1. The years of war led to a reaction in the 1920s, when many people were determined to have as much fun as possible.

2. Jazz was a new form of music that had evolved from earlier forms of black music such as blues and ragtime. It was almost the only way that Blacks could be successful in America. Jazz clubs were especially popular during Prohibition. Today, the popular music of the 1920s is often called "sweet music" by jazz pianists.

3. During the war, women had taken jobs previously closed to them. They had to earn money to help support their families whilst their menfolk were away fighting the war in Europe. Although they lost most of these jobs when the soldiers returned, they did not surrender their freedom.

4. But the changes to the lives of women in the 1920s did not stop at the ways that women dressed and behaved in public.

5. But the Roaring Twenties was not just about film stars, music and flappers. It was a time when the USA was confident.

1. There was an economic boom during the 1920s. The USA had done rather well out of the First World War, having substantially increased its exports of manufactured goods and agricultural produce, as well as taking over many of the export markets of European manufacturers - particularly in the chemicals industry.

2. The war had stimulated many technological developments and these were to benefit people in the '20s. Plastics such as Bakelite began to be used in household products. Developments in conveyor belt technology, concrete mixers, telephony, glass tubing and chemicals all benefited industry.

3. Electricity became more widely available, not only to factories where it provided a new, cheap and clean source of power, but to private homes where vacuum cleaners, refrigerators and radios started to become popular.

4. The availability of new products and services soared throughout the decade, thanks to developments in mass-production techniques pioneered by Henry Ford. Mass production allowed goods to be made cheaply and in large quantities.

5. The new consumer goods made life easier, providing better entertainment and the leisure time to enjoy it. People wanted the new consumer goods even if they could not afford them.

6. Demand was stimulated by mass-marketing - advertising became an important industry as companies spent huge sums in marketing their products.

a7. The Republican Presidents of the 1920s encouraged business development, lowering taxes on income and company profits to encourage domestic spending. Tariffs on imported goods encouraged people to buy American and not European products - giving a further boost to the American economy.

8. The American people were full of confidence during this decade. It was a glittering time when investments paid handsomely, people were willing to try new ideas and everybody expected to become better off. There was no way like the American way - even if it was paid for with credit.

9. Bank lending grew damatically during the 1920s. There were plenty of ways to buy something even if you couldn't afford it. Companies could often arrange finance on the spot and hire purchase became available to almost everyone. Mail order catalogues helped extend the market to the rurual population and rapidly increasing newspaper and magazine circulation stimulated demand for products.

10. Increasing wealth, confidence in a bright future and the growth of consumer credit then, helped ensure that American consumerism reached new hights. The government didn't regulate financial institutions or interfere with business decisions. The result was irresponsible lending and misleading advertisements.

11. By the end of the 1920s advertising was a huge industry. Although most companies spent money on magazine and newspaper advertising, the relatively new medium of radio was also becoming more important.

12. There were few radio stations at the beginning of the decade when the first commercial radio broadcast was made. Radio soon became a craze however and by the end of 1922 there were more than 600 radio stations in the USA. Companies were overwhelmed with orders for radio sets. Between 1923 and 1930 60% of American families had a radio of some sort or other.

13. The RCA or Radio Corporation of America was formed in 1919 to manage patents for radio transmission and reception technology. It was a publicly held company owned by GE - General Electric - and appears to have been set up with the intention of monopolising the developing radio business. RCA was responsible for marketing General Electrics' and Westinghouses radio equipment - the only companies allowed to build radio transmitters. AT&T (The American Telephone & Telegraph Company) achieved patents and licenses that they believed gave them sole rights to engage in 'toll broadcasting' - the selling of airtime for commercials or radio advertising.

14. During the 1920s, sales of radios rose rapidly. The radio was a completely new medium which allowed instant contact with large numbers of people. Radios were expensive though, the RCA-Westinghouse Radiola Grand cost $325.00 in 1923. Radios were large and their cabinets were eleborately decorated. The the American Beauty, a radio made by the American Auto & Radio Mfg. Co. had silk-screened panels - the height of fashion in the mid '20s. Other radios sets had gold plated escutcheons.

