THE JAZZ AGE

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Flappers! Prohibition! Hot Jazz! The Roaring Twenties!!



The Jazz Age describes
the period from 1918-1929,
the years between the end
of World War I and the start
of the Roaring Twenties;
ending with the rise of
the Great Depression, the
traditional values of this
age saw great decline while
the American stock market
soared.

The Jazz Age

The age takes its name from F. Scott Fitzgerald and jazz music, which saw a tremendous surge in popularity among many segments of society. Among the prominent concerns and trends of the period are the public embrace of technological developments (typically seen as progress)-cars, air travel and the telephone-as well as new modernist trends in social behavior, the arts, and culture.

Central developments included Art Deco design and architecture. A great theme of the age was individualism and a greater emphasis on the pursuit of pleasure and enjoyment in the wake of the misery, destruction and perceived hypocrisy and waste of WWI and pre-war values.

In Literature

Perhaps one of the most representative literary works of the age is American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby (1925), which highlighted what some describe as the decadence and hedonism of the post-WW1 age, as well as new social and sexual attitudes, and the growth of individualism.

Fitzgerald is largely credited with coining the term, which he used in such books as "Tales of the Jazz Age." The second novel that he wrote, "The Beautiful and Damned" (1922), also deals with the era and its effect on a young married couple. Fitzgerald's last completed novel, "Tender Is the Night," takes place in the same decade but is set in France and Switzerland not New York, and consequently is not widely considered a Jazz Age novel per se.

Additional works on the Jazz Age might include Thomas Wolfe's titanic 1935 book "Of Time and the River," which takes its protagonist from the depths of the Carolinas, to Harvard, and finally to New York in the 1920s, but for a truly harrowing view of the end of the Jazz Age, Wolfe's "You Can't Go Home Again" is recommended for its party scene on the night of the 1929 stock market crash. Edith Wharton's late novel "Twilight Sleep," set in New York and written in 1927, is a great example of social critiques of Jazz Age values and lifestyles. Additionally,The Rosy Crucifixion of Henry Miller, "Sexus," "Plexus," and "Nexus," is set in New York during this period.

Social Acceptance of Minorities and Homosexuals

In urban areas, minorities were treated with more equality than they had been accustomed to previously. This was reflected in some of the films of the decade. Redskin (1929) and Son of the Gods (1929), for instance, deal sympathetically with Native Americans and Asian Americans, openly reviling social bias. On the stage and in movies, black and white players appeared together for the first time. It became possible to go to nightclubs and see whites and minorities dancing and eating together. Even popular songs poked fun at the new social acceptance of homosexuality. One of these songs had the title "Masculine Women, Feminine Men." It was released in 1926 and recorded by numerous artists of the day and included the following lyrics:


Masculine women, Feminine men
Which is the rooster, which is the hen?
It's hard to tell 'em apart today! And, say!
Sister is busy learning to shave,
Brother just loves his permanent wave,
It's hard to tell 'em apart today! Hey, hey!
Girls were girls and boys were boys when I was a tot,
Now we don't know who is who, or even what's what!
Knickers and trousers, baggy and wide,
Nobody knows who's walking inside,
Those masculine women and feminine men!


Homosexuals also received a level of acceptance that was not seen again until the 1960s. Until the early 1930s, gay clubs were openly operated, commonly known as "pansy clubs". The relative liberalism of the decade is demonstrated by the fact that the actor William Haines, regularly named in newspapers and magazines as the number-one male box-office draw, openly lived in a gay relationship with his lover, Jimmy Shields. Other popular gay actors/actresses of the decade included Alla Nazimova and Ramon Novarro. In 1927, Mae West wrote a play about homosexuality called The Drag, and alluded to the work of Karl Heinrich Ulrichs. It was a box-office success. West regarded talking about sex as a basic human rights issue, and was also an early advocate of gay rights. With the return of conservatism in the 1930s, the public grew intolerant of homosexuality, and gay actors were forced to choose between retiring or agreeing to hide their sexuality.

from Wikipedia

 

Music

The memory of
things gone is
important to a
jazz musician.
Things like
old folks singing
in the moonlight
in the back yard
on a hot night or
something said
long ago.


