The Emergence of A National Culture
The picture above shows a jazz band from the 1920s. This shows that jazz was a big part of the 1920s, and how the radio, and music in general changed people's lives. Groups of friends and or family started bands (such as the one above) with instruments such as trumpets, trombones, drums. violin, piano, etc...) These were a big hit in the 1920s.
Music is a big part of the American culture. Music is played
everywhere; at parties, in the car, on the streets. But the big question is who
or what started it all? Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi developed radio or
wireless in the 1890s; but the radio was not for the use of music and
advertisements, but for military service so soldiers can communicate while on
duty. Since then, the radio has become something new, something big.
The Westinghouse Company started radio station KDKA in
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Within three years there were almost 600 licensed
stations broadcasting to more than 600,000 radio sets. The radio (as it still is
today) is used for music, educational lectures, religious sermons, and news and
weather reports. They also heard a wide variety of commercial advertisements for
consumer products. Radios slowly started to rise in production even more than
newspapers and magazines could manage. Americans found a new hobby; to huddle up
next to their radios and listen to championship games, such as the one in 1927;
the big boxing match between Gene Tunney and Jack Dempsey. Since the radio had
become so popular, companies decided to fix up the old phonographs and start
something new from the old.
Phonographs were another way to enjoy music, and unlike the radio, Americans can listen to
their music whenever they wanted with no commercial interruptions. A phonograph
is another name for record player; a big disk; kind of like a bigger version of
a CD today. Companies fixed the record players up, making them sleeker and
producing a higher quality sound. Recordings helped spread country and western
music from the South and West to the North and East, while pop tunes from New
York City’s Tin Pan Alley traveled in the other direction. Since the Americans
listened to the same songs, they learned fashionable dances from the foxtrot to
the Charleston. National culture really grew after the evolution of music
turned into a wireless radio with advertisements, and sports games. America has
found a new hobby, a new culture, and a new invention. Technology has been
developing, and will develop more and more each day. What will come next? We
will just have to wait and see for ourselves.