The Roaring 1920s

Decade of

Decadence

How Much is Too Much?

Decadence: overabundance of:

alcohol

crimemusicpartiesconsumer goods

Counterculture emerges

role of the females and African-Americans

literary, art, cultural movements

Advertisements

Goal: make American people always want MORE

• Sex Appeal

• New technology

• Brand Loyalty

Consumer Culture

Automobiles• Assembly Lines: 1 Car/10 seconds• Ford in America• Model T: reliable and affordable

(only $290!).• Creates 6,000,000 jobs• Leading mode of transportation

Entertainment• FILMS

– Edison invents movies– Hollywood=hot spot for

movie production– Later used as propaganda

tools (WWII)

•RADIO–Most common and affordable means of entertainment–Soap operas, game shows, music, etc.–Politicians use radios to spread political messages

LiteratureFresh new style of writing– Search for new morals and methods of

expression– H.L. Mencken (America’s faults)– Fitzgerald and Dreiser (Society)– Hemmingway and Faulker– Anderson and Lewis (small towns)

Poetry: Pound, T.S. Eliot, FrostLost Generation - post WWI

disillusionment and alienation• sex

Prohibition

• led to illegal manufacturing & distribution of alcohol

• moonshine

• speakeasies

• crime increased dramatically - Al Capone

Women’s Roles• “Women’s work” no longer

confined to the home– Employment:low-paying jobs

• Examples: retail clerks, office typing

• NATIONAL WOMEN’S PARTY– equal rights amendments for the constitution

• 19th Amendment (1920) - Women’s Suffrage – birth control movement/Margaret Sanger– Freudian promoted teenagers pioneering sexual

frontiers• sexual repression is unhealthy

Flappers

Raised hemline

Bobbed Hair

Lyrics to “Thoroughly Modern Millie”:“Everything today is throughly modernCheck your personalityEverything today makes yesterday slowBetter face realityIt’s not insanitySays Vanity FairIn fact, it’s stylish toRaise your skirts and bob your hair.Have you seen the way they kiss in the moviesIsn’t it delectable?Painting lips and penciling your brow.Now is quite respectable.Good-bye, good goody girlI’m changing and howSo beat the drums ‘cause here comesThroughly Modern Millie now.”

Modern Woman

MakeupYoung women emerge

as young and provocative - adults don’t approve.

The Harlem Renaissance• Harlem, NY

• First important movement of black authors and artists.

• Langston Hughes, W.E.B. Dubois.

• new sense of identity

MARCUS GARVEYUnited Negro Improvement Association (UNIA)

Resettlement in AfricaBlack Star Line Steamship Company

“put Black money into Black pockets”Nation of Islam and Rastafari movement

Southern gentle lady, Do not swoon. They've just hung a black man In the dark of the moon. They've hung a black man To the roadside tree In the dark of the moon For the world to see How Dixie protects Its white womanhood

Southern gentle lady, Be good! Be good!

Silhouette by Langston Hughes

Southern gentle lady, Do not swoon. They've just hung a black man In the dark of the moon. They've hung a black man To the roadside tree In the dark of the moon For the world to see How Dixie protects Its white womanhood

Southern gentle lady, Be good! Be good!

Silhouette by Langston Hughes

The BluesBlack music becomes popular

• Handy “Jelly Roll” Morton, Joseph King Oliver, Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey.

African American Women for, the first time in history, have a voice.Not just sad love songs. Sing about controversial topics (booze, drugs, sex, abuse, etc.).

“ Down Hearted Blues” by Bessie Smith song lyrics:

“Trouble trouble.I’ve had it all my days (2x).It seems that troubleis going to follow me to my grave.”

JazzJazz is the craze in nightclubsAfrican Americans are allowed in the clubs, but usually only to provide the entertainment.Party atmosphere made livelier by illegal sale of alcohol (ie: speakeasies).“ It Don’t Mean a Thing” by Duke Ellington &

Ella Fitzgerald song lyrics:“It don’t mean a thing

if it ain’t got that swing.

It don’t mean a thing

all you got to do is sing.

It makes no difference if it’s sweet or hot.

Just keep that rhythm, give it everything you’ve got.”

KKK membership five million