© copyright 2003-2021 Study.com. All other trademarks and copyrights are the property of their respective owners. Popular culture saw new trends as well. It was the fourth decade of the 20th century.. It became a popular amusement during the Great Depression. Only Warner Brothers specialized in movies, usually gangster sagas, about the violence and poverty of slum life, a life the embattled hoodlum protagonists always yearned to escape. By telling Kane’s story from multiple perspectives, by presenting him as a man to be feared or pitied as well as occasionally admired, and by acknowledging at the end that no single word (not even “Rosebud”) could explain a person’s life, the movie refused to pass judgment or deliver a message—refused to say that this man of wealth and power is evil or that the society that produced him is in need of fundamental change. For many black Americans the Depression merely intensified an unjust economic situation that had been prevalent. Digital History ID 3452. How did popular culture change during the 1930s in America? The hollowed-out face of Henry Fonda as Steinbeck’s Tom Joad, after all, was as potent an icon of the 1930s as Astaire’s top hat and tails. Some of the Most Well Known Movie Stars of the Thirties - Entertainment became big business (creating Golden Age) - Large radio networks - Film companies ruled silver screens - 2/3 of all Americans saw one movie per week It was, simultaneously, a decade of traditionalism and of modernist experimentation; of sentimentality and "hard-boiled" toughness; of longings for a simpler past and fantastic dreams of the future. Neither sentimental nor propagandistic, Citizen Kane transcended the filmmaking conventions and the preconceptions of the 1930s and hinted at a more ironic age, with fewer certitudes, that would follow World War II. Part of History 4. https://www.britannica.com/event/Great-Depression/Popular-culture If you look at how models changed ever so slightly over the years, each year seems to look a little bit faster than the last. Children’s toys were often homemade. Cinema became the main form of popular entertainment. Radio dramas, music, and FDR's famous fireside chats were beamed straight into... Our experts can answer your tough homework and study questions. While conditions began to improve by the mid-1930s… With … Ticket sales went from 40 million per week in 1920 to 100 million in 1930. Many baseball and football franchises struggled to make a profit on gate receipts. Ring in the new year with a Britannica Membership, Culture and society in the Great Depression. Advances in technology, communication, knowledge, and ability created a new culture. While Bing Crosby could sing “Just remember that sunshine always follows the rain” in “Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams” (1931), he also recorded “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?” in the same year. Students look at changes to cinema, literature, and other forms of entertainment. A good laugh eased the mind and brought joy in a time of adversity. America was leaving its past culture and becoming more modernized. 2. Provide several specific examples of the ways in which culture shifted in this time period. Services, Working Scholars® Bringing Tuition-Free College to the Community. Indeed, from Lew Brown and Ray Henderson’s “Life Is Just a Bowl of Cherries” (1931) to Al Dubin and Harry Warren’s “We’re in the Money” (1933), many of the era’s popular songs were suffused in buoyant optimism. An Oklahoman, he took to the road at the height of the Dust Bowl era, frequenting hobo and migrant camps on his way to California, where he first popularized his songs about the plight of Dust Bowl refugees. Despite the costs of an evening out, two out of every five Americans saw at least one movie per week. In 1935, The Delaware company uses a thermal interrupter to invent turn signals for cars. (Seattle PI photograph, 1931, courtesy of the Museum of History and Industry) Bands playing popular music in clubs and dancehalls also struggled in the early 1930s, but with the end of prohibition in 1933, going to clubs became very popular for those who could afford it. Local culture shifted to more of a mass culture. Because radio and film reached many more people than novels or plays, some intellectuals believed that the mass media might be the most effective weapon for radicalizing Americans. What many of Hollywood’s movies really had in common—even the spectacles of director Busby Berkeley and the dazzling duets of Fred Astaire and his frequent partner Ginger Rogers—was a soundtrack peppered with hard-boiled, even cynical, staccato chatter reminiscent of Walter Winchell’s gossip columns in the newspapers and on the radio. National Football League (NFL) teams lost mon… How old was