music+in+the+1930's

Life and Music in the 30’s

A. The 30’s were a time of trouble and depression. The stock market crashed in the 1930’s; there were many other events that went on like the rise of the mafia and the opening of one of the tallest buildings in the world, The Empire State Building. These were trying times for the men with menial work and for the high office business associates. Music in the 30’s kept people’s spirits up during these depressing times. Some of the popular artists were Fred Astaire, George Olsen, Bing Crosby, Louis Armstrong, and Ruth Etting. In the 1930s the star spangled banner was approved to be our country’s national anthem. In 1938 Kate Smith introduced another American favorite song. The song was God Bless America, which is sang and known around the country today. Music was also something that helped pull the people through the depression. It was known as a safe haven for depressed and unemployed men and women. They could escape from the real world for a while when sitting around their radio and getting lost in the music.

B. The dust bowl was a decade of dust storms that frequently affected the southern plains. The dust bowl was caused by years of drought and poor agricultural practices. This greatly affected the farmers because they needed water to plant crops. The farmers would plow and plant and nothing would grow. The ground that covered the soil disappeared, so when a gust of wind came, enormous clouds of dust built up and blew across the plain. When the dust finally settled, it buried cars, trees, and even houses under a dark field of brown. The skies could be dark for days because of these storms, and even well sealed houses would have layers of dust on the furniture. This as you may have guessed made it hard for farmers to make a living because they depended on the land. If the land would not cooperate with them, they could not grow food to sell, which meant they could not make any money to support their families.
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http://kclibrary.nhmccd.edu/decade30.html http://title3.sde.state.ok.us/history_and_culture/default.htm