Influence Of The Stars On Young Americans example essay topic

Artists and entertainers built the foundations of America's well-known culture. Jazz musicians and club singers encouraged a world of passion, rebellion and freedom and the big-screen stars changed the world of America's young generation of the era. Jazz music encouraged awareness of Black Americans and on some level, placed whites and blacks on the same step of the ladder. Entertainers set the wheels in motion for changes in women's right, changes in morality and acts of rebellion. The Jazz singers of Chicago and New Orleans impacted on American Culture through their passion for the soulful melody of Jazz. Most Jazz singers were African American and although anti-black campaigns were at their height (a result of the growth of the terrifying racist terrorist organisation the Ku Klux Klan), white Americans' found themselves being able to lose themselves in the music that was second-nature to their darker skinned fellow Americans.

With the white society's growing fancy of Jazz, came the emergence of Flappers, Jazz bars and the unique party-like atmosphere of the speak-easies. Flappers rebelled against the prohibition and embraced the life of jazz and liquor. Flappers, speak-easies and Jazz came hand in hand with the lifestyle that many American's chose to live in the 1920's and a lot of this was due to the unmistakable influence that Jazz singers had on American culture. Jazz gave many white Americans a sense of freedom and rebellion. By embracing the music of the Blacks - the 'inferior' race - they felt they were doing something forbidden - and rebellion was what the 1920's was all about. Before the Jazz Age, the namesake music was a creation of the minority group in America - the African Americans.

With the birth of the white-mans jazz in the 1920's, many didn't realise for a long time the roots from which it came. Singers like Louis Armstrong shaped the foundations of jazz, and even became known as "America's Jazz Ambassador" (a remarkably generous term for a black American in the 1920's). Armstrong had an overwhelming influence in the world of jazz, introducing new vocal and instrumental techniques and creating a "warm and enthusiastic" style of music that many more popular artists of the time began to imitate. The style became one that was popular throughout American culture. "Louis Armstrong overcame poverty, a lack of formal education, and racism to become one of the most innovative and influential musicians of the 20th century, and one of the most beloved entertainers in the world".

1 In being a black American, Armstrong's immense success in the Jazz age helped path the way for many other determined black musicians in a white-mans' world. Black singers like Mary Lou Williams soon after became household names. With a soulful ability to express the true nature of jazz through her piano, Williams helped to drive the love of Jazz that seemed to be spreading from Chicago and New Orleans and filling the various jazz bars and speak-easies scattered across the many other states of America. Entertainers of the big screen also impacted in a large way on American culture. Young men and women could be found trying to imitate the blissfully sexy nature of the stars. Young men waltzed around with their hair slicked back in the style of Rudolph Valentino and young women casually smoked cigarettes to try and achieve the air of nonchalance that Bette Davis emanated.

The stars brought about enormous changes in American culture. Young Americans' began to associate the stars with moral abandon and this induced change in society. Women's role in society changed with the appearance of the sexy young women gracing the big screens. Suddenly rebellious offences such as smoking, drinking and flirtation were sexy.

Women began to copy the 'showy's style skirts and hairstyles that were so unique to the stars of the 1920's and 1930's. So strong was the influence of the stars on young Americans' that they became the cogs that turned the wheel of Social Revolution in America. Rudolph Valentino lived a life of passion and rebellion, true to his Italian roots. He broke all the rules of society, having an affair, divorcing twice until at the young age of 31, he died, sending waves of shock throughout the nation.

Valentino's life was the epitome of the rebellious nature that America was beginning to take on and enjoy so much. Bette Davis, also known as "The first lady of the American screen", broke into a male dominated industry and took America by storm. Setting up high standards for women to follow, scores of young ladies were eager to accept the new lifestyle that Bette Davis had created - one where women could dominate. By the beginning of the 1940's, Bette Davis was the highest paid woman in America, becoming an idol for American women and setting up the platform for change in women's rights.

Entertainers and musicians were catalysts for change in American culture. They influenced the emergence of rebellious young girls and posed the first serious questions about self-image. Bringing about a social revolution in women's rights, and society's behaviour in general, the entertainers of 1920 to 1941 impacted upon American culture and brought about outcomes that would continue to shape American culture for years to come.