what do you think of the jazz age?

[bhryun]

i am glad to join this forum, as i see that the people have a great taste for other generations. i love mostly the 1920's 1930's and 1940's. there is just something about the people, the places, and i dont know what it is. if i see an old picture i cannot pull away from it. there is just something different about the people that was so cool and they all were happy and they were stylish, wearing nice suits and hats. its just that people were awesome back then. they didnt know anything else than style, and class, and friendship. they did not hate like they do these days. i will never be able to discribe what was in those people. also, the wemen were hot back then. they all were. these days wemen look like trash in comparison to wemen back then. im in love with wemen of that time period. maybe im crazy, but maybe someone feels the same way i do.

[ayresorchids]

I think it's great that you have an interest in the cultural history of a time before yours. I know I always have, too. Just as you have described of yourself, I've had a fascination with old photos and movies since my childhood.

 

It's important to remember that the past is always recalled through rose-colored glasses. As attractive as the pre-1950 scheme of things sometimes seems to me, I personally believe that there is much about today's world that is better.

 

There is no denying, however, that people were, as a rule, better-dressed than they are now! I sometimes think this is a reflection of a cultural shift to a preference for adolescence to adulthood. That is to say, back then everyone wanted to be a grownup, whereas these days everyone wants to appear as young as possible.

 

If you like the music of the period, you may enjoy this radio show:

 

http://www.wamu.org/programs/hjsn/

[bhryun]

thanks for that website! i love that kind of music. i have cd's of all of the big band and swing and stuff like that.

 

reguards,

srchpln

[nygirl1089]

btw theres a tommy dorsey link i have if u want it

i love that music 2

i thought i was the only one

my friends think im crazy cause im 15 n not in love w new music

its not bad but i prefer big band n swing

the ppl dressed beautifuly for everything

they always looked good n where always classy

 

[bhryun]

no, no. you are not crazy. glenn miller jimmy dorsey tommey dorsey andrews sisters hary james, they are all great. music these days is no good. just a bunch of sick stuff and cussing.

[KeithFromKC]

Don't know that I completely agree with your assessment of modern music, srchpin. It's not all "sick stuff and cussing." That's kind of a broad generalization. Just like in any other art medium, there are great things to be found, if you take the time to search them out. There truly is plenty of great music, literature, theater, and of course, movies, to be enjoyed. Of course, you know this. But I agree that there was something unique and wonderful about the Jazz Age. The 1920's were the high point of the era and there was something really special going on in so many facets of life.

 

The period was really a renaissance of sorts, with advances being made not only in entertainment, but in many aspects of culture, be it Fashion (which you mentioned), Architecture, Medicine, Sports, Politics, etc. Not just in the U.S., mind you, but worldwide. History shows that there was a 'freedom' in that era that was palpable and was evident in the great films, as well as the wonderful music being made at the time. It's as if the world was suddenly urgent to embrace the 20th Century and explore it's many possibilities. Movies were still pretty young, but there were Directors, Producers, and Stars whose innovations in acting and film-craft are still being utilized today.

 

Of course, the music being made in the Jazz Age was incredible and it's really cool that there are younger people like yourself, that are open-minded enough to give it a chance. I still enjoy all of the great films and music from that era, but having said that, I still find much to like in entertainment today. Not much of it would be considered mainstream, and I personally find that I have to really seek out good films, music, books, etc. It's just great to look back often at the classic films and music that paved the way for the really good things that we can experience today.

[nsallieharding]

I enjoy the music also, I've recorded tons of it off of public radio. It's so bouncy and goodtimes feeling that you can't help but enjoy it. The 1930's black movement is my favorite, the kind of stuff that influenced Bing Crosby during the 30's, and shows up in his early movies.

 

I enjoy the Art of the period also, which was influence by Jazz (Cubism, Abstract Expressionism, and Surrealism). I'm so lucky that I live just 2 hours away from Washington D.C., so that I can see all these great works of art on a regular basis.

[twangman9312]

I've also always been fascinated by this time period (20s through 40s, with somewhat less interest in the 50s). This interest came in part from watching the movies of that era and has ripened into a more general interest in history. Yes, we do look back with rose-colored glasses. I suppose that's because once a moment has passed the uncertainty is gone and it seems safer than the present.

 

When people find out how interested I am in those times they're often puzzled. They have no interest in anything that occurred outside their lifetimes. I can't imagine living that way. I'm sometimes asked if I'd like to have lived back then. Yes, I tell them, provided I could return to the present when having medical or dental problems.

