Music Of The 20s

[Ferocious Q]

Al Capone

[Hungryfreak]

I'm not quite sure gunfire counts as music, unless you call it a very early industrial/musique concrète piece, haha.

See, wiseguy, you should poke your head in at the local speak easy and talk to the man jerking suds. He'll give you the straight talk, clue you in to which big bands are the cat's pajamas, and everything will be Jake.

I be hip with the lingo, soul brother

[WhiffleBallTony]

See, wiseguy, you should poke your head in at the local speak easy and talk to the man jerking suds. He'll give you the straight talk, clue you in to which big bands are the cat's pajamas, and everything will be Jake.

I think this is the most winsome post ever.

[cherokeesam]

You want to talk 20s music, Scott Joplin is where you should begin. Ragtime was the dominant song form of the decade, and Joplin was the most prolific composer of that genre.

The more famous jazz greats didn't really break big until the 30s, when you see the Golden Age of Dizzy Gillespie and Count Basie and Satchmo.

EDIT: Actually, checking: Joplin died in 1918, but his rags were still popular in the early 20s....The Entertainer and Alexander's Ragtime Band, for instance.

Check out Jelly Roll Morton and Duke Ellington for 20s jazz; but also keep in mind that the Delta blues really took off in the 20s. If you want to focus on the blues, start with Robert Johnson, godfather of the blues. Fascinating character.

[MronoC]

My musical taste kinda stops around the '30s with Robert Johnson and Benny Goodman. The only things I can think of that I have any familiarity with at all are the works of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill, specifically "Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny" (which included the Alabama Song, later covered by The Doors and David Bowie) and "Die Dreigroschenoper" ("The Threepenny Opera"), both of which were released in the late '20s, and are significant in being early cases of serious political commentary in music, or at least the earliest I'm aware of.

[polishdog90]

You know it's only the 2000s, right? The 2020s won't happen for another 11 years!

Unless your talking about the 1920s... which we all know music wasn't invented until the 1950s by blues/metal guitarist Led Zeppelin. Man that cat could play.

[harbingerofdoom]

look towards the opening of the grand ole opry. it was opened in 1925 and you will be able to gather a lot of stuff from there.... while i dont really care for the type of music they played, its historically significant and may be of use to you.

actual artists
Bessie Smith
King Oliver
Blind Lemon Jefferson
Sippie Wallace