Amelia Earhart when she died? Culture in the 1920's shifted from folk culture to popular culture. One of the ironic things about the 1930s is the amount of construction that took place during that decade. The popular culture of the 1930s was fraught with contradictions. Major events such as the 21st Amendment and criminal cases also reshaped American culture. Although styles tended to reflect the glamour of contemporary movies, clothes themselves were mended before being replaced, and the invention of synthetic fibres led to the use of washable, practical, easy-care fabrics. In fact, the 1920s are nicknamed the Jazz Age because of the popularity of jazz music. Although the era ended with the outset of the Great Depression in 1929, jazz has lived on in American popular culture. Sciences, Culinary Arts and Personal On Halloween night in 1938, radio producer Orson Welles told listeners of the Mercury Theatre on the Air that they would be treated to an original adaptation of H. G. Wells’s classic science fiction novel of alien … Bette Davis won an Academy Award in 1934 for her portayal of Joyce Heath in the movie Dangerous. 5. The 1930s were a time characterized by economic insecurity and political turmoil. Folk songs from the period, many recorded as part of the Federal Music Project’s archival work, provide an especially vivid index of the deprivation suffered by ordinary Americans. Towards the late 1930s, films that showed how America was fighting against the Great Depression became popular as well. Jazz music was not just a major part of the Harlem Renaissance. But there was much more to the popular culture of the 1920s. With the addition of sound, movies became increasingly popular… Classic films like Frankenstein, It Happened One Night, and Gone with the Wind debuted during the Great Depression. Music 1930s. The 21st Amendment was an important change in American culture because it challenged traditional views on the prohibition of alcohol. The characters they played all lived in a world of posh furniture and polished floors, of well-cut suits and gowns, of elegant nightclubs filled with cigarette smoke and champagne and piano music, a world far removed from the one movie audiences inhabited. A 1935 edition of the board game Monopoly. In Hollywood, too, some of the leading directors of the 1930s, such as Capra in Mr. It was a decade in which many Americans grew increasingly interested in tradition and folk culture. Many classic films were created during this time, including, 42nd Street, The Wizard of Oz, Gone With the Wind and King Kong. As much as one-fourth of the labour force in industrialized countries was unable to find work in the early 1930s. Comedies were popular films in the 1930s. Dance-oriented and relentlessly upbeat, swing was not a palliative for hopelessness; it was tonic for recovery. Some of the music of the 1930s tried to assuage the social suffering. Those who held out for more money, such as Joe DiMaggio in 1938, were publicly scorned. The Film Wizard of OZ Gone with the Wind Action Comics continued to grow and Superman is seen in a comic for the first time. Americans had not experienced a major protracted economic crisis since the 1890s. The second world war started in 1939 and changed everything for women. It saw the international financial … … Campbell’s Soup starts using the phrase “Mmm mm good” to describe its products. In 1936, Jesse Owens angered … One could never imagine Cary Grant, Fred Astaire, Katharine Hepburn, Bette Davis, Rosalind Russell, Claudette Colbert, or the Marx Brothers portraying rural hayseeds or working stiffs. Programs for Teachers. American culture and society underwent a period of great change between 1910 and 1929 due to the popularity of the cinema, silent films, talkies and the impact of jazz music. In contrast to the prosperity of the Roaring Twenties, the 1930s emphasized simplicity and thrift. Several famous female vocalists got their start as jazz singers in the 1930s, including Ella Fitzgerald (1918–1996) and Billie Holiday (1915–1959). 3. All rights reserved. Many of today's knowledge and technology such as radios and automobiles. No folk singer-songwriter, however, is more inextricably linked to the music of hardship and protest than Woody Guthrie. Although Hollywood was filled with people sympathetic to the political left—people who frequently contributed money to the labour movement or the Spanish Republicans or who were indispensable in organizing the Screen Actors, Writers, and Directors guilds—little of this political activism left an imprint on the screen. The emphatic “Happy Days Are Here Again” (1929) could be heard just about anywhere, whether as a political jingle for Roosevelt’s 1932 presidential campaign or as the theme song for the Your Hit Parade radio show, launched