US Music of 1900-1920

Strike up the band!

Music has always played a vital role in all cultures. In the 1900-1920 era music reflected the times, as it often does still to this day. In the 1900-1920’s America was on a fast ever-changing ride. Everything was changing within our country, as well as how the world viewed us and our cultivating popular culture. We were now becoming a powerhouse world leader in economics, entertainment and human liberties. Workers called for unions, child labor laws and education. Women’s suffrage issues and race riots were recognized as a force that demanded to be heard. And equal liberties were demanded for all races and genders. We pumped out products faster than ever and bought them just as quickly; industries boomed with business and growth.

With all this excitement and boom in the midst of the Great War, or WWI, people were becoming more inclined to “let heir hair down” and dance the night and their stresses away at local jazz clubs and bars. They had a little more money to spend on entertainment, thanks to the economy, and music and dance halls were there to provide recreational leisure. Piano players, brass bands, ragtime (pre-jazz), and folk time musicals kept everyone on their toes in the dance halls to the back street bars.