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Mass
Media
and
the
Jazz
Age
in
the
1920s
Hollywood
•  Hollywood
in
the
1920s
became
the
center
of
movies,
stars,
and
entertainment.
•  Hollywood
helped
create
the
beginnings
of
a
wave
of
mass
media,
which
was
the
1907
start
of
a
common
na<onal
culture
in
Chapter
13,
Sec0on
2
America.
1922
Movies
Newspapers
and
Magazines
•  By
1929,
the
total
popula0on
of
the
US
was
less
than
125
million;
however,
the
movie
theatres
sold
80
million
0ckets
each
week.
•  Number
of
theatres
rose
from
5000
in
1910
to
22,500
in
1930.
•  First
sound
film:
The
Jazz
Singer
in
1927.
•  Americans
followed
the
off‐screen
lives
of
their
favorite
stars
in
newspapers
and
magazines.
•  Most
newspapers
were
driven
by
profit,
not
quality.
–  Tabloids:
a
newspaper
that
relies
on
large
headlines,
few
words,
and
many
pictures.
–  Tabloids
of
the
1920s
replaced
serious
news
with
entertainment
that
focused
on…
•  fashion
•  sports
•  sensa0onal
stories
about
crimes
and
scandals.
Money
Money
Money
Y!
MONE
Magazines
•  By
1929,
Americans
were
buying
more
than
200
million
copies
of
popular
magazines
that
provided
a
variety
of
informa0on.
–  In
a
form
that
most
people
could
easily
read.
–  Readers
Digest,
Ladies’
Home
Journal,
Time
1
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Radio
•  Radio
barely
existed
un0l
the
1920s;
however,
by
1922
more
than
500
sta0ons
were
on
the
air.
•  Networks
like
Na0onal
Broadcas0ng
Company
(NBC)
joined
together
many
individual
sta0ons.
The
Jazz
Age
•  The
growing
radio
audience
and
the
great
African
American
migra0on
to
the
ci0es
helped
make
a
music
called
jazz
widely
popular
in
the
1920s.
•  Jazz
grew
out
of
the
African
American
music
of
the
South,
especially
rag0me
and
blues.
•  Soon,
much
of
the
country
was
listening
to
the
same
jokes,
commercials,
music,
sports
events,
religions
services,
and
news..
•  Soon,
jazz
became
a
na0onwide
craze.
–  Younger
people
loved
to
dance
to
the
new
music
–  In
1929,
2/3
of
all
radio
air
0me
was
jazz
music
–  Some
Americans
were
horrified
by
jazz
because
its
rhythms
were
too
sugges0ve
of
the
free
manners
and
morals
of
the
age.
•  Much
like
in
the
1950s
when
Rock
&
Roll
began.
Jazz
Poetry
and
Pain<ng
Literature
•  Painters
in
the
Jazz
Age
showed
the
na0on’s
rougher
side,
like
ci0es,
coal
mines,
and
bars.
•  Georgia
O’Keeffe
painted
natural
objects
like
flowers,
bones,
and
landscapes.
•  Many
prominent
writers
became
famous
during
the
Jazz
Age.
–  E.E.
Cumings
–  Ernest
Hemingway:
A
Farewell
to
Arms;
The
Sun
Also
Rises
–  F.
Scof
Fitzgerald:
The
Great
Gatsby
F.
Scof
Fitzgerald
Ernest
Hemmingway
E.E.
Cumings
2
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Harlem
Renaissance
•  For
African
Americans,
New
York
City’s
Harlem
was
becoming
the
cultural
center
of
the
US.
•  Harlem
became
the
home
of
an
African
American
literary
awakening
of
the
1920s;
known
as
the
Harlem
Renaissance.
Poet
and
author
Langston
Hughes.
–  During
the
Renaissance,
authors
and
poets
exposed
issues
of
being
African
American
in
the
United
States.
3