in 1935. Simultaneously, as the specter of war and Nazism emerged in Europe, American was faced with hard decisions about its place in the world. By signing up for this email, you are agreeing to news, offers, and information from Encyclopaedia Britannica. Whip-and-top and skipping were popular pastimes. Major League rosters and players’ salaries were cut, 14 minor leagues were eliminated, and, in an effort to bolster attendance that had fallen by more than 40 percent by 1933, night games were introduced. Create your account. The most memorable films of the decade (particularly those made at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Paramount, and Twentieth Century-Fox) were musicals, screwball comedies, and romances. Nor was it possible to envision the gangsters, as played by Edward G. Robinson or James Cagney, asking passing strangers if they could spare a dime. How did popular culture change during the 1930s in America? Both the Empire … In a short period of time, world output and standards of living dropped precipitously. Thus, the most popular programs on radio were afternoon soap operas, music and variety broadcasts, and half-hour comedy shows like Amos ’n’ Andy, The Jack Benny Program, and the Edgar Bergen–Charlie McCarthy Show. People went several times … The Great Depression left many people across the United States feeling hopeless and abandoned. On March 1, 1936, the Hoover Dam architectural landmark was completed. Attendance at baseball games fell sharply in the 1930s, leaving little money for park renovations and forcing ballplayers' salaries down. Jazz music changed to a sweeter sound. As times were changing in the 1930s, traditional morals and values began to change as well. Key Takeaways Key Points. Even during hard times and wartime, people need to be entertained. Newberry Teachers' Consortium. The chapter provides views on Americans and their culture during the Great Depression. Popular Culture during the Great Depression. -betty boop went from being a dog to being a sex … Become a Study.com member to unlock this They enjoyed many forms of entertainment, particularly if they could do so inexpensively. Yet, predictably, the radio networks and the Hollywood studios, as commercial enterprises, were more interested in entertaining than in indoctrinating the masses. Similar to visual arts and literature, popular culture of the era focused on emphasizing what was presented as uniquely American experiences and contributions. During the 1930s, radio’s impact and powerful social influence was perhaps most obvious in the aftermath of the Orson Welles’s notorious War of the Worlds broadcast. By mid-decade the Benny Goodman Orchestra had ushered in the swing era, popularizing a style of big band jazz that had been pioneered a decade earlier by African American ensembles led by Fletcher Henderson and Duke Ellington. answer! This lesson looks at the 1930's and Popular Culture during this period. In the process he became not only a catalyst for the folk music movement centred on New York City’s Greenwich Village in the 1940s and ’50s, with its strong association with leftist politics, but ultimately a role model for singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, who championed social protest in the early 1960s at the head of the folk music revival. Their suffering and coping mechanisms, as well as traditional American values such as self-determination, self-reliance, and optimism, were reflected in the popular culture of the 1930s. Earn Transferable Credit & Get your Degree, Get access to this video and our entire Q&A library. Generous government support for education and home loans coupled with a booming economy meant that Americans in the postwar era had more discretionary income than ever before. Changing economic circumstances profoundly transformed popular culture from the 1920s to the 1930s. Architecture and Culture. With politically charged songs such as “(If You Ain’t Got the) Do Re Mi,” “Union Made,” “Tom Joad” (inspired by The Grapes of Wrath), and “This Land Is Your Land,” Guthrie became a mythic figure who continued his support of labour and radical politics (including his involvement with the Communist Party) long after most American intellectuals had abandoned them. 6. Question 7. In reality, most young women in the 1920s did none of these things (though many did adopt a fashionable flapper wardrobe), but even those women … During this time, many activist movemen… But few images from this period have lasted as long, or had as great an influence on filmmaking in America and abroad, as that of the fictional media mogul Charles Foster Kane in Citizen Kane. The culture of the cities was based a loosening of morals, ideas of hedonism, and habits of mass consumption that were at odds with the strict