American Popular Culture (1930s-1960s) Essay Example
Morgan Young
Hist 322
6/15/11
Final Exam
The 1930s through the 1960s was an extremely critical and pivotal moment in American popular culture. Movies, radio and music changed with the movements of the decades and are arguably the best representations of how the cultures were influencing everyday life. If you want to understand a population of people you have to understand their culture, and the American popular culture has and continues to be a part of everyday life. During the 1930s and World War II, the biggest resource historians use to analyze that popular culture would be the radio. According to lecture, radios finest years were during this decade due in great part to the Great Depression. Tons of talk-shows and variety shows started appearing, as well as the start of radio comedy. These comedies proved to be large impacts on the culture and changed the everyday American language, thoughts, and cultural perceptions. The Eddie Cantor Variety Show that aired from 1931 through 1934 was a vaudeville style comedy that lifted the depressed spirits of those devastated by the economic crisis through tones of optimism and patriotism. The radio was used as an escapist tool, giving families the opportunity to forget their worries and troubles brought on from situations outside the family household (Lipsitz 39-45). Families gathered around the radio every night, usually after dinner time, and tuned into to westerns, variety shows, children’s programs and soap operas. All of these programs were themed around the idea that while times may be harsh and depressing, people can still tune in to their home radios and enter a world where high morals are valued, women’s duties are to their family solely, and good always will triumph over evil. People took comfort in the fact that no matter how bad times could be, there was still an opportunity to remember the good times they had and the good times that would eventually come again. This decade was also considered “the
Hist 322
6/15/11
Final Exam
The 1930s through the 1960s was an extremely critical and pivotal moment in American popular culture. Movies, radio and music changed with the movements of the decades and are arguably the best representations of how the cultures were influencing everyday life. If you want to understand a population of people you have to understand their culture, and the American popular culture has and continues to be a part of everyday life. During the 1930s and World War II, the biggest resource historians use to analyze that popular culture would be the radio. According to lecture, radios finest years were during this decade due in great part to the Great Depression. Tons of talk-shows and variety shows started appearing, as well as the start of radio comedy. These comedies proved to be large impacts on the culture and changed the everyday American language, thoughts, and cultural perceptions. The Eddie Cantor Variety Show that aired from 1931 through 1934 was a vaudeville style comedy that lifted the depressed spirits of those devastated by the economic crisis through tones of optimism and patriotism. The radio was used as an escapist tool, giving families the opportunity to forget their worries and troubles brought on from situations outside the family household (Lipsitz 39-45). Families gathered around the radio every night, usually after dinner time, and tuned into to westerns, variety shows, children’s programs and soap operas. All of these programs were themed around the idea that while times may be harsh and depressing, people can still tune in to their home radios and enter a world where high morals are valued, women’s duties are to their family solely, and good always will triumph over evil. People took comfort in the fact that no matter how bad times could be, there was still an opportunity to remember the good times they had and the good times that would eventually come again. This decade was also considered “the