 1917)