Mass Media and the
Jazz Age
United States History II
Mr. Urban
Question
• How do you receive your information?
(news, updates with friends, plans, etc.)
• What forms of technology do you use?
• When was the last time you wrote or
received a hand written letter?
• When was the last time you read the
newspaper?
The Mass Media
• Before the 1920s, the United States had
been largely a collection of regional
cultures. Americans simply did not know
much about the rest of the country.
• Mass Media - Print and Broadcast methods
of communicating information to large
number of people
Movies
• Between 1910 and 1930, the number of
theaters rose from 5,000 to about 22,500
selling roughly 80 million tickets by a 125
million United States population by 1929.
• Silent films transformed into sound.
• The Jazz Singer - Success of the first sound
film.
The Jazz Singer
• The Jazz Singer
•
The story begins with young Jakie Rabinowitz defying the
traditions of his devout Jewish family by singing popular
tunes in a beer hall. Punished by his father, Jakie runs
away from home. Some years later, now calling himself
Jack Robin, he has become a talented jazz singer. He
attempts to build a career as an entertainer, but his
professional ambitions ultimately come into conflict with
the demands of his home and heritage.
Newspapers and
Magazines
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Newspapers size and circulation greatly increased during
the 1920s
By 1929, Americans were buying more than 200 million
copies of popular magazines.
Examples: Saturday Evening Post, Reader’s Digest, Ladies
Home Journal, and Time.
With the rise of Newspapers and Magazines as mass
media, Americans began to share the same information,
read about same events, and encounter the same ideas
and fashions creating a popular culture
•
Newspapers
How can this be compared to today’s
newspapers and magazines? Similar?
Different? Explain. (Refer to Time Article in
packet)
Text
Armenian Genocide
•
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The Armenian Genocide was one of the most massive
“extermination” of humans in history. A weakened
Ottoman Empire, inspired by nationalism, developed a
systematic deportation and extermination of Armenians
within the region. Concentration camps, deportations,
and mass murders occurred during this time.
In the present Convention, Genocide means
any of the following acts committed with
intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a
national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as
such
Map
American Response…
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This incident shocked the nation and Newspapers
(Primarily New York Times) hit American in the
beginning stages of the Armenian Genocide
detailing the atrocities occurring in the Ottoman
Empire.
The United States set up collections to aide the
Armenians raising thousands of dollars in a short
time.
This incident is still remembered today.
Radio
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Radio barely existed prior to the 1920s outside of
homemade radios produced.
Pittsburgh’s KDKA was the nation’s first commercial
radio station.
By 1922, more than 500 stations were on the air, and
Americans eagerly bought radios to listen to them.
National Broadcasting Company (NBC) linked many
individuals together.
Soon much of the country was listening to the same
jokes, commercials, music, sports, religious services, and
news.
The Jazz Age
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Both the growing radio audience and the great
African American Migration to the cities helped
make a music called jazz widely popular in the
1920s.
Young citizens in particular loved to dance to the
new music. Some Americans were horrified by
Jazz.
Jazz Age - “An expression of the times, of the
breathless, energetic, super-active times in which
we are living” in the 1920s.
Music in the 1920s
• One of the biggest changes in the era was
music and dancing. The waltz gave way to
the Charleston with faster pace and
rhythms.
• The older generation described the
Charleston as “put(ting) the bodies of men
and women in unusual relations to each
other.
Charleston
• The Charleston
• Charleston 2012
• Charleston Combined
Jazz Musicians
• Edward “Duke” Ellington -
An excellent
pianist, with great talents as a band leader,
arranger, and composer.
• It Don't Mean a Thing
• Louis Armstrong - Famous trumpet
musician who introduced a “scat” type of
singing with improvising his voice/lyrics.
• What a Wonderful World
Painting
• American painters did not shy away from
taking the pulse of American life.
• Georgia O’Keefe - Painted natural objects
such as flowers, animal bones, and
landscapes.
• Painters - Edward Hopper and Rockwell
Kent showed the nation’s rougher side
from cities to coal mines, from streets to
barrooms
Painting
Literature
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Sinclair Lewis - Attacked American Society with
savage irony. His targets included the prosperous
conformist, the medical business, and dishonest
ministers.
“Savorless people, gulping tasteless foods, and
sitting afterward, coatless and thoughtless, in
rocking-chairs prickly with inane decorations,
listening to mechanical music, saying mechanical
things about the excellence of Ford automobiles,
and viewing themselves as the greatest race in the
world.”
Lost Generation
• Lost Generation - A group of people
disconnected from their country and its
values.
• This group rejected the quest for material
possessions that seemed to occupy so
many Americans.
• Viewed as “artless” and “uninspired”
The Harlem
Renaissance
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Harlem Renaissance - Harlem became the home of
an African American literacy awakening of the
1920s.
New York City’s Harlem was becoming the
cultural center of the United States.
Harlem grew from 50,000 in 1914 to 200,000 in
1930. National Center for Jazz as well as African
American literature.
Poetry (Harlem Renaissance)
• Langston Hughes – most
power African American
literary voice of his time.
• Took politics out of poetry
and celebrated African
American culture and life.
• “Literature is a big seal full of
many fish. I let down my nets
and pulled. I’m still pulling.
Review
• Write a reaction to the following…
• 2 Jazz Age Songs (1920s).
• 2 Poems during the Harlem Renaissance.
• 2 Paintings by 1920s artists.
Define and Answer…
• Describe the Jazz Age
• Name 2 forms of media in the 1920s
• What did Mass Media do for the United
States?
• What was the Harlem Renaissance?
Warm Up
• List 10 words/phrases that describe the
current culture in America as well as your
generation.
Warm Up
• Now think of a name for your current
generation based off the list we discussed in
class.
• “___________________ Generation”
• “Generation __________________”
• Example : Baby Boomers, Generation X