2. 1920-1930s Music The 1920's were Broadway's prime years, with over 50 new musicals opening in just one season. Record numbers of people paid up to $3.50 for a seat at a musical. It was also a decade of incredible artistic developments in the musical theatre. The Broadway shows were produced by showmen who took musical theatre seriously and tried to provide quality entertainment while making a profit at the same time. This attitude kept the musical theatre booming right through the 1920s. Among the hundreds of popular musical comedies that debuted on Broadway in the early 1920s, two classic examples epitomise the Broadway musical of that era – Sally and No, No, Nanette.
3. Music Jazz gained popularity in America and worldwide by the 1920s. Nothing quite like it had ever happened before in America. New exuberant dances were devised to take advantage of the upbeat tempo's of Jazz and Ragtime music. By the mid-1920s, jazz was being played in dance halls and roadhouses and speakeasies all over the country. Early jazz influences found their first mainstream expression in the music used by marching bands and dance bands of the day, which was the main form of popular concert music in the early twentieth century. Public dance halls, clubs, and tea rooms opened in the cities. Strangely named black dances inspired by African style dance moves, like the shimmy, turkey trot, buzzard lope, chicken scratch, monkey glide, and the bunny hug were eventually adopted by the general public. The cake walk, developed by slaves as a send-up of their masters' formal dress balls, became the rage. White audiences saw these dances first in vaudeville shows, then performed by exhibition dancers in the clubs.
4. Movies The early silent movies were often accompanied by live piano or organ music and provided enormous entertainment value to audiences everywhere. Although various attempts had been made to introduce sound, it wasn't until 1923 that a commercially distributed film contained a synchronized sound track that was photographically recorded and printed on to the side of the strip of motion picture film. It would still be seven years before talking pictures gained supremacy and finally replaced the silent era. The production of The Jazz Singer in 1927 did much to change the industry's perception of talking pictures. The technology had advanced little in the previous five years, but the production was the first feature length talking picture to feature a star singer and actor, Al Jolson, speaking and singing on screen. The huge demand for The Jazz Singer was unexpected, and caused other studios to begin to produce sound films of their own to capitalize on what at the time they saw as a fad.
5. ART The Surrealism movement began in post-World War I European avant-garde literary and art circles, and many early Surrealists were associated with the earlier Dada movement. The Surrealists developed techniques such as automatic drawing (developed by André Masson), automatic painting, decalcomania, frottage, fumage, grattage and parsemage that became significant parts of Surrealist practice.
6. ART Art Deco was a movement in decorative arts that also affected architecture. It derived its name from the World's fair held in Paris in 1925, which showcased French luxury goods. Art Deco did not originate with the Exposition; it was a major style in Europe from the early 1920s, though it did not catch on in the U.S. until about 1928. Art Deco is characterized by use of materials such as aluminum, stainless steel, lacquer, inlaid wood, sharkskin, and zebra skin. The bold use of zigzag and stepped forms, and sweeping curves, chevron patterns, and the sunburst motif.
7. References The Roaring Twenties. (2005). Retrieved on November 22, 2009, from http://www.1920-30.com/