religious and moral codes of rural America. The decade was defined by a global economic and political crisis that culminated in the Second World War. The indifference to politics and to the larger social concerns of the 1930s was reflected as well in the popular culture of the decade. Other settlement houses, which were often led by women, also helped provide necessary social services during the Great Depression. The 21st Amendment repealed the 18th Amendment, which allowed the consumption of alcohol. Great Depression - Great Depression - Economic impact: The most devastating impact of the Great Depression was human suffering. The fast-talking guys and dames of 1930s movies—like the contemporaneous music and lyrics of George Gershwin and Ira Gershwin, Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, and Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart—were the product of a culture both urban and urbane; the movies and the music depended on clever allusions and witty dialogue, written or composed mostly by sophisticated Manhattanites. Among the folksingers “discovered” through the field recordings of folklorists such as John Lomax and Alan Lomax was Leadbelly (Huddie Ledbetter), an ex-convict who gained fame for the songs he wrote about African American life during the Great Depression. Like everything else in the United States, sports were deeply affected by the economic troubles known as the Great Depression. The American people in the 1930s and 1940s were no exception. As Jazz evolved into Swing Jazz, dancing became the rage. The Jazz Age was a post-World War I movement in the 1920s from which jazz music and dance emerged. Music Young … Though the Jazz Age had ended, during the 1930s jazz continued to mature as a musical form. Benny Goodman (left) and members of his band, c. 1938. In fact, it is striking how few American movies during the 1930s dealt with the plight of the poor and the unemployed. Many who could not afford books or periodicals spent time reading in libraries. The postwar boom and popular culture In the aftermath of World War II, the United States emerged as the world's leading industrial power. All Americans suffered to some degree during the Great Depression. Be on the lookout for your Britannica newsletter to get trusted stories delivered right to your inbox. The wearing of Sunglasses became popular in the 30's . The Great Depression, when compared to... Who was the member of Congress who voted against... 1920s American Culture: City Life & Values, 8th Grade US History: Homeschool Curriculum, High School US History: Homework Help Resource, High School US History: Tutoring Solution, Middle School US History: Help and Review, TCI History Alive The United States Through Industrialism: Online Textbook Help, History 106: The Civil War and Reconstruction, ILTS Social Science - History (246): Test Practice and Study Guide, SAT Subject Test World History: Practice and Study Guide, Biological and Biomedical Economic thought varies over time. Women: During the 1920's, many women found employment working low paying jobs in cities, including retail clerking,office typing, nursing and teaching, which were soon classified as "women's work". Grace Abbott , who had been head of the Children’s Bureau in the 1920s, taught at the University of Chicago’s School of Social Service Administration in the 1930s, where her sister, Edith Abbot, served as dean. We will be covering each year very soon, but in the meantime, please enjoy over 100 pictures below of nearly every car that was sold in the 1930s. But it was a case of two steps forwards, one step back. How Did Popular Culture Change During the 1920s? Carrot tops, turnip tops and wooden tops were whipped up and down the streets and pavements as there was little traffic. Inexpensive amusements included backyard games, puzzles, card games, and board games such as Monopoly, which was introduced in 1935. It was sweeping the country, leading to a greater acceptance of African American culture. The indifference to politics and to the larger social concerns of the 1930s was reflected as well in the popular culture of the decade. King Kullen, the first supermarket in the United States, opens on August 4, 1930. Big band or swing music becomes popular (from 1935 onward) Popular Culture. The 1930s (pronounced "nineteen-thirties", commonly abbreviated as the "Thirties") was a decade of the Gregorian calendar that began on January 1, 1930, and ended on December 31, 1939. Themes: Art, music and popular culture, European influence Published: 25 May 2016 Andrew Dickson explores the vibrant, experimental and precarious culture that developed in Weimar Germany in the 1920s and early 1930s, where figures such as Paul Klee, Kurt Weill and Christopher Isherwood were making art, music and literature.