Title City songs and American life, 1900-1950 / Michael Lasser

Published Rochester, NY : University of Rochester Press, 2019 ©2019

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Description 1 online resource (xi, 303 pages) : illustrations Contents Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- Notes to the Reader -- Introduction: Encountering the City -- 1 The City's Clangor -- 2 Broadway's Melody -- 3 Harlem's Renaissance -- 4 Recordings, Radio, and Talkies -- 5 Starting the Century -- 6 The Flapper and the Jazz Age -- 7 The Great Depression -- 8 World War II -- Afterword -- Notes -- Bibliography Summary "Nothing defines the songs of the great American songbook more richly and persuasively than their urban sensibility. During the first half of the twentieth century, songwriter such as Harold Arlen, Irving Berlin, Dorothy Fields, George and Ira Gershwin, and Thomas 'Fats' Waller flourished in New York City, the home of Tin Pan Alley, Broadway, and Harlem. Many of these remarkably deft and forceful creators were native New Yorkers. Others got to Gotham as fast as they could. Either way, it was as if, from their vantage point on the West Side of Manhattan, these artists were describing America--not its geography of politics, but its heart--to Americans and to the world at large. In City songs and American life, 1900-1950, renowned author and broadcaster Michael Lasser offers an evocative and probing account of the popular songs--including some written originally for the stage or screen--that America heard, and sang, and danced to during the turbulent first half of the twentieth century. Lasser demonstrates how the spirit of the teeming city pervaded these wildly diverse songs. Often that spirit took form overtly in songs that portrayed the glamor of Broadway of the energy and jazz age culture of Harlem. But a city-bred spirit--or even a specifically New York City way of feeling and talking--also infused many other widely known and loved songs, stretching from the early decades of the century to the twenties (the age of the flapper, bathtub gin, and women's right to vote), the Great Depression, and, finally, World War II. Throughout this remarkable book, Lasser emphasizes how the soul of city life, as echoes in the nation's songs, developed and changed in tandem with economic, social, and political currents in America as a whole"--Dust jacket flap Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 297-303) Notes Online resource; title from digital title page (viewed on June 26, 2019) Subject Popular music -- United States -- 20th century -- History and criticism Cities and towns -- United States -- Songs and music -- 20th century -- History and criticism MUSIC -- Instruction & Study -- Voice. MUSIC -- Lyrics. MUSIC -- Printed Music -- Vocal. HISTORY -- Social History. Songs Popular music SUBJECT New York (N.Y.) -- Songs and music -- 20th century -- History and criticism Subject New York (State) -- New York United States Genre/Form Criticism, interpretation, etc. Form Electronic book ISBN 9781787444638 1787444635

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