Transcript The Jazz Age

The Jazz Age
Section 9.2
Define materialism
• Placing high
value on the
purchasing
of material
things
Boom Times
What was the Lost Generation?
• Expatriate writers and artists who left
the country and criticized its
materialism
• Said America was “enemy of the artist,
of the man who cannot produce
something tangible…”
• Hemmingway
– The Sun Also Rises
– Novels portray lost innocence of
post war generation
• F. Scott Fitzgerald
– The Great Gatsby
– Discusses the empty lives of
wealthy Americans
e.e. cummings
Presentation
F. Scot
Fitzgerald
Presentation
How did Americans entertain
themselves during the 1920s?
• Movies
• Opened 1-11 PM everyday
• Muncie, Indiana
– 9 theaters for population of 35
thousand
– $.10 per seat
• Glamorous to lower classes
• Criticized for corrupting
youth
• Cult of Stardom born
– Hairstyles, fashion
– Gossip columns written
about stars lives
The Silver Screen
Rudolph
Valentino
Presentation
How did Americans entertain
themselves during the 1920s?
• Spectator Sports
– Tennis and golf popular even for
working class
– Baseball
• Babe Ruth
– Boxing
• Jack Dempsey
– “Manassas Mauler”
– World Heavyweight Champion
(1919 and 1926)
– WASP
• Fight with Gene Tunney
viewed as battle between
Modernists and Traditionalists
Sports Heroes
How did music change during the 1920s?
• Blues and jazz
• Blues
– Derived from work songs of
slaves
• Jazz
– Born in New Orleans
– No written notes
– Lois Armstrong
– Danced the Charleston
• Crossing hands,
knocking knees
• Radios began to become
popular
Jazz
Radio
What did people read during the 20s?
• High literacy rate
• Reader’s Digest, Time
created
• Tabloids
– Published scandals,
fads, dance marathons
• Advertisements
– Spawned from the
Committee of Public
Safety
– Told Americans what
they needed, wanted
Creature Comforts & Consumerism
Who was Langston Hughes?
• Novelist & Poet during of
the Harlem Renaissance
– flowering of African
American art,
literature, music and
culture in Harlem
• Unashamedly black
• Major Themes
– “black is beautiful”
– Struggle of African
Americans to reach
their American Dream
The night is
beautiful,
So the faces of
my people.
The stars are
beautiful,
So the eyes of
my people
Beautiful, also,
is the sun.
Beautiful, also,
are the souls of
my people.
“What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?”
Harlem Renaissance
Conclusion
• The Jazz Age was viewed by traditionalists
as an attack on traditional American
values
• This era featured a rebellion against the
forms of art and music that dominated
prior to 1920