The Jazz Age Section 9.2. Define materialism Placing high value on the purchasing of material things.

The Jazz Age

Section 9.2

Define materialism• Placing high

value on the purchasing of material things

Boom Times

What was the Lost Generation?• Expatriate writers and artists who left

the country 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. Scott Fitzgerald

– The Great Gatsby– Discusses the empty lives of

wealthy Americans

e.e. cummings Presentation

F. Scot Fitzgerald

Presentation

How did Americans entertain themselves during the 1920s?

• Movies• Opened 1-11 PM everyday• Muncie, Indiana

– 9 theaters for population of 35 thousand

– $.10 per seat

• Glamorous to lower classes• Criticized for corrupting

youth• Cult of Stardom born

– Hairstyles, fashion– Gossip columns written

about stars lives

The Silver Screen

Rudolph Valentino

Presentation

• Spectator Sports– Tennis and golf popular even for

working class– Baseball

• Babe Ruth– Boxing

• Jack Dempsey– “Manassas Mauler”– World Heavyweight Champion

(1919 and 1926)– WASP

• Fight with Gene Tunney viewed as battle between Modernists and Traditionalists

How did Americans entertain themselves during the 1920s?

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– Lois Armstrong– Danced the Charleston

• 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

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

• Unashamedly black• Major Themes

– “black is beautiful”– Struggle of African

Americans to reach their American Dream

The night is beautiful, So the faces of my people. The stars are beautiful, So the eyes of my people Beautiful, also, is the sun. Beautiful, also, are the souls of my people.

“What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up

like a raisin in the sun? Or fester like a sore

And then run? Does it stink like rotten meat?

Or crust and sugar over like a syrupy sweet?

Maybe it just sags like a heavy load.

Or does it explode?”

Harlem Renaissance

Conclusion

• The Jazz Age was viewed by traditionalists as an attack on traditional American values

• This era featured a rebellion against the forms of art and music that dominated prior to 1920