American Popular Music 1900 to 1950

Kingwood College Library

1900 to 1950

This American Popular Music from 1900 to 1950 Subject Guide , arranged chronologically, is intended as an overview of American history through its music. Music reflects the times, describing events and emotions. Often music offers a more accurate picture of people and events than any other medium..

MUSIC AWARDS

Country Music Awards Great site for country music trivia buffs. It contains awards and nominees; history; trivia, etc. from the 1967 show until the present.

Dove Awards, Gospel Music Established by the Gospel Music Association.

Grammy Awards, Nominations by area 43th Grammy Awards site, arranged by musical category.

MTV Music Awards Current year winners plus links to other music and entertainment sites.

International Bluegrass Music Awards Contains links to International Bluegrass Music Association membership info., regional reps, trade shows, current press releases, and two internet journals.

Tony Awards Contains an excellent database of musical theater awards and information dating back to 1947.

Tejano Music Awards Since 1980, Texas Talent Musicians Association (TTMA) has produced this annual event that showcases established and emerging talent from within the industry. Produced each year in San Antonio.

LYRICS - ALL PERIODS

International Lyrics Server Search database by artist, album title or song.

Froggies Novelty Song Lyrics Collection of the lyrics of the greatest novelty songs enjoying popularity in the United States of America during the first third of the twentieth century as transcribed from period phonograph recordings.

NIEHS Kids Pages Popular children's songs with words and midi files.

Children's Songs Contains a database of 155 popular and children's songs.

Historical Songs America's Story (Library of Congress) is designed for young people and contains authoritative information about music in America, presented in an entertaining way. Try these links - jump back in time and see, hear and sing.

Disney Song Lyrics The lyrics at this site are from fans from CD liners, songbooks, or from listening to the songs. Both sites are fine for lyrics. The first is more Disney World or Land - the second arranged by movies.

American Pop Music from 1900-1949

The turn of the century arrives and there are 45 states. Popular songs include When the Red, Red, Robin Comes Bob, Bob, Bobbing Along, I Wonder Who's Kissing Her Now ,and In the Good Old Summertime. Vaudeville is still swinging. Engineer John Luther Casey Jones was killed when his Cannonball Express collides with the rear of a freight train. The term "Tin Pan Alley" is coined to represent the cluster of song publishers located on 28th Street between Sixth Ave and Broadway in NYC. This is a period of excitement for the American music scene; plays on Broadway, motion pictures, gramophones, animated cartoons are developed. George M. Cohan, Florenz Ziegfeld, and Irving Berlin are on the scene. 1910 marks the beginning the popularity of ballroom dancing.

As the twentieth century approached music was lively. Enrico Caruso made records (not cylinders), Broadway was in full swing with musicals of Peter Pan and The Wizard of Oz. Songs of importance included Give My Regards to Broadway and Meet me in St. Louis (written for the Louisiana Purchase Exposition. The Boy Scouts and Camp Fire Girls were founded in 1910. Prohibition [Volstead Act, 1919] made speakeasies the place to be.

Song Lyrics of the early 20th Century Links to midi files online.

Tenorland - Enrico Caruso and other tenors Biographical essay and links to sound clips, art, and other information about this famous tenor.

History of Ball Room Dancing An essay on the history of this topic. Photos included

Boy Scout Songs The lyrics of boy scout songs

Camp Fire Songs Traditional camp fire songs.

American Folk Music from NPR

Blues

This genre created by African Americans is one of the few new art forms of modern times. Developed at the turn of the century, ex-slaves sang work songs filled with irony, imagery, and love - relief from the tensions of their lives. Many blues singers were recorded by talent scouts as they sang in the fields. While the blues is played all over the country today, it was of southern origin. Bessie Smith, the greatest of all blues singers, is called the "Empress of the Blues". She recorded in the 20s.

Blues Online Links to biographical, photos, discographies, and other information of the blues greats. This is a really wonderful site to get lost in.

The Apollo in Harlem Music in Harlem in the 1920's and 30's is considered the soul of black music. Short essays here on this topic.

BlueslinksGood links to Blues Magazines and books, also regional blues sites, such as Memphis, St. Louis and Chicago.

Delta Snake Blues NewsExcellent on-line blues zine

King Biscuit Time Blues Page with artist write-ups (with sound files), history, essays on blues women, country blues, Chicago blues, San Francisco Bay Area blues, and more.

Cascade Blues Association Particularly interesting legend gallery.

Jazz

This native American art form was originated in 1900 by black musicians, chiefly in New Orleans. Jazz spread throughout the entire world and remains the root of 20th century music. The Penguin Encyclopedia of Modern Music states that great black jazzmen did not get the recognition or the money they deserved because of racism, but jazz was never suppressed commercially. Early greats include Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton, and later Duke Ellington began to invent jazz composition for the big bands.

WNUR-FM Jazz Web at Northwestern University Authoritative educational site which contains biographical information, news on jazz music education, jazz festivals, etc... sax

Jazz Roots Absolutely great site on jazz roots, timelines, pictures, a mystery to solve, and netcast. Wonderful images - copyrighted.

