Music in the 30s

Today we are going to describe such an important decade as the 30s which was a reflection of the cultural and social conditions and a way to understand those years of the Great Depression. It is essentially to know that music changed dramatically from the sweet sound of Guy Lombardo and the Jazz Age to the new Swing Era during the first four years. However, the second set of years was marked by the emerging modern forms of popular music. Furthermore, we need to know the importance of the alliance between the Hollywood machinery, the record industry and the radio that grew as the same time as the 30s.

        

Before describing the music of this age, we should take into account that Americans were forced to relocate in search of employment and due to the collapse of national economy, they moved from rural areas to urban ones. And as the historian William Kenney said “whether consciously or not, almost all citizens found in recorded music a vehicle for carrying musical memories through time and into the present”.

Broadway music and the extravagant 20s fell to the wayside with the 1929 crash. However, the cinema industry took the opportunity and asked composers, singers and dancers who worked in Broadway such as Tin Pan Alley, Irving Berlin, Fred Astaire or Bing Crosby to do musical movies and they accepted. But it wasn’t until the MGM’s filmed The Broadway Melody in 1920 that other companies realized public liked those films and in 1933 Warner Brothers’ released 42^nd Street; public was again enchanted by the extravagance.

        

Hollywood sold self-conscious optimism during those hard years; they made simple, complicated and amusing films and also they profited the immense popularity of child stars like Shirley Temple or Judy Garland or couples as Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers who filmed nine movies between 1933-39. Because what audience wanted was to escape the desolate reality and find a sense of identity.

Moreover,  during the thirties American music was changed due to the new technologies and the industrial development with some improves such as the electrical amplification which allowed singers like Bing Crosby to deliver incredible and catchy vocal performances or the jukebox. But music also started to be capitalized because of the increasing popularity and the cross marketing increased the wealth of the recording and film industry.

During the mid-thirties the recording industry started to metabolize its relationship with the radio and the doors were opened to traditional, vernacular and ethnic musical expressions. But only record companies’ executives choose who was appropriate and marketable to be a part of the history and country, blues and swing started to be integrated. Therefore, while Hollywood and mainstream popular music offered optimism and diversion, underground musicians, as the other were called, wanted to make meaning in American culture.

When swing dominated the mainstream in the mid thirties important developments were created and they were an important impact which would last until modern American music. For example, jazz in this era hinted towards new styles like bebop or cool jazz with artists as the great Louis Armstrong. In addition, African American musicians as Ella Fitzgerald and Cleo Patra Brown and their rhythm and blues increased in popularity. Also folk and twist music were developed by artist as Woodie Guthrie and country by Roy Acuff.

An important moment was the creation of the jukebox which would be responsible for saving the American music and for that American experienced music socially, because jukebox is the perfect model for the systematic commodization of music. The problem is that only the industry decided who would be in the machine due to marketing predictions, cultural trends and racial and social prejudices. In those selections appeared artists such as the incomparable bolero singer Antonio Machin, swing singers as Louis Armstrong and Fletcher Hendersen, Cab Calloway representing the blues, the mainstream staple Guy Lombardo...

To sum up, we would say that the 30s were very important for the history of American music because they showed us many changes which continue nowadays and how music can survive even if there are difficulties as the Great Depression was. Those years would be essential for the country identity.
We hope you have enjoyed this post and that you very much for your visit.

Best regard from the musical girls!

Bibliography

http://xroads.virginia.edu/~ug03/jukebox/front.html