PART THREE

I

n the years from World War I through

World War II, expansions in communi-

cations technolog y—phonograph, radio,

and motion pictures—transformed the

musical culture of the United States.

Phonograph records improved in qual-

ity as electrical recording developed through the

1920s, with important results. First, records grad-

ually replaced sheet music as the popular music

industry’s chief commercial product, transferring

to recording artists and record companies the cen-

tral role that songwriters and publishers had held

before. Second, burgeoning production of recorded

music in all three spheres of musical activity—

classical, popular, and traditional—created a rich

legacy for present-day historians and music lovers.

Recordings not only amplify the knowledge gained

from musical scores and other written documents

but also stand as artistic statements in themselves,

worthy of appreciation, preservation, and study.

Equally transformative was the advent of radio

and sound movies in the 1920s. Especially dur-

e Along with radio and improved phonograph recordings, motion pictures became an important medium for music in the years

between the world wars.

ing the Great Depression of the 1930s, radio and

movies offered relatively inexpensive entertain-

ment to millions of Americans. Even more impor-

tantly, they constituted, after newspapers, the fi rst

new mass media: networks of communication that

brought essentially the same content to all consum-

ers regardless of regional, economic, or ethnic dif-

ferences. The consequences were enormous for all

three spheres of musical activity. Records, radio,

and movies brought folk musicians before a much

wider audience and led to a formerly unimaginable

phenomenon: the professional folksinger. At the

same time, classical musicians used the new media

to democratize symphonic music. For a moment, at

least, the boundaries between the classical and pop-

ular spheres became somewhat permeable, as com-

posers like Aaron Copland wrote music for radio

and movies, while George Gershwin showed that a

Tin Pan Alley songwriter could reach the heights of

symphonic music and opera.

AMERICA’S MUSIC

FROM WORLD WAR I THROUGH WORLD WAR II

1931 William Grant Still, Afro-American Symphony

1933 John and Alan Lomax “discover” Leadbelly

1933–39 Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers make nine

fi lms for RKO

1934 Virgil Thomson, Four Saints in Three Acts

1935 Gershwin, Porgy and Bess

1935 The U.S. government inaugurates the Federal

Music Project

1936–40 Lester Young plays in Count Basie’s orchestra

1938 Benny Goodman’s orchestra performs at

Carnegie Hall

1939 Marion Anderson’s Easter Sunday concert at the

Lincoln Memorial, Washington, D.C.

1941 Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, and others form the

Almanac Singers

1942 First issue of Cash Box, a trade journal for the

jukebox business

1943 Duke Ellington’s Black, Brown, and Beige is

performed at Carnegie Hall

1943 Oklahoma! opens on Broadway

1944 Copland, Appalachian Spring

1945 Mary Lou Williams records her Zodiac Suite

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