Optimism In The 1920s

1000 Words4 Pages
“For some reason, I just loved it. There was a sense of optimism and joy in the 1920s.” A quote written by a great English author who was inspired by 1920 America or as we now know it, “The Roaring 20s”. The 1920s was a time of prosperity, cultural distinction, and new technology. America experienced a new type of economy, a type of boom in the industry. The empiricism of the Roaring 20s introduced new economic growth, new social groups, and arts and culture. First, America witnessed a huge economic advancement. There was a big increase in consumer spending. When Harding took office in 1921, the country was actually on the verge of economic depression along with inflation and a 20% unemployment rate, but Harding came into office and immediately…show more content…
This art was showed in the tallest building of that time, The Chrysler Building. Another style of art was the motion picture. The films being created were silent, black and white, but music would be played in the background. Warner Brothers released their first movies in 1926 called, “The Jazz Singer”, and this movie included limited talking scenes. Cartoons also soon became very popular in the movie theatres. This was the first emergence of Mickey Mouse by Walt Disney in the production, “Steamboat Willie”. Next, the Harlem Renaissance emerged in Harlem New York. This was the African-American literary and culture explosion. Poets such as Langston Hughes wrote beautiful poetry and also composed plays that were all African-American. Thanks to all this music, dance clubs became immensely popular in the 1920s. Different types of musical genres were offered at the clubs and people loved to dance to them, so much, that all across the US dance clubs offered dance contests were people would try out new moves and such. The most famous dances during the 20s were foxtrot, waltz, and American tango, mind you, that this was the first time that a man and women would hold each other while dancing, or come into any contact. Soon, more excited dances came around known as the breakaway and the famous Charleston. Both of these dances were based on African-American style and music beats, which also introduced the world-renowned blues. The Charleston involved types of dance such as tap, which was shown in many Broadway shows. The Charleston became the most popular social dance in the US during the 1920s. Aside from all this dancing, people’s sexuality changed as well. People became more open with there sexuality. Although not like today but the openness of homosexuality emerged, as did sexual provocativeness. Women began to show cleavage and rise their skirts from the classic
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