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The economic evolution of consumerism in the late 19th century and the early 20th century was marked by the advent of credit and the growing popularity of consumer goods. Many products were put within reach of average Americans, making it possible to purchase automobiles and other previously elite items (Chapman 18). From the technological standpoint, that era in music could be characterized by the domination of new sources of mass media, such as radio, television, and film. The demand for a vast array of entertainment sources grew uncontrollably and contributed to the development of a paradigm where art and business could be combined (Smalley and Reeves 104).
The culture of consumerism in the early 20th century generated an increased level of power for record labels and new distribution channels. A thorough understanding of cultural transformations in the 1920s United States can be established through the popularity of advertising and the impact of the consumer economy on the audience (Crocker 61). It was evident that both artists and the most prominent record labels tried to utilize consumerism to reach out to different types of listeners.
The music of the United States of America represents a very bright and distinctive layer of world culture. Since America is a country of immigrants, in this amazingly ethnically and racially diverse conglomerate of nations and people, a unique culture of its kind was formed. And each ethnic group brought its own characteristic features to this culture. The contribution of African Americans to the musical culture of the country was especially valuable. Former slaves, and then their descendants, brought to the music of the New World that unique flavor that now distinguishes it from other musical cultures of the peoples of the world. Labor songs, spiritual hymns and chants, blues, and then jazz – these are the true origins of American music, which gave it this specific flavor.
On the other hand, the music of the USA was based on the traditions of European professional music. If the African–American culture gave the music of the New World a rhythmic basis and freedom of expression, then the European one – form, harmony, and thematic development. The path to national identity was not simple and thorny. American composers have been looking for a way to achieve national identity for a long time, but the Czech composer Antonin Dvorak, who worked in the USA at the end of the XIX century, was the first to find it. His String Quartet (1892) and symphony “From the New World” (1893), despite their predominantly Czech flavor, “suggested” to young authors which way to go: to look for a national grain in the folklore of the country – Indian, African-American, in the experience of masters of the European school (Malone & Laird, 2018).
Then came the time of jazz, which radically changed the idea of American music, giving it a new, national-specific flavor. The best samples of jazz, based on folk sources, represented the richest material for the creativity of composers. In the 1920s and 1930s, jazz sounded everywhere, but it was represented by different samples – from the original, improvisational in nature, to entertaining, commercial, very far from its folk basis. Original jazz music inspired composers to create new musical works.
Work Cited
Chapman, Jane. “The Argument of the Broken Pane: Suffragette Consumerism and Newspapers.” Redefining Journalism in the Era of the Mass Press, 1880-1920. Routledge, 2018. 14-27.
Crocker, Robert. Somebody Else’s Problem: Consumerism, Sustainability, and Design. Routledge, 2017.
Malone, Bill C., and Tracey E. Laird. Country Music USA. The University of Texas Press, 2018.
Smalley, Andrea L., and Henry M. Reeves. The Market in Birds: Commercial Hunting, Conservation, and the Origins of Wildlife Consumerism, 1850–1920. JHU Press, 2022.
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