Was Jes Grew always a virus?
Within the scope of the Mumbo Jumbo, Jes Grew most literally represents the growth of Jazz music and culture in America. Through explanation by PaPa LaBas, however, we learn that Jes Grew does not just apply to this singular instance of black culture rapidly going from underground to taking over the mainstream. Jes Grew is the explanation of this phenomenon within American popular culture as a cycle wherein the latest incarnation of Jes Grew emerges to strong opposition, but eventually gets more and more popular, until it has become so commercialized and diluted, that the real art returns to the underground until the cycle begins again. In class we talked about how mainstream Jazz music started to become much more watered down when it was appropriated for a broader white audience. Innovations within the Jazz scene continued to be made which would have caused a stir in the Jes Grew’s height, but by this point, no one cared, because Jazz was already accepted. This is when Jes Grew d...