15. 1920s_RadioGrand1923

16. 1920s_Radio_AmBeauty

17. Although they didn't perform to the same standard as the large and expensive commercially produced radios, many people built homemade crystal sets. These became increasingly popular towards the end of the decade. Crystal sets used lead galena crystal and a cat's whisker to find radio signals. The parts could be bought for as little as $6 and many boys' magazines gave step by step instructions for their construction. The sets were poor however and static often broke up the signals.

18. 1920s_crystalset

19. The radio stations broadcasted a wide variety of material: classical and popular music, sporting events, lectures, newscasts, fiction and weather reports. They competed with each other for audiences and as there was no control over frequency use, programmes often overlapped. Radio boradcasting was generally viewed as a public service, with announcers, deejeays and the stations themselves often working on a non-profit or volunatry basis. At the beginning of the decade it was only really the radio set manufacturers that were to profit from the radio craze.

20. Initally reluctant to regulate the airwaves, the federal government gradually introduced legislation to bring more order to the broadcasting industry. After the Federal Radio Commission was established in 1926, the government started investgating radio stations, and allocated time to different groups of programmes, preventing stations broadcasting simultaneously on the same frequencies. The Radio Act of 1927 assigned stations clear frequencies and made way for radio to become a major industry in the 1930s.

21. The first commercial was braodcast in 1922. It was an 'informercial' that claimed to give information about New Yorks' Hawthorne Court apartment complex, a ten minute broadcast on New York's WEAF. It wasn't a direct sales pitch, which would have been frownedd upon at the time, but the commercial message was definately clear.

22. In February, 1922, AT&T decided to its start a national radio network. It intended to sell airtime on this network, something which it called 'toll broadcasting' - programmes financed by advertising. Patents and licence agreements owned by AT&T meant that they were the only company in the US allowed to operate radio broadcasting stations - apart from a few small stations that had bought Western Electric transmitters. In theory this gave them sole rights to sell airtime. Broadcasting commecial messages on the radio was controversial in the early '20s though. In 1922 Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover, later President, expressed a common feeling about radio when he said "It is inconceivable that we should allow so great a possibility for service to be drowned in advertising chatter".

23. The government didn't regulate radio advertising however and soon AT&T's complicated network of licence agreements became ineffective. This opend up the way for radio stations to broadcast commercial messages without threat of legal challenge or goverment intervention.

24. By the end of the decade advertisers were free to use whatever techniques they wanted in an effort to get people to buy their products. Henry Ford, who had marketed the Model T with the strapline "Every family should have one" changed his tack to "Every American family should have two" in a blatent effort to manipulate the American consumer at a time when overproduction was becoming obvious and sales of his motorcars were slowing down. The false and exaggerated claims common in printed advertisments found their way onto the radio waves as manufacturers, desperate to boost sales in the late '20s, sought to manipulate the public.

25. Radio listeners were bombarded with information encouraging them to buy new consumer goods. The commercials annoyed many listeners, but the advertising worked. Radio commercials saved some products and companies from oblivion as marketing executives realised the power of radio commercials. Advertising techniques improved as marketing executives tried to find new ways to influence their listener's buying habits.

26. Thus the first commercial featuring a song was broadcast on Christmas Eve 1926. It was an advert for Wheaties. Direct selling was still generally frowned upon and so the singers asked the listeners if they had tried Wheaties, told them what they contained and said that the product would please the taste buds. The jingle became famous. Where the advert was broadcast Wheaties became very popular. It wasn't broadcast everywhere however, and where the jingle wasn't heard, the product didn't sell.

27. The consumer boom also effected the entertainment industry - radio, cinema, dance, theatre and spectator sports - all increased hugely in popularity duuring the 1920s.

28. We can see the '20s as a time of exciting developments in American history. Technological developments, mass-production and increasing wealth laid the foundations of an economic boom. The explosion in pularity of radio, huge growth in advertising, widely available credit and more time for leisure produced a decade when consumerism reached new levels of importance.