by Augustine Bauer

Created on: December 17, 2009   Last Updated: January 15, 2010

‘The Jazz Age,’ a term coined by F. Scott Fitzgerald, came to signify everything about the Flapper lifestyle of the 1920s. Despite Prohibition, alcohol flowed freely in most American households, and the youth set out to shock their elders. Cutting their hair, shortening their skirts, and abandoning corsets young women dismayed their more conventional parents. As the youth of the age sought freedom and the chance to make their own choices, their parents looked for something on which to place the blame. Jazz music quickly became that something.

 A uniquely new form of music, Jazz, which arose from the African American communities, was louder and more vibrant than anything the older generation had ever listened to. For young Flappers it seemed to symbolize the fast paced race of society in the 1920’s. Although it quickly became hugely popular with the youth, their parents condemned it and blamed everything from loose sexual morals to drunkenness upon the influence of Jazz.

 While some historians have speculated that the youth clung to Jazz as a means of aggravating their parents, others claim that the young generation would have fallen in love with Jazz anyway. Either way, dances such as the fox trot and the Charleston became immensely popular as jazz played late into the night.

During the ‘Roaring 1920s’ productivity expanded rapidly and many Americans began to purchase luxury goods and holidays. Affordable canned food and factory made clothing freed women from many household duties, while Ford’s Model-T and personal airplanes made travel easier and encouraged tourism.

The youth of the age were free from the responsibilities placed upon their parents by World War I and upon their children by the Great Depression and World War II. They lived in an age of immediate pleasure, and luxury goods. Irresponsible spending and financial speculation were common and would eventually lead to the stock market crash of 1929.

The feeling of the age was one of confidence and indestructibility. With the stock market on a permanent rise and new inventions making life easier, it seemed that times were good. Charles Lindbergh made his transatlantic flight and Alvin Kelly set flagpole-sitting records. The youth felt that they could do anything; the economy certainly seemed indestructible. The young generation of rich and well-educated ‘rebels’ lived irresponsibly and pleasurably, as the country seemed to take care of itself and jazz music could be heard round every street corner. What came next is another article on another age…

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