Black Bottom
An African American dance craze of the 1920s.
What it means
The Black Bottom is an African American social and stage dance that became popular in the United States in the 1920s. The name is thought to refer to a neighborhood with fertile, dark alluvial soil, where the dance is believed to have originated.
The dance was accompanied by heavily syncopated music in the jazz style of the era, featuring sharp, danceable accents.
Musical use
In the late 1920s, the Black Bottom briefly overtook the Charleston as the most popular dance craze, before both dances fell out of fashion as trends shifted. Numerous jazz and dance bands of the period released their own numbers titled "Black Bottom."
It should be distinguished from the Charleston, to which it is closely related choreographically and musically, though the two differ in step pattern and accentuation.
Performance practice
When you play or listen to music in the Black Bottom style, notice the strong, syncopated accents that match the dance steps, and the driving, danceable tempo throughout, characteristic of 1920s jazz and dance music.