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 • • • • 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 • • 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… • • • 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 • • • • • 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 • • • 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 • • 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 • • • 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