Louis Armstrong Essay Samples

Essay Sample #1 - Louis Armstrong and His Impact on the Society

Introduction

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Louis Armstrong was an American singer, trumpeter, composer, and actor that was renowned in the jazz industry. He was born in 1901 in New Orleans and died at the age of 69 in New York. Armstrong was known for his improvisation in the jazz music whereby he had contributions to its changes in the soloist features. Consequently, he became a leader to other trumpeters that incorporated his stage characteristics and became his followers (Brothers 7). Notably, Armstrong introduced millions of fans to jazz music while youngsters embraced trumpeting to match the ever-increasing numbers.

Louis Armstrong Life

Major Reasons For The Choice Of This Icon

Personality and Lifestyle

Firstly, his personality and lifestyle had major contributions to his line of career. For instance, his personality thrilled the American society during his time by providing a black American male that had made it in the music industry. Louis had become a major icon by the 1930’s whereby he used his life story to set an example for black youngsters that were almost giving up due to the increased racial profiling during the era (Brothers 8). His personality portrayed a black man that was not ready to give up despite his past struggles; hence, setting an example for his fans.

Louis’ younger lifestyle portrayed dark side whereby he used to work in coalmines as a source of income. As a result, motivation and self-confidence are key attributes that are displayed by Louis (Brothers 10). His father abandoned him while the mother often turned to prostitution to ensure a steady supply of income to the family. Precisely, Louis has a tough childhood that later changed after he discovered his talent in singing. His determination towards performing in popular bands led to encounters with jazz legends that enhanced his skills in jazz music.

Regarding personal habits, Louis was concerned with his health; hence, engaged in different campaigns such as the ‘Lose Weight The Satchmo Way.' Compared to the present day lifestyles, this trumpeter would have led to healthier lifestyles for his fans and fellow trumpeters. Importantly, his attribute as a leader shows his influence towards his fans on keeping fit.

Louis’ race also contributes to his choice. His personality led to his acceptance in white society neighborhoods where he lived until his death (Schuman 13). Notably, during his era the black community had major issues affecting their lifestyle; therefore, any icon that made it during his time had motivating factors. For instance, Louis became a popular black figure in the jazz industry through determination.

His Musical Content

Louis perfectly chose his song lyrics depending on the issue that he decided to explore. This rational decision-making process also led to his choice due to the socio-cultural impacts that he made through his songs ("Louis Armstrong, The Entertainer Who Epitomized Jazz"). Additionally, the musical content also led to his exploration into other aspects of the entertainment industry such as T.V, radio, films and advertisements. His growth in music meant that the content was readily accepted by the community, unlike other musicians.

Louis as a Role Model

His works, especially in the music industry, have had different fulfillments to his audience. He has been regarded as a role model; hence, the notion that he was liked and followed by many even after his death. Louis' personality has also had present impacts where upcoming jazz artists and trumpeters follow his legacy with the hope of becoming legends in the music industry ("Louis Armstrong, The Entertainer Who Epitomized Jazz").

Louis’ Impact On The Society During Both His Time And The Present Day

Society has different aspects that it presents to an artist in any entertainment industry, and Louis' society offered him a harsh background. However, Louis had major contributions to the American society despite the geographical regions. During his era, he won several rewards that present day impacts on the society.

Entertainment

Jazz music was Armstrong’s career choice and consequently led to entertainment during his era and the present day. He used musical lyrics to address different social issues during his era. The jazz musicals were not only focused on the American society but others where he had visited during his performances. His cool music was known to entertain his fans despite the hardships that they had experienced. For instance, soldiers that had been involved in the first and second world wars preferred Louis’ music to reduce trauma caused in the battlefields.

On the other hand, Armstrong's music is also relevant in the modern society where it is played on various channels with the aim of entertaining the audience. Notably, jazz had its origins in the New Orleans society and had high acceptance levels in the U.S. As a result, jazz performers and trumpeters such as Armstrong had major contributions to the notion of jazz music as a genre of the music industry.

Louis, being one of the godfathers of jazz music, was known to enjoy other music genres. Consequently, he met with artists and created entertainment networks that led to a common entertainment approaches.

Financial Impact on Society

Louis became an example of ways that jazz music changed the society regarding financial stability. An overview of his past life showed an individual that was determined to escape from poverty using his talent. He set an example to the black societies that were suffering from poverty due to lack of sufficient jobs. His social impact involved increased awareness of talents and determination.

In addition, Louis had followers that wanted to learn to trumpet and get involved in the jazz music genre. These upcoming youngsters set an example to their societies that music would act as a source of income. In the long-run, he motivated youngsters with different perceptions about music from other genres in that they could also adopt music. In the present day, this financial impact has also been portrayed by artists with a poor background.

Impacts on Family Differences as Part of the Society

Armstrong’s family portrayed the New Orleans society. There were high poverty levels that led his mother to turn into prostitution. In addition, there were high cases of violence and school dropouts due to the poverty levels. However, Louis did not give up but instead focused on helping his society after being prominent in his music business. Louis engaged in different charity practices that would be used in enhancing black societies. In his lyrics, he also encouraged these societies by reducing on family issues such as violence. As a result, he mostly targeted some of the poor societies in the U.S during his era.

