1920's: Jazz Era & The Stock Market Crash

When and where did Jazz originate?

In the 1870's an African-American jazz group called The Jubilee Singers toured in different areas performing for white audiences. This was the beginning of African-American music groups performing live for audiences in America, and Europe. Because The Jubilee Singers were so successful, there influence began to spread among the areas they would perform in.
In America during the 1900’s, jazz became more and more popular within the South. New Orleans was known for their "Ragtime" jazz. As jazz grew in the South, people began to see these jazz performers at nationwide icons. (Some examples of these iconic jazz performers were: Scott Joplin a.k.a "The King of Ragtime", Jelly Roll Morton

Blackface Performers:

In the 1840-1900's people would attend shows that were known as "Minstrel Shows"; these shows would nowadays be considered an extremely racial form of entertainment. These Minstrel shows had both black and white performers also known as "blackface" performers. In the shows the white men would paint their faces black and perform as if they were African American men. They did this by adopting a certain appearance as well as persona that was supposed to resemble that of an American man. Minstrel shows would absolutely not be accepted in today's society and I am sure it is a part of America's history that most are not proud of.

Stock Market Crash/Great Depression- late 1920's
In the late 1920's there was a huge economic tragedy; the stock market crash. Unfortunately the crash was caused by a wide variety of components. In the early 1920's people started having new "outlooks" on life. The party scene became more intense for both men AND women. Women focused on becoming more rebellious and it started becoming a time where everyone wanted to "modernize". This was a huge time for consumers; families started buying more appliances and began living life the easy way. Businesses were booming and people found that the stock market was a good way to get wealthy. Unfortunately in October of 1929 the stock market declined 90% which led America into the squalor of The Great Depression.