Download The Jazz Age

The Jazz Age
Section 9.2
Today’s Agenda
• 9.2 Slide Show
• Presentations
• Homework
– Read 9.3
Define materialistic.
• Placing high value
on the purchasing
of material things
• Characteristics of
1920s
What was the Lost Generation?
• Expatriate writers and artists
who left America 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. Scot Fitzgerald
– The Great Gatsby
– Discusses the empty lives of
wealthy Americans
How did Americans entertain
themselves during the 1920s? 1of 2 slides
• Era of the silent movies
• Theaters
– opened 1-11 PM everyday
– $.10 per seat
– Glamorous to lower
classes
– Criticized for corrupting
youth
• Cult of Stardom
– Read gossip columns
written about stars
lives
– Tried to imitated
hairstyles, fashion
Clara Bow
The Silver Screen
How did Americans entertain
themselves during the 1920s?
• Spectator Sports
– Baseball
• Babe Ruth
– Bambino, Sultan of Swat
– Boxing
• Jack Dempsey
– “Manassas Mauler”
– World Heavyweight
Champion (1919 and 1926)
• 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
– Louis Armstrong
• The Charleston
– Dance with 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
Magazine 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
• Part of the “New Negro”
movement
– Proud to be black
– “black is beautiful”
– Urged African Americans
to reach their American
Dream
The night is
What
happens to a
beautiful,
dream deferred?
So the faces
Does it dry up
my in the
likeof
a raisin
people.
sun?
Or fester
like a are
sore
The stars
Andbeautiful,
then run?
Does it stink like
So the eyes
rotten meat?
of myand
people
Or crust
sugar
Beautiful,
over
likealso,
a syrupy
sweet?
is the
Maybe
sun.it just sags
like a heavy load.
Beautiful,
Or does it explode?
also, are the
souls of my
Harlem Renaissance
Conclusion
• The Jazz Age was viewed by traditionalists
as an attack on tradition American values