Essay Sample #2 - Louis Armstrong Essay

Impacts on Social Integration Aspects

Social assimilation was also an impact of Armstrong's music in that he had a large fan base. His performances tours were aimed at different international countries; hence, expanding the comprehension of jazz music. His music acted as a channel to join different ideologies of jazz music towards a common understanding. Performances, on the other hand, acted as locations for meeting new friends across various societies. For example, if he visited a particular town in Europe, fans would come from different countries across the continent to listen to jazz music.

In the present day, networking and integration also occur in shows that include performances of his music by artists that were featured during production. The followers and learners of his music at the time have continued representing by employing the same skills that they were provided with during training. Consequently, many families and friends have been facilitated by Louis' music both directly and indirectly.

Impacts on Social Politics

The American Society had variation in its political approaches, especially after the two world wars. Consequently, singers and other entertainment icons were hired in political affiliations to cause awareness. As for Armstrong, he did politicize his racial background done by other black American popular figures. He was politically neutral and tried to support what he though was right according to his perceptions. Subsequently, he could mingle freely between the black and white representations when it came to politics.

His neutrality had positive impacts on the society and his fans. For instance, in the cases of Civil Rights Movements, he positively contributed in a nonpartisan manner. In the long-run, he accumulated fans from different racial backgrounds due to his political neutrality.

Lessons learnt from this political impact could help present day artists that are politically divided leading to the spread of articulated ideologies in their productions. Impacts of biasness through music or other entertainment channels may lead to segregation and profiling of the society among racial, ethnic and gender lines.

Motivation Aspects in the Society

Louis' background as discussed in the reasons for his choice of discussion was rough. His success was based on innovation, originality, and determination. As a result, Louis set an example for upcoming artists, followers and fans by sharing his biography or though his music. Those that comprehended his life had major changes, especially on determination issues to ensure that they improve their lives.

Louis’ innovation assisted him in coming up with new trends of jazz music that thrilled his fans. With years of jazz experience, he was able to perfect his work leading to originality. As a result, he used his revolutionary language to build a legend in the entertainment industry that is remembered to date.

His efforts and determination had positive social impacts where he mentored fans and other followers to enhance their musical carriers. In the modern day, jazz music has been known to be inspiring through the set lyrics that have common goals towards the human societal attributes.

Louis’ Influence on Society Then and Now

Preservation of Cultural Morals and Values

The U.S is known to have various music genres that originated from early 1900 ("Louis Armstrong, The Entertainer Who Epitomized Jazz"). Jazz music is one of the genres. Notably, each music genre is associated with specific value and moral backgrounds in its time of origin. Jazz music originated from communities that joined to form the black American societies; hence, had rich, independent and rooted traditions. As a result, Armstrong being one of the godfathers enhanced the transitory of jazz from his generation to the current one through music.

Initially, jazz music was used to pass messages through song lyrics in most black communities leading to the New Orleans Jazz that originated from Armstrong’s birthplace. He embraced the music due to the presence of improvisation whereby an artist would improvise the lyrics to match a certain audience or event. Earlier forms of the music had origins from blues, folk and work songs that were sung by slaves as motivational songs.

Subsequently, Louis adopted jazz music to ensure that he shared his experiences with other individuals in the black community that found it hard to survive during his time. Since jazz music would be performed in live shows in bars during evening hours, there was a tradition that the black Americans would hide in those taverns to drink alcohol and share ways to escape prison.

Concerning the present day, jazz is still adopted to by Western communities. The lyrics to the music relay messages to the fans just like in Armstrong’s era. Moreover, the black community is still associated with the jazz genre of music.

Impacts on Love and Emotions

In its origin, the ‘blues’ music genre, had emotional aspects in the lyrics and ways of expression. Consequently, jazz music also had .residue of blues music whereby the performance approaches were similar. Since Louis had begun his music career by singing blues, he had a perfect and experienced level of jazz presentation (Prouty 361). Louis’ music titles and lyrics were emotionally addressed into his audience. For instance, if it were about love, his title, lyrics and tones would synchronize to come up a perfect emotional song. His followers that learnt to trumpet and jazz performances also had similar aspects since he was their instructor. In the long-run, jazz music became a channel of expressing emotions, experiences or issues.

Louis’ impact on love is greats in the modern society since most of his love songs are played in social events such as weddings and get-togethers. In his personality, he did not focus his lyrics on hurting his audience or haters in anyway; but offered equal attention to all.

Impacts on Cultural Segregations

In modern day music, Louis has had both positive and negative impact on the western culture. Initially, he made it possible to absorb and transform influences from other genres of music due to the presence of improvisations in jazz music. This aspect reduced the segregation between fans that loved other music genres since it would be improvised and performed in jazz genre (Brothers 33). However, prior characteristics of jazz music that led to racial segregation also prevail to date. In general, the society tends to associate jazz with the black Americans; hence, there has not been sufficient positive change.