Miles Davis Contains everything you've every wanted to know about Miles Davis.

Jazz Links A Chicago site for jazz artists to create their own web pages -- info. directly from the musicians.

American Music Center Home Page This site contains links to artists' member pages. The American Jazz Symposium home page is also here and it has good biographical information on many contemporary jazz artists.

World War I

The music of the times was reflected in the popular songs sung during the First World War (1913 - 1917). Americans changed words so they would not reflect the German language, i.e. frankfurters became hotdogs. Songs of this period included If Your Were the Only Girl in the World, How ya Gonna Keep 'em Down on the Farm (After They've Seen Paree), Keep the Home Fires Burning, and Hinky Dinky Parlay Voo . Wartime humorous songs were sung, too, Would you Rather Be a Colonel with an Eagle on Your Shoulder or a Private with a Chicken on Your Knee? A favorite, I'm Always Chasing Rainbows, was popular right after the war.

Irving Berlin Page Biographical information, links to other pages about Berlin.

Yankee Doodle Dandy, George M. Cohen Review of the 1942 musical - includes a poster of James Cagney.

Musicals and Theater

First Vaudeville and Burlesque onto the Broadway Musical, music played a major part on the stage during this time. This music continued before and after the First World War. A favorite musical, Showboat, included Ol' Man River sung by Paul Robeson. An early Gershwin musical, Porgy and Bess, was first performed in 1935 in the Alvin Theater in New York Rudy Vallee was a singing star in early talkies.

Precious Nonsense The newsletter of the Gilbert and Sullivan Society.

Roots of Theatrical Jazz Dance An essay on jazz at the turn of the century, from minstrelry forward.

Vaudeville Memories A great link leading you to other Vaudeville sites, performers of the Vaudeville stage, and trivia and information.

Burlesque The musical theatre at the turn of the century.

Ziegfeld and the Roaring Twenties From the Floradora girls to Jolson, 60 second audio clips, photos and annotations.

The Gilbert and Sullivan Archive Background history and a complete index to all of the operas, plays, and choral works included in the Gilbert and Sullivan Archive. Includes icons identifying plot summaries, librettos, clip art, midi files, and Web Operas. Many of their operettas were written before the turn of the century, but this great site is worth a look - especially since their work is still popular today.

Goodspeed Opera House Foundation Based in East Haddam CT; has an extensive musical theater research library and also publishes Show Music Magazine.

Yahoo! - Entertainment/Movies_and_Film/Title/Musicals Contains links to sites containing information on the shows, lyrics, songwriters, etc.. of the movie musical.

Big Band/Swing

Pianist Big bands were HUGE from 1935 - 1947. While not considered 'jazz', the bands often used jazz arrangements and their soloists played 'hot' arrangements. Glen Miller, Benny Goodman, Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey, Artie Shaw, and others led the hit parade. Many singers (Doris Day, Peggy Lee, Rosemary Cloony) got their start singing with the big bands.

The Original Bigbands Database Excellent site for information on Big bands in America and Europe. Also contains information on little known artists and musicians.

Duke Ellington Official site of Duke Ellington.

Frank Sinatra A comprehensive site which includes a photo gallery, interviews, netdocumentary, bigographical information and music.

Glenn Miller Festival Page Information on the 2003 festival held in Iowa

Swing Music Spans seven decades of jazz history, beginning with the 1930's.

World War II

Andrews Sisters

The music of the forties reflected the feeling of a nation at war. The New York Times cost two cents per copy and a gallon of gasoline was seventeen cents. Pro-War songs included We Did It Before and We Can Do It Again and Kiss the Boys Goodbye. I'll be Seeing You, sung by Bing Crosby and Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy by the Andrews Sisters [not Bette Midler :-)] were popular. Popular performers of the time included Glenn Miller, Judy Garland, Frank Sinatra, and the Mills Brothers. God Bless America written by Irving Berlin in 1917 was first performed by Kate Smith in 1938.

Bing Crosby Home Page

Lyrics, history, biography, television, reviews of his work. Great site!

Frank Sinatra This site contains lyrics for over 350 songs recorded by Frank Sinatra. Visit the home page and see albums, pictures, biographical information and more.

Media History Timeline Pretty nice time line of what was happening 'media wise' during this decade. Visit other decades

In 1949, RCA produced the 7 inch 45 r.p.m. disk with the large center hole and pretty much ends the reign of the 78 r.p.m. Country and Western enters the top ten for the first time with Slippin' Around sung by Margaret Whiting and Jimmy Wakely. Doris Day makes her film debut and Martin and Lewis appear on the scene. Visit our page to Music of the 1950s Through the Present - online in a state of construction.

Two books used in the writing of this page are:

The Great Song Thesaurus by Roger Lax and Fgreenerick Smith

The Penguin Encyclopedia of Popular Music edited by Donald Clarke