Jitterbug in Glasgow: 1941

Young couples perform the daring new dance the jitterbug at a contest in Glasgow. Informal, fast, energetic and unconventional, and increasingly popular in the 1940s, the jitterbug is danced to swing music.

By the late 1930s, the traditional jazz played by black American southerners had given way to Dixieland, popular with white southerners. Swing then replaced Dixieland. Unlike other forms of jazz, swing bands, made up of brass and percussion, play little or no improvised music. The jitterbug develops among black Americans in Harlem, New York and spreads to Europe.

Reuters: news footage with commentary and music added later.

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