By: Jaclyn, Adam, and Leah

The 1920's also referred to as the "Jazz Age", got its name because the lively, loose, jazz beat caught hold of the "carefree" spirit of the times. Jazz was developed from African American musicians that lived in New Orleans. New Orleans was home to one of the most famous and popular of all jazz artists, Louis Armstrong. He started getting into jazz when he was a kid, playing on a small tin horn. Later in life, Louis Armstrong learned how to play the trumpet. With other jazz musicians, he spread this new music that he played to most of American and parts of Europe.

Louis Armstrong

Popular culture during the Harlem Renaissance was influenced by sports, mass media, and contributions of African Americans. Most of todays popular culture had origins from the Harlem Renaissance. Most of Americans would spend their time driving their new car, playing games, talking on the phone, or even listening to the radio. For African Americans, their choices were limited because of their race and their income. So the African Americans would mostly spend their time playing on their instruments, so they would be good at playing jazz music.

The Harlem Renaissance (c. 1918–1935) was a blossoming of African American creative arts associated with the larger New Negro movement, a multifaceted phenomenon that helped set the directions African American writers and artists would pursue throughout the twentieth century.

The social foundations of the movement included the Great Migration of African Americans from rural to urban spaces and from South to North, dramatically rising levels of literacy, and the development of national organizations dedicated to pressing African American civil rights (the NAACP), “uplifting” the race and opening up socioeconomic opportunities (the National Urban League), and developing race pride.

Young Mamie Smith recorded “Crazy Blues” in New York in It is acknowledged as the first recorded blues and by today’s standards was a platinum smash hit. There are some commonalities between the blues and gospel although their contents are substantially different. The blues range from the slow and forlorn to the up-beat and downright bawdy.

Mamie Smith

In the early to late 20’s, Harlem was the center for African American blue singers recording on the “Race Record” labels, companies recording Black artists to sell to eager Black audiences. After Mamie, Bessie Smith was popular for many years and she sang pop tunes as well as blues.

( ) Bessie Smith started off as a street musician in Chattanooga, TN. By 1920, after developing a friendship with her mentor, she became one of the most famous blues singers. Despite the segregation and hating of the blacks, white people actually respected Bessie’s music and listened to her. Her nickname was “Empress of the Blues” as she became the most popular singer in America, selling records to both white and black audiences. QqNoak&feature=related

Jazz and Blues Clubs Jazz and Blues clubs were very popular when this style of music first surfaced. People would pay to get into the club, and they would listen to famous jazz and blues artists.

Music Then to Now? As you probably know, music definitely has changed from then to now. Blues was primarily what was listened to because of its “new” enterence into society. Now a days, it’s all about hip-hop, rap, and many other upbeat styles. Let’s just say, A “Bessie Smith” today would be like Christina Perri and a “Louis Armstrong” would be Drake.