ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with mapping together themes which have hitherto been investigated in isolation; focuses on the relation of musical forms to their users, bandleaders, musicians, dancers, 'jazz fans', and record companies rather than on any single aspect of popular music. It investigates the way in which the importation of new forms of music and dance from the USA, the social disruptions of the First World War and the more general trends in British society and its economy coalesce to re-orientate musical pleasures during the 1920s. The cakewalk had begun the move towards using the body more expressively when it was introduced in the late 1890s but it was the ragtime-based boston and the animal-based movements of dances such as the turkey trot, the bunny hug and the grizzly bear which accented before 1914. The star of Joy Bells, music hall comedian George Robey, objected to their 'jungle' music and had them dropped after only one night.
