Pop Culture
How is popular culture in the 20’s different than the previous decade?
1920s Pop Culture
Life During the Jazz Age Pop culture during the 1920s was characterized by the flapper, automobiles, nightclubs, movies, and jazz. Life moved fast as a new sense of prosperity and freedom emerged at the end of World War I. Products were manufactured in mass-produced packaging. Billboards popped up all over the cities. Crossword puzzles, board games, and marathon dancing became the new "crazes." New technology became available for ordinary citizens, and because of this, the era also came to be known as the "Machine Age."
Radio Radio in the 1920s "knitted the nation together." It started as local stations, but as technology improved, national stations became more and more popular. These national programs were sponsored by manufacturers and distributors of brand-name products. Stations broadcasted everything from news and music to politics and news. "Amos 'n' Andy" was a popular comedy program of the time.
Movies In 1903 The Great Train Robbery became the first story sequence movie to reach the big screen. It was shown in five cent movie theaters across the country that came to be known as "nickelodeons." As the movie industry began to grow, Hollywood in Southern California quickly became the movie capital of the world because it enjoyed long hours of sunshine among other advantages. The earliest movies were not required to follow a code of censorship, but the outraged public soon forced the screen magnates to establish one. The Jazz Singer, starring Al Jolson, became the first "talkie" upon its release in 1927, and color films began to be produced around the same time. Movies experienced one of the fastest growths in popularity of all time; movie stars were able to command as much as $100,000 for a single picture. As movies became more and more popular among the younger generation, much of the rich diversity from the Old Country was lost.
Life at Home The 1920s were affected immensely by the new methods of mechanization. Cars, radios, and electrical products were produced more quickly and effectively, so producers were able to sell them at a price that made them affordable for almost all Americans. This increased mechanization earned this time period the title of the "Machine Age." The censuses of the era revealed that more Americans than ever were beginning to move from the countryside to the cities, where women took low-paying jobs as retail clerks and office typers. The feminist movement remained powerful and was strengthened by Margaret Sanger, who led an organized birth-control movement. In 1923, The National Women's Party began to campaign for an Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution. The churches of the 1920s also witnessed a change as the Fundamentalists were replaced with Modernists, who viewed God as the "good guy" and saw the universe as a friendly place to live. Churches had to compete with automobiles and other fads of the time, so they began to show wholesome movies of their own that were geared towards the younger generation.
Life During the Jazz Age Pop culture during the 1920s was characterized by the flapper, automobiles, nightclubs, movies, and jazz. Life moved fast as a new sense of prosperity and freedom emerged at the end of World War I. Products were manufactured in mass-produced packaging. Billboards popped up all over the cities. Crossword puzzles, board games, and marathon dancing became the new "crazes." New technology became available for ordinary citizens, and because of this, the era also came to be known as the "Machine Age."
Radio Radio in the 1920s "knitted the nation together." It started as local stations, but as technology improved, national stations became more and more popular. These national programs were sponsored by manufacturers and distributors of brand-name products. Stations broadcasted everything from news and music to politics and news. "Amos 'n' Andy" was a popular comedy program of the time.
Movies In 1903 The Great Train Robbery became the first story sequence movie to reach the big screen. It was shown in five cent movie theaters across the country that came to be known as "nickelodeons." As the movie industry began to grow, Hollywood in Southern California quickly became the movie capital of the world because it enjoyed long hours of sunshine among other advantages. The earliest movies were not required to follow a code of censorship, but the outraged public soon forced the screen magnates to establish one. The Jazz Singer, starring Al Jolson, became the first "talkie" upon its release in 1927, and color films began to be produced around the same time. Movies experienced one of the fastest growths in popularity of all time; movie stars were able to command as much as $100,000 for a single picture. As movies became more and more popular among the younger generation, much of the rich diversity from the Old Country was lost.
Life at Home The 1920s were affected immensely by the new methods of mechanization. Cars, radios, and electrical products were produced more quickly and effectively, so producers were able to sell them at a price that made them affordable for almost all Americans. This increased mechanization earned this time period the title of the "Machine Age." The censuses of the era revealed that more Americans than ever were beginning to move from the countryside to the cities, where women took low-paying jobs as retail clerks and office typers. The feminist movement remained powerful and was strengthened by Margaret Sanger, who led an organized birth-control movement. In 1923, The National Women's Party began to campaign for an Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution. The churches of the 1920s also witnessed a change as the Fundamentalists were replaced with Modernists, who viewed God as the "good guy" and saw the universe as a friendly place to live. Churches had to compete with automobiles and other fads of the time, so they began to show wholesome movies of their own that were geared towards the younger generation.