1920's American Music and Fashion

1920’S AMERICAN MUSIC AND WOMENS
FASHION.

The 1920’s marked the beginning of the music area for America, with radio first being introduced to the nation. Gospel (spiritual) and African American Blues music highlighted the era with expressions of religious faith by slaves and incorporated indigenous music with American values. Blues was a combination of African work songs, field hollers and shouts. The African American basis for popular music used elements derived from European and indigenous musics. The spiritual music that arose from the era increased the spiritual growth of America, which later resulted in the highly spiritual American nation we have today. ‘In 1871 Fisk University became home to the Jubilee Singers, a pioneering group that popularized spirituals across the country’ (‘America during the 1920s’, modified 2008, viewed 10th of March 2008, http://www.kyrene.k12.az.us/schools/brisas/sunda/decade/1920.htm). Religion became increasingly popular throughout the 1920s due to the increased and well developed gospel music.

The American musical theatre shows often influenced the production of blues, jazz and country music styles. Early forms of the blues evolved in and around the Mississippi Delta in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The earliest blues music was primarily known as call-and-response vocal music, without harmony or accompaniment and without any formal musical structure. Slaves and their descendants created the blues by adapting the field shouts and hollers, turning them into passionate solo songs. The blues and gospel songs also got combined at times during the 190s in America. This happened often during the 20s since religion was becoming a hugely important issue spreading right into African American religious communities. One gospel composer that also used elements of the African American Blues and jazz was Thomas A. Dorsey.

This area of study does reflect hugely in the cultural industry, due to its previous influence on representing culture. Music helped define the American nation and way of escaping the very troubles of that society during the 1920s. Fashion was depicted as a bold statement illustrating the artistic forms of design and proved how people were able to express themselves. Both music and fashion was a way of expressing the times individuality and creativeness. Culture was defined by the way people were able to escape their troubled times and express different approaches to the morals and values of the time.

A new era of fashion also began during the 1920s in American. Inspiration for the fashion during America in the 1920s was from the Aesthetic and Rational Dress Reform Movements of the late 19th century. American designers often used theatrical designs from theatre shows of the era as inspiration. ‘A piece of fashion began in the 1920s in America; however the Flappers did not truly emerge until 1926’(‘Fashion of the 1920s’, modified 2008, viewed 10th of March 2008,
http://www.rambova.com/fashion/fash4.html). Fashionable women during the 1920s in America would have very short hair and a shorter than average shapeless shift dress, and chest as flat as a board.

Women wore make up and applied it in public, smoked with a long cigarette holder, and exposed her shoulders. Fashion before the 1920s was made for the rich and famous. The ‘flapper’ dress was less expensive and complicated to develop; this made them a more successful fashion item to buy and even individual make at home. ‘The ‘flapper’ Skirts only revealed the knee briefly between 1926 and 1928, and this was the only period when evening dresses were short in line with day dress lengths’ (‘Fashion of the 1920s’, modified 2008, viewed 10th of March 2008,
http://www.rambova.com/fashion/fash4.html). Calf length skirts remained popular between 1920 and 1924, however longer skirts were a more fashionable item. Skirt lengths on dresses gave the illusion of being first long and then shorter with dipping, scalloped and handkerchief hemlines in floating fabrics. The height of the ‘flapper’ fashion item during the 1920s was the whole leg as far as the kneecap being revealed.

REFERENCE LIST:

‘America during the 1920s’, modified 2008, viewed 10th of March 2008, http://www.kyrene.k12.az.us/schools/brisas/sunda/decade/1920.htm).


‘Fashion of the 1920s’, modified 2008, viewed 10th of March 2008,
http://www.rambova.com/fashion/fash4.html