- Louis Armstrong

On This Day In Jazz Age Music!

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mp3s

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Satchmo

25 Greatest Hot Fives & Sevens

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Bix

Bix Beiderbecke Story

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The Crooners

Very Thought of You: the Ultimate Collection

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The Songbirds

Love Me Or Leave Me

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COMPILATIONS

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Film

Jazz - A Film by Ken Burns

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At the Jazz Band Ball - Early Hot Jazz, Song and Dance

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Further Reading

Non-Fiction

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Biographies

Black Sun: The Brief Transit and Violent Eclipse of Harry Crosby (New York Review Books Classics)

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Spotlight On: Jack Johnson

Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson

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Spotlight On: Nancy Cunard

Nancy Cunard: Heiress, Muse, Political Idealist

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Spotlight On: The Fitzgeralds

The Romantic Egoists: A Pictorial Autobiography from the Scrapbooks and Albums of F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald

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In the real dark night of the soul
it is always three o' clock in the morning,
day after day.


~F. Scott Fitzgerald

F. Scott Fitzgerald

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Poetry

Jazzonia
~Langston Hughes

Oh, silver tree!
Oh, shining rivers of the soul!

In a Harlem cabaret
Six long-headed jazzers play.
A dancing girl whose eyes are bold
Lifts high a dress of silken gold.

Oh, singing tree!
Oh, shining rivers of the soul!

Were Eve's eyes
In the first garden
Just a bit too bold?
Was Cleopatra gorgeous
In a gown of gold?

Oh, shining tree!
Oh, silver rivers of the soul!

In a whirling cabaret
Six long-headed jazzers play.

 

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Videos

The Jazz Age 1920's
by Aaron1912 | video info

695 ratings | 458,503 views
curated content from YouTube

 

Flappers - The Roaring Twenties
by Aaron1912 | video info

2,862 ratings | 1,360,933 views
curated content from YouTube

Vintage Sheet Music

curated content from Flickr

More Jazz Age Videos!

Crooners & Songbirds (#1)
PART ONE.
Crooners & Songbirds (#2)
PART TWO.

 

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Links

Jazz History - An Introduction to the Music, Artists, and History ...
This pages provides information and links that serve as an introduction to jazz music, jazz artists and jazz history.http://static5.squidoo.com/images/icon-reorder.gif
| Jazz Roots | Early Jazz History on JASS.COM
Tom Morgan offers lavishly illustrated profiles of early 20th century performers along with links to books, a timeline from 1800 to 1930, and images of ...http://static5.squidoo.com/images/icon-reorder.gifhttp://static5.squidoo.com/images/icon-reorder.gifhttp://static5.squidoo.com/images/icon-reorder.gif
Jazz History
The history of jazz from the beginning to the present day.
The Red Hot Jazz Archive
A history of Jazz before 1930. This site contains over 2000 songs from this era in Real Audio 3 format, as well as hundreds of biographies and discographies ...
Awesome Jazz Age Archive Tracks - Dismuke's Message Board
Is that him soloing on Margaret Young's Red Hot Henry Brown at http://www.jazzage1920s.com/margaretyoung/margaretyoung.php? Anyway, I sure appreciate those ...
PBS - Ken Burns: Jazz: A History of America's Music - Hardback Book
Shop PBS - Ken Burns: Jazz: A History of America's Music - Hardback Book - where every purchase supports your local PBS station.
The Jazz Age: Flapper Culture & Style
Welcome to The Jazz Age: Flapper Culture & Style..
The Internet Guide to Jazz Age Slang
Herein is contained an alphabetical listing of slang words used in the 1920's.
The Pansy Craze
The Pansy Craze was a period in the late 1920s and early 1930s in which gay clubs and performers (known as pansy performers) experienced a surge in underground popularity in the United States.

 

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