American Music of the 1930
American popular music from the 1930's reflects the cultural and social characteristics that shaped the American identity during the period. The music of the thirties is important when trying to understand the American people during a time of new technology, a massive growing in the population of cities, and a large scale depression. Over the course of the thirties, American taste in music changed dramatically. In the mainstream it moved from the bland and unchallenging "sweet" sound of Guy Lombardo and the Jazz Age dance bands to the more rhythmically involved horn arrangements of the Swing Era such as Benny Goodman and Tommy Dorsey. Early jazz and blues first heard in the thirties clearly demonstrate the emergence of significant musical forms by great artist like Louis Armstrong and Fletcher Henderson. The second set of songs from the middle of the decade to the end represents the emerging modern forms of American popular music. One can hear the fine-tuning of rhythm and blues in works by Ellington, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald and Cleo Patra Brown. Th
The 1933 Repeal of Prohibition led to the opening of drinking, which in the mid-thirties would make use of the recently improved technology of the jukebox. This seemed to welcome recorded music as a statement of their cultural experiences and old identities. whether consciously or not, almost all citizens found in recorded music a vehicle for carrying musical memories through time and into the present. They moved from rural areas to urban factory towns, from city to city and state to state in search of work. With the distinct characteristic of 1930's music, it is obvious to see how the upbeat rhythms and extravagant tunes helped lift this country through a depression as it also lifted the spirits of hurt Americans. The record industry and radio grew in strength and also influenced the decade. This was used to entertain and attract people and dramatically increase the sale of records. But as theaters on the East Coast worsened with a drop in box office profits accompanying the Depression, much of this talent departed for Hollywood. e swing era is known by recordings of Tommy Dorsey, Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw. " The booming market for Broadway musicals, which developed during the extravagant 1920's, fell to the side with the 1929 crash of the stock market. Thanks to the technological innovation of synchronized sound, their desperate pursuit for new opportunities did not last long, as many worked their way into the world of "talking" motion pictures. Many of these people felt as if they had been torn from their social and cultural roots. Many of the great American songwriters and performers felt the pain of this depression, as they struggled to find work.
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