As the popularity of the radio grew, so did the culture for music, especially jazz music throughout the 19th century. Author F. Scott Fitzgerald caled the 1920s the “Jazz Age”. This soon to be roaringly popular style of music was started by African Americans, in which these musicians combined blues, rag-time and popular European music. Jazz was first introduced in the South and Midwest, places like New Orleans, where many different culture were found and helped influence this era. Many people like the famous trumpeter, Louis Armstrong became the “unofficial ambassador of jazz”, and vocalist, Bessie Smith or otherwise known as the “Empress of Blues”. Jazz also played a big part in Prohibition and helped African Americans become more popular and less segregated with the white crowds. As jazz music expanded to more parts of America and even to parts of Europe, it became more than just tunes people listened to, it forever became a symbol of the 1920s ("The Harlem Renaissance”).
Along with new culture emerging, because of new developments and technologies the average American got more time to settle down and go out to the town and have an eventful night. Cities started to grow, the average workweek fell from 70 hours in 1850 to 45 hours in 1930, and people worked 5-6 days a week instead of 7. This extended leisure time led to more time for developing new ideas, like movie productions. Hollywood became famous for motion pictures. Movies, led to theaters, which led to more people going to the movies, which in tun created more jobs and something new for the American family to add to their American culture. Silent motion pictures were also made for immigrants who could not speak English. As more and more ideas were thought up, like the radio and movie productions, these were just some of the things added to the culture of the 1920s, and as you look around in the current era of 2016, movies and listening to the radio still play a huge part in everyday American life ("A New Mass Culture”). |
|
Primary resource
This is a video of popular jazz music of the 1920s. Featuring; Louis Armstrong (1901-1971), a famous trumpeter, composer and singer, who created a great influence upon jazz music through his songs; Benny Goodman (1909-1986) or otherwise known as "The King of Swing", Goodman was a clarinetist, bandleader and a jazz and swing musician , and to some he was the most important person within the Jazz Era; Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (1899-1974), an American musician and composer. He led a jazz orchestra for over 50 years, he was also a large figure in the jazz culture. This video demonstrates a variety of jazz music through the 1920s and on, displaying the music of pivotal musicians during the 19th century, whom are still looked upon and life changing composers of music today.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqEIEDEBnfg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqEIEDEBnfg
picture citations:
"Director G.W. Pabst, at work on a movie set in the 1920s." American Decades Primary Sources, edited by Cynthia Rose, vol. 3: 1920-1929, Gale, 2004. U.S. History in Context, link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/PC3490287519/WHIC?u=bloomhhs&xid=6caaf5fd. Accessed 6 Dec. 2016.
Schalkwyk, Christina Linsenmeyer-van. "Jazz." Dictionary of American History, edited by Stanley I. Kutler, 3rd ed., vol. 4, Charles Scribner's Sons, 2003, pp. 467-469. U.S. History in Context, link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/CX3401802178/WHIC?u=bloomhhs&xid=413fcfc5. Accessed 6 Dec. 2016.
Schalkwyk, Christina Linsenmeyer-van. "Jazz." Dictionary of American History, edited by Stanley I. Kutler, 3rd ed., vol. 4, Charles Scribner's Sons, 2003, pp. 467-469. U.S. History in Context, link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/CX3401802178/WHIC?u=bloomhhs&xid=413fcfc5. Accessed 6 Dec. 2016.