Music of the 1930s

Popular Music American popular music from the 1930's reflects the cultural and social conditions that shaped the American identity during the period. The popular music of the thirties can be used as a lens to better understand the collective memory of the American people during a decade marked by the Depression, emerging technologies and the growing population of cities as many Americans relocated from rural areas.  Over the course of the thirties American taste in music changed dramatically. The decade of the 1930's can be divided into two halves, 1930-1934 and 1935-1939, for the music of the period lends itself to such a division.

1930-1934 Songs from 1930-1934 feature regionally popular artists performing "race records," "hillbilly," and "ethnic" music from the southern and western states until the economic strain of the Depression precluded such endeavors. The jazz and blues music clearly demonstrate the emergence of significant musical forms with selections by pre-swing greats Louis Armstrong and Fletcher Henderson. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CnEotIqMKg

1935-1939 Songs from the middle of the decade to the end represents the emerging modern forms of American popular music. One can hear the fine-tuning of rhythm and blues in works by Ellington, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald and Cleo Patra Brown. The swing era is realized with recordings of Tommy Dorsey, Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw. Stars on the silver screen and in the sound booth, Fred Astaire and Judy Garland let us know of an alliance between the Hollywood machinery, the record industry and radio that grew in strength and influence as the decade wore on. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STo7KTPNM2I

Woody Guthrie Woodrow Wilson “Woody” Guthrie is arguably the most influential American folk musician of the first half of the 20th century. He is best known for his folk ballads, traditional and children’s songs, and improvised works, often incorporating political commentary. Woody Guthrie is closely identified with the Dust Bowl and Great Depression of the 1930s. His songs from that time period earned him the nickname “Dust Bowl Troubadour.” Like many other "Dust Bowl refugees," Guthrie spent his time hitchhiking, riding freight trains, and when he could, quite literally singing for his supper.

Woody Guthrie With his guitar and harmonica, Guthrie sang in the hobo and migrant camps, developing into a musical spokesman for labor and other left-wing causes. These hardscrabble experiences would provide the bedrock for Guthrie's songs and stories. Many of his works—“Do Re Mi,” “I Ain’t Got No Home,” “Talking Dust Bowl,” and others—chronicle the difficult conditions faced by the working class Okies in their new home. At the close of the 1930s, Guthrie left California for New York City. It was there that he wrote his best-known song, “This Land Is Your Land.” Guthrie passed away of complications from his Huntington's Chorea on October 3, 1967. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FE307ZO3AvM