Fashion
This time was scene as more of a somber decade, as the splendor and luxury of the Roaring 20s was replaced by frugal and simplistic fashion. Women wore dresses much longer than flapper dresses, often with soft waistlines. There were hardly enough jobs available for men, much less enough to encourage women to enter the workforce. The domestic expectations placed on women translated into hyperfeminine clothing. 'Fashion icons' of the era included Myrna Loy and Amelia Earhart. Sportswear and zippers emerged as popular and commonplace items in clothing.
Music
The Great Depression saw the mass transformation of jazz. Black people perhaps felt the effects of the economy the hardest, and the Harlem Renaissance came to a close. Many famous and spectacular jazz musicians went from riches to rags. As jazz began to collapse in on itself, a slightly altered version began to become popular - swing. JAZZ A Film By Ken Burns essentially argues that white people began to popularize a combination of jazz and Hollywood glamour and swing was born. Jazz and swing both helped different social groups through the dark times of the Great Depression.
Great post Julia! New magazines and other forms of written journalism also began around this time period. While Life magazine had been around sine 1883, Esquire and The New Yorker, both well established magazines today, had their beginnings in the 1920s and 1930s. Harold Ross had created The New Yorker as a humor magazine that would not invovle corny, but rather sophisticated humor. Esquire was a magazine geared towards men. The editors wanted it "to become the common denominator or masculine interests ... to be all things men". More people turned towards magazines to keep themselves entertained, which has contributed to the success of the magazines into today.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.hearst.com/magazines/esquire
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/412609/The-New-Yorker
https://vine.co/v/huq9n7jOnWl
DeleteI find it interesting about how when we think of the 30s, there's no sort of culture that pops into our heads. In almost every other decade in the 1900's there are always fashions or trends, but I think at this point in time, people were trying really hard to just stay alive, so they had no time to do anything "cultural"
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting to see the effects of the depression on more trivial things such as these. It isn't often that clothing or music is mentioned in textbooks, so this is a good way to get a little insight into the feel of the time. It will be interesting to see how people will look at our generation's culture in 80 years (if we're still around by then).
ReplyDeleteI knew the name Myrna Loy sounded familiar, but I couldn't place who she was. I googled her just to jog my memory, and realized that she was a famous actress from the 30s. I find it kind of amazing that she was able to make a living off of acting during the Depression. Myrna actually starred in dozens of films during this dismal decade, which finding out really surprised me. It turns out that, up until about 1933, as many as 80 million Americans were going to the movies every week. I assume they cherished the splurge and really valued how a good movie could distract them from all of their troubles.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.npr.org/2009/10/23/113844245/remembering-the-great-depressions-sunny-side
This is a very good post. I think it is very interesting to see how pop culture is impacted when the US economy is not doing very well. You don't hear very much about fashion and music from periods when the economy is very bad. However, I think the fact that Americans were still able to create a new dance and style of music shows the prevalence of the American's undying spirit.
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting this Julia! I research more about pop culture from this time and found how it changed literature as well. Due to the worries and struggles of people living during the Great Depression, many people turned to stories about heroes. Famous superheroes like Batman and Superman appeared during this era in comic books. Also, detective novels became increasingly popular. The 1930's were actually known as the Golden Age of Detective Fiction.
ReplyDeleteThis is a really interesting post, but do you know why things changed the way they did? It seems that the 1920's took a steep turn into for free clothing, and her it seems to have gone right back to more conservative clothing. Perhaps the style of people's clothing reflect the time period, and they did not feel so free?
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