How Did Jazz Age Affect Society

The early 20th century was a time of dramatic technological and social change. America was protected by the Atlantic Ocean and American interests became more affiliated with the global economy. In the 1900s automobiles were seen as a luxury item that only the rich could afford, but with Henry Ford’s assembly line the price of cars became much cheaper. Changes in communication were also taking off. Alexander Graham Bell’s invention of the telephone became more widespread and the invention of radio revolutionized communication. Americans now listened to music, baseball games, news and even the president within their own home. Identity was changing and its culture within the technology had changed the social lives of Americans. By the turn of
The illegalization of alcohol and the rise of speakeasies played a part in the music's evolution during its initial times. Jazz musicians found plenty of employment opportunities in the abundant new nightspots. Performers were usually always the only African Americans allowed inside the clubs. Most club owners were concerned only on money. Racial progress was not on their plan and many regulars of the clubs were not troubled about the decision to keep the club mostly all white and male. Most club owners, in contrast did not allow women to drink inside their clubs. They encouraged women to drink, but off the premises. Many women were clenching on their new-found independence by living the flapper life. “Having recently secured the right to vote, America's women rose up in early 1922 to defend an even more fundamental liberty: the right to smoke” (1922). This new-found freedom originated not only from the right to vote and smoking but also from careers, living alone and taking pleasure. Throughout Prohibition, women were compensated by speakeasy owners to take advantage of credulous men. Prohibition destroyed old social inequalities. In New York speakeasies, wealthy people and regular citizens, men and women all intermingled. They had two mutual goals, getting their hands on the best illegal alcohol they could find, and at the same time avoiding getting caught by the
Americanization was a political movement destined to change social behavior. Native born white Protestants saw the increase of immigration as a threat, in their supremacy by their population now being defied by Catholics and Jews from Southern and Eastern Europe. The fear of losing control was demonstrated in the language of racism and nativism. Unlike Protestants, Catholics and Judaists incorporated the sacramental use of wine, which caused the people of Southern and Eastern Europe to be seen with a degree of wariness by the Protestants. In spite of the aim to make Prohibition a tool of incorporation, the law ended up doing the exact opposite. The Volstead Act brought out behaviors that did not forced them into the conventional culture instead they continued their ways and found themselves even further outside the American way of