Jazz was really popular in the 1920s. It also brought Americans and African Americans combined together. They played jazz music together and danced together at the clubs. Women had changed their clothing and their behaviors. They wore flappers to entertain the men at the clubs. They also loved dancing along with jazz music. Jazz is really important because it brought everyone together as one. As the 1920's wore on, jazz, despite competition from classical music, rose in popularity and helped to generate a cultural shift (Figure 2). Dances like the Charleston, developed by blacks, instantly became popular among younger demographics. With the introduction of large-scale radio broadcasts in 1922, Americans were able to experience different styles of music without physically visiting a jazz club.
In 1920's America - known as the Jazz Age, the Golden Twenties or the Roaring Twenties - everybody seemed to have money. The nightmare that was the Wall Street Crash of October 1929, was inconceivable right up until it happened. The 1920’s saw a break with the traditional set-up in America. The Great War had destroyed old perceived social conventions and new ones developed. The young set themselves free especially, the young women. They shocked the older generation with their new hair style (a short bob) and the clothes that they wore were often much shorter than had been seen and tended to expose their legs and knees. The wearing of what were considered skimpy beach wear in public could get the Flappers, as they were known, arrested for indecent exposure. They wore silk stockings rolled just above the knee and they got their hair cut at male barbers. The President of Florida University said the low cut gowns and short skirts "are born of the devil they are carrying the present generation to destruction".
The Roaring Twenties was alternatively known as The Jazz Age. This "movement" in which jazz music grew in popularity by immense standards in the U.S., also influenced other parts of the world. Throughout the 1920's many people took an interest in music. They owned pianos, played sheet music, and listened to records. The birth of jazz music is often accredited to African Americans, though it soon expanded to America's white middle class. Jazz, therefore, was characterized by a meshing of African American traditions and ideals with white middle class society. Cities like New York and Chicago were hotbeds for jazz, especially for black artists. African American jazz was played more frequently on urban radio stations than on its suburban counterparts. The youth of the 1920's was influenced by jazz to rebel against the traditional culture of previous generations. This youth rebellion went hand-in-hand with fads such as bold fashion statements (flappers) and new radio concerts. As jazz flourished, American elites, who preferred classical music and sought to expand its popularity, hoped that jazz wouldn't become mainstream.