Welcome to an aural exploration of the commodification of popular American music in the 1930's. Through song, text and imagery, you will discover how new fangled technologies and aggresive marketing tatics produced national memories of song, dance and stars.
The simplest way to move through the argument of this site would be to follow the catagories indexed to your left in the order listed.
Sets the scene of the 1930's, as the impact of the Great Depression affected the entertainment and recording industry.
A collection of 20 songs that captures the essence of the mainstream music of the first four years, and considers the growing popularity of regional records.
Welds together an influx of innovative recording technology, which in effect changed the sound of music, and American iconography.
A second collection of 20 songs from the second half of the decade, which resonate an infiltration of the widely marketed popularity of swing and screen ballads.
Despite the strong currents of mainstream music, an underground movement among African American jazz and blues musicians as well as that among folk music atrists thrived during this period.
Sumises the context and content of everything read, heard and seen, in addition to restating the argument.
A short description of the texts heavily relied upon to generate the written content, as well as a brief acknowledgment to the authors and producers of this site.
TECHNICAL NOTES
The 1930-1934 and 1935-1939 pages appear to be a single image of a jukebox. This is an interactive image, which will take a moment to load (while it does, it may appear that there is nothing on the page), may be activated by placing your cursor over the song title you wish to hear. A pop up window with that song and its description will then appear.
For those viewing this site with a modem or slower connection, be aware that the songs will sound jumpy and inconsistent. In such an event, pull the quicktime cursor to the beginning of the song once about 15% loads up. The song should then flow smoothly.
Many of these songs may also be reached by activating the hyperlinks embedded in the text and clickable images made available throughout this site.
As this site relies heavily on pop up windows, please deactivate any browser plugins that will disable these pop ups before exploring this web site.
