The 1920’s: Music Through the Ages

Photo Credit: Library of Congress

By Alekhya Maram and Anna Ravid

The Roaring 20s—known for stock market euphoria, speakeasies, and prohibition—were also the golden years of a classic American genre: jazz. “The 1920s was a decade of deep cultural division, pitting a more cosmopolitan, modernist, urban culture against a more provincial, traditionalist, rural culture,” wrote The Digital History. “The decade witnessed a titanic struggle between an old and a new America as well as the rise of a modern consumer economy and mass entertainment. All of these themes were played out in the nation's music.” 

With the migration of African Americans from the South to Northern cities, and the increasing sexual liberation of women, jazz transitioned from a niche genre to the mainstream culture. In particular, New York City’s Harlem Renaissance is emblematic of the cultural and artistic exploration that the 1920s are known for. Authors and musicians like Zora Neale Hurston, Duke Ellington, and Langston Hughes defined the era. 

Most of the jazz songs of the era contained no vocals besides scatting, a form of wordless vocal improvisation,  and instead relied on instrumental soloists. The often springy, fast-tempo music was perfect for dancing. One of the most popular Jazz musicians of the decade, Duke Ellington, rose to prominence in the Cotton Club, a jazz club in Harlem. Despite featuring black performers, the Cotton Club welcomed exclusively white patrons and customers. 

Ellington led a jazz orchestra of seven musicians. His unique, rhythmic style of jazz, can be heard in his 1929 hit, “Black and Tan Fantasy.” Known for his trumpet solos, Louis Armstrong was also a frequent performer at the Cotton Club. Though he was born in New Orleans, he later migrated to Chicago, and finally to New York, where he enjoyed a five-decade career. Armstrong played amusing, upbeat songs with names to match — “Muskrat Ramble” and “Yes! I’m In the Barrel” are two excellent examples of his early work. Compared to the 1910s, the music of the 1920s offered instrumental and tonal variety. It’s cheerful without being grating, and inspires the urge to stand up and clack your heels together.

The buoyant rhythms and music of the 1920’s reflect the growing progressivism and optimism of the decade. The exuberant euphoria of the 1920’s would come to a screeching halt with the stock market crash of 1929, ushering in a decade of depression, poverty and the beginnings of  World War II.