(1d) Changes in culture

Question 1

The Jazz Age

Answer 1

• Rooted in black American traditional sounds - became the defining sound of cities in the 1920s.
• Live musicians (Louis Armstrong) and dances (Charleston + Black Bottom) became popular due to the performances in the speakeasies.
• Increased availability of radio meant people could listen at home.

Question 2

The Harlem Renaissance:
Harlem was a predominantly _____ neighborhood in New York. It became the ___ for an explosion in new _____ American _______.

Answer 2

Harlem was a predominantly black neighborhood in New York. It became the hub for an explosion in new black American culture.

Question 3

The Harlem Renaissance

Answer 3

• Home of jazz speakeasies (Cotton Club) - “white” tourism.
• Centre for black intellectuals (Langston Hughes).
• The New Negro championed black separatism.
• Garvey advocated migration back to Africa - opposed by NAACP.
• Josephine Baker: dancer + singer who symbolised the beauty and vitality of BA culture - took Paris by storm in 1920s. Wore a banana skirt - reinforced stereotypes.

Question 4

‘The making of Harlem’ by James Weldon Johnson

Answer 4

• An essay written in 1925.

- Celebrated the rebirth of black American culture and identity.

Question 5

American literature

Answer 5

• Writers wrote from a perspective of disillusionment at the materialistic US society focused on economic growth.
• Writers:
  
  • Scott Fitzgerald (The Great Gatsby)
  • Ernest Hemingway (The Sun Also Rises).
    Their work was widely admired.

Question 6

Popular entertainment:

Radio and Cinema

Answer 6

• A time of fads, fun, and entertainment.
• Radio sales: 1923 - $60 million 1929 - $842 million.
• Cinema: Movies with sound (1927). Based in Hollywood. Hugely popular (10 million viewers a day). Conservatives believed this would lead to moral corruption.
• Movie stars rose in fame (Charlie Chaplin).

Question 7

Popular entertainment:

Sport

Answer 7

• Sport: Radio increased popularity (50 million listened to Tunney vs Dempsey in 1927 - boxing).
• Sport: Advertising and sponsorships turned sports stars into celebs - Babe Ruth (baseball) made over $800k.
• Segregation: The Negro National Baseball League - 1920.