How was bebop a political movement?

Answer 1

It was not a "political" movement, statement or anything whatsoever to do with politics. It was a statement by a group of musicians that they wanted to break out from what they felt were certain constraining requirements of playing "swing" which many felt had run it's course and was inhibiting the progress of jazz. However, other factors also played a part. With the diminution of work for the big swing orchestras, and the subsequent move by musicians to continue to be employed, many small groups of 5 & 6 musicians were formed. In that context, musicians were freer to develop their ideas and experiment with new directions in the music. Dizzy Gillespie primarily and Charlie Parker were two of the initial group of experimenters who began to open up new frontiers in jazz. They were soon joined by a small but enthusiastic group of disciple's .

For a few black musicians who had issues with the white dominated world of the media and recording industries and even white audiences, it was a way of saying that this new jazz is "our music". It's how we express ourselves through our art and if you don't understand it, that's just tough luck. Additionally for some, it was a racial issue. There was a certain resentment that white, and so-called "inferior" musicians always seemed to get more and better paid work than the blacks especially in the T.V. and film studios. So the white "cats", even those who regularly played in mixed race groups, suffered from unfair prejudice from their black brothers who in the creation of bebop were essentially saying, "Jazz is a black music and you white cats can go and get screwed". However, history soon proved that the "whities" could latch on to the requirements of bebop and play an important part in its development.