The Jazz Age
•
A 1920s (“Roaring Twenties”) movement
from which jazz and dance (Charleston) emerged
• Coincided with the end of WW1 and the start of mainstream radio
• Era ended by the Great Depression
• Predominantly in USA, England and France
• Jazz (originally African-American) become socially acceptable to the white middle-classes
• NY and Chicago were jazz cultural hotspots
• Synonymous with younger generation rebelling against their elders
• Fashion became a bold statement of identity
• Women’s suffrage (rights of women) is associated strongly with the age
• Women had entered workforce during war and got used to their newfound independence
• Ideas like equality and free sexuality were very popular (flappers: women who flaunted their disdain at what was deemed ‘socially acceptable behaviour for women’)
• Protestant wariness of alcohol led to conservative law of ‘Prohibition’ in USA, which outlawed manufacture, sale & consumption
• This led to bootlegging, the “speakeasy”, Al Capone & Elliot Ness, etc.
• Coincided with the end of WW1 and the start of mainstream radio
• Era ended by the Great Depression
• Predominantly in USA, England and France
• Jazz (originally African-American) become socially acceptable to the white middle-classes
• NY and Chicago were jazz cultural hotspots
• Synonymous with younger generation rebelling against their elders
• Fashion became a bold statement of identity
• Women’s suffrage (rights of women) is associated strongly with the age
• Women had entered workforce during war and got used to their newfound independence
• Ideas like equality and free sexuality were very popular (flappers: women who flaunted their disdain at what was deemed ‘socially acceptable behaviour for women’)
• Protestant wariness of alcohol led to conservative law of ‘Prohibition’ in USA, which outlawed manufacture, sale & consumption
• This led to bootlegging, the “speakeasy”, Al Capone & Elliot Ness, etc.