Search - Bobbi Carrey :: Between the Wars

Between the World Wars, America was on a wild roller coaster ride. After peace was declared in 1918, the country soared to giddy heights in the Roaring ?20s, crashed deep into the Depression, climbed the long hill back to prosperity?and then found itself once again at war. The stresses created a new and altered nation, and popular culture reflected every fall back and leap forward. After World War I, popular music was still heavily influenced by Ragtime, its sound that of the tinny Victrola or the jangly player piano. The "hot" rhythms of the 20s grew directly out of the Ragtime craze, with the Charleston leading the way. This turbulent decade?marked by bathtub gin, flagpole sitting, flappers and Charlie Chaplin?was forever captured in the songs of the day. After the crash of 1929, the grim national mood inspired millions of Americans to turn on their radios and lose themselves in music. Broadway, Tin Pan Alley, and Hollywood all responded to the demand with an incredible outpouring of song. The ?30s are generally referred to as the "Golden Age" of American pop music, when the legendary names were at the peaks of their careers. Pop music continued to evolve, and by 1935, swing was generally recognized as the dominant style of music, and the Big Band era got underway. After 1935, politics took center stage and with the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941, America?s history as well as its popular culture were changed. Song after song captured America?s wartime spirit and sense of purpose, uniting the soldiers overseas with the women at home. American music, like all of society, was dramatically transformed by the tumultuous decades between 1918 and 1941. Through the medium of song, this recording explores American life and culture "between the wars."