The Roaring Twenties

If you are thinking of having a Roaring Twenties theme party or evening then you have arrived at the right place. We are the UK's premier disco for roaring twenties music. We have hosted a Roaring Twenties Theme Jazz Festival on Hayling Island and help with the annual Upton Upon Severn Jazz festival one of the Uk's largest Jazz festival's. The result of our work within the Live Jazz scene is that we have compiled a huge library of authentic music from the 1920's recorded by the very best bands and musicians of today with the latest technology for perfect reproduction.

Jazz has its roots in the early 20th century and in particular evolved during the 1920's aided by prohibition. I have noticed on numerous occasions when the word Jazz is mentioned in conversation that eyes begin to roll and most would say that they dislike Jazz, yet in the next sentence most would often say they like Glen Miller or Frank Sinatra music. In fact Glen Miller was primarily a big band leader that maintained a form of order and discipline within his orchestra of jazz musicians. This order and discipline was maintained by the conductor directing the musicians to a fixed musical score (arrangement). At times the music of Glen Miller and other band leaders such as Tommy Dorsey is un mistakenly Jazz orientated but often a new ingredient has been added, this ingredient is known has Swing yet the music genre still is known as Jazz. Even today most music can still linked back to its Jazz roots. The swing ingredient started to evolve during the 1920s and is still evolving today. I often find the Jazz that people do not enjoy is the undisciplined style where the musicians are free to express themselves artistically to the extent that some members of an audience can not derive a recognized tune or direction. Certain films made during the 1960s experimented with this style of Jazz during mountain pass car chase scenes to express the excitement and danger of the scene.

Fortune would have it that the majority of the music during the roaring twenties is based on fun and romance and certainly promotes foot tapping and dancing. Most of us born post 1960 would be amazed that many songs we relate to certain Singers or Bands of our own era, were in fact written and originally performed during the 1920s these songs are known as evergreens transcending time and generations.

Article by Shaun Moncaster

Roaring Twenties is a phrase used to describe the 1920s, principally in North America, that emphasizes the period's social, artistic, and cultural dynamism. Normality returned to politics in the wake of World War I, jazz music blossomed, the flapper redefined modern womanhood, Art Deco peaked, and finally the Wall Street Crash of 1929 served to punctuate the end of the era, as The Great Depression set in. The era was further distinguished by several inventions and discoveries of far-reaching import, unprecedented industrial growth and accelerated consumer demand and aspirations, and significant changes in lifestyle.

The social and societal upheaval known as the Roaring Twenties began in North America and spread to Europe in the aftermath of World War I. Europe spent these years rebuilding and coming to terms with the vast human cost of the conflict. The Government of the United States did little to aid Europe, opting rather for an isolationist stance. By the middle of the decade, economic development soared in Europe, and the Roaring Twenties broke out in Germany (the Weimar Republic), Britain and France, the second half of the decade becoming known as the "Golden Twenties". In The spirit of the Roaring Twenties was marked by a general feeling of discontinuity associated with modernity, a break with traditions. Everything seemed to be feasible through modern technology. New technologies, especially automobiles, movies and radio proliferated 'modernity' to a large part of the population. Formal decorative frills were shed in favor of practicality, in architecture as well as in daily life. At the same time, amusement, fun and lightness were cultivated in jazz and dancing, in defiance of the horrors of World War I, which remained present in people's minds. The period is also often called "The Jazz Age".

Jazz Age

The first commercial radio station in the United States, KDKA, began broadcasting in Pittsburgh in 1922. Radio stations subsequently proliferated at a remarkable rate, and with them spread the popularity of jazz. Jazz became associated with all things modern, sophisticated, and also decadent. Men tended to sing in a high pitched voice, typified by Harold Scrappy Lambert, one of the popular recording artists of the decade.

The music that people consider today as "jazz" tended to be played by minorities. In the 1920s, the majority of people listened to what we would call today "sweet music", with hardcore jazz categorized as "hot music" or "race music." Louis Armstrong marked the time with improvisations and endless variations on a single melody, popularizing scat singing, an improvisational vocal technique in which nonsensical syllables are sung or otherwise vocalized, often as part of a call-and-response interaction with other musicians on-stage.

Apart from the clarinet, Sidney Bechet also popularized the saxophone. Dance venues increased the demand for professional musicians and jazz adopted the 4/4 beat of dance music. Tap dancers entertained people in Vaudeville theaters, out in the streets or accompanying bands. At the end of the Roaring Twenties, Duke Ellington initiated the big band era.

Dance

Starting in the 1920s, ballrooms across the U.S. sponsored dance contests, where dancers invented, tried, and competed with new moves. Professionals began to hone their skills in tap dance and other dances of the era throughout the Vaudeville circuit across the United States. Electric lighting made evening social entertainment more comfortable, giving rise to an era of dance halls and live music. The most popular dances were the fox-trot, waltz and tango, and the Charleston.

Harlem played a key role in the development of dance styles. With several entertainment venues, people from all walks of life, all races, and all classes came together. The Cotton Club featured black performers and catered to a white clientele, while the Savoy Ballroom catered to a mostly black clientele.

From the early 1920s, a variety of eccentric dances were developed. The first of these were the Breakaway and Charleston. Both were based on African-American musical styles and beats, including the widely popular blues. The Charleston's popularity exploded after its feature in two 1922 Broadway shows. A brief Black Bottom craze, originating from the Apollo Theater, swept dance halls from 1926 to 1927, replacing the Charleston in popularity. By 1927, the Lindy Hop, a dance based on Breakaway and Charleston and integrating elements of tap, became the dominant social dance. Developed in the Savoy Ballroom, it was set to stride piano ragtime jazz. The Lindy Hop remained popular for over a decade, before evolving into Swing dance. These dances, nonetheless, were never mainstreamed, and the overwhelming majority of people continued to dance the fox-trot, waltz and tango throughout the decade.

Fashion and the changing role of women

Main article: Flapper

After World War I, many American and European families needed to replace the incomes of the family fathers lost in battle; women often accepted jobs and moved outside the home. The change was reflected in the media: the garçonne-look portrayed the ideal woman as an androgynous, working woman that had reached equality with men while simultaneously possessing the appeal of the femme fatale. Pantsuits, hats and canes gave women a sleek look without frills while avoiding the fickleness of fashion. The style was named after the novel La garçonne by Victor Margueritte. In Europe, this look featured women with short hair (Bubikopf) for the first time; in the U.S., the bob was popularized by actresses in the early 1920s. As a result of this move towards practical androgyny, corsets went out of style, and some women even bandaged their breasts to make them look flatter. Flappers, as these women were called in the U.S., wore short dresses with a straight loose silhouette. By 1927, hemlines had risen to just below the knee and they remained there until 1930 when they dropped back down again.

Cinema

At the beginning of the decade, films were silent and colorless. In 1922, the first all-color feature, Toll of the Sea, was released. In 1926, Warner Bros. released Don Juan, the first feature with sound effects and music. In 1927, Warner released The Jazz Singer, the first sound feature to include limited talking sequences.

The public went wild for talkies, and movie studios converted to sound almost overnight. In 1928, Warner released Lights of New York, the first all-talking feature film. In the same year, the first sound cartoon, Dinner Time, was released. Warner ended the decade by unveiling, in 1929, the first all-color, all-talking feature film, On with the Show.

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