 

If you're interested in the cultural history of the 20s and 30s you might want to consider finding a pair of books by Frederick L Allen: Only Yesterday (about the 1920s) and Since Yesterday (1930s). Each is a casual and rather conversational cultural history of a decade and each was written immediately following the decade which it's about.

[bhryun]

 

i will definantly buy those books,twangman9312.

 

i guess you are right. keithfromkc. some of the music is good, but not like rap and rock.

 

yes,nsallieharding the music is so swingy and fun. whats youre favorite? i personaly like glenn miller.

you must take me to washington sometime. lucky dog.

 

i appreciate other people that feel as i do of 20's 30's and 40's. it encourages me that i am not the only one.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[nsallieharding]

My favorites are anything by Irving Berlin,but "We're Having a Heat Wave" recorded in 1933 is one of the best. I also like Artie Shaw and Billy Holiday, Her song, "They Say" and "Why Don't You Do Right" are so good. The lyrics go like this----

 

You been goin round from door to door

letin other women make a fool out of you

Why don't you do right

Like some other men do

So get out of here

And, get me some money too.

 

Jazz Revisited on public radio plays these musicians.

[flickerknickers]

When I think of the Jazz Age I think Clara Bow. She was so adorably sassy, brassy, beautiful with incredible vitality in front of the cameras. Bow wore her new, short skirts like nobody else and she acted like one who would never have survived in the l900s when women were still wearing corsets, girdles and buttoned up to the chin. One of my favorite flapper movies is "Bare Knees" which starred the wonderful Virginia Lee Corbin, who died tragically young. Corbin plays a jazz mad flapper who visits her repressed sister and husband and turns everything upside down with her "flapper" ways and dress. Another great flapper movie stars Anita Page and Joan Crawford, l929's "Our Dancing Daughters." Crawford acts like she's just drunk a bottle of champagne and can't keep her feet still. In fact, nearly all the movies from the 20s show people who can't keep still. They're all shaking off the last vestiges of the Victorian era and those Jazz Mad gals with bobbed curls, short skirts and rolled stockings lead the pack!

[deeanddaisy666]

srchpln, I have a secret wish to be deposited to the Empire State Building in 1935 (yes, impending WWII and all), a la Time And Again, one of my favorite novels, so the Jazz Age, as you put it, is near and dear to me.

 

When you talk of the 1920's through the end of the 1940's, you're talking about a time that I wish I experienced. I would be dead now, sure, but what the hey? It beats walking through a supermarket with people talking on cell phones about which ham they're picking out.

 

Trust me, more than a few people feel the way you do. Current society (for the most part) has no manners and no class.

[bhryun]

Im a huge fan of jazz and big band music. A good chunck of my record collection is Benny Goodman,the Dorsey Brothers, Glenn Miller, Louis Armstrong, Harry James, etc. and I wish I had some Kay Kyser. But I cant see dismissing an entire genre of music as srchpln said with reference to 'rap and rock'. I cant vouch for rap because I dont like it or listen to it, but I do know there is lots of great rock music new and old, although the 'greats' are harder to find these days. The rest of my music collection extends from the 50's thru today-mostly rock-and its all good IMO. You are missing out on a lot of beautiful music by generalizing like that, I think.

[bhryun]

we are both so rare,stoneyburke666. i would give away anything to be living in the jazz age. i just cant discribe what it would be like. such a great style, everywhere, in everyone. and about the rap and rock.... theres nothing BAD about fast and loud music, but there will allways be violence, gang encouraging, cussing, crude and sexual stuff, its just not good to listen to. its what encourages people these days. that is why people are so crude these days, because they get encouraged by things like this. but back then.. wow! music was so awesome. it wasint crude, and you could actually tell what they were saying. they werent screaming like rock and stuff. but to those like stoneyburke666 and me, we all understand what was so cool and stylish about people back then. i just wish we could find a way to express it.

 

[bhryun]

In an interview a couple of years before her death in 1977, Joan Crawford happily reminisced about living in New York in the 1920's. She said that you could get a several course dinner at a nice restaurant for .50; cocktails were often .25; newspapers .03, and a decent apartment in a good neighborhood rented for $25.00 a month.

 

But I have always wondered about the long-term affects of consuming all that bathtub gin, etc. in that twelve year period of prohibition.

[bhryun]

I wish I could have lived during that time!

[shainablue1]

Nsallie, this is so sad, but I only have heard those lyrics because they were in " Who Framed Roger Rabbit" I saw as a kid. Yikes! The jazz age was cool, so sad I missed out.

[gregelektric]

British music hall!