The Influence Of Popular Culture On American Culture

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Reuben MwehlaProfessor FaunceAMST 301March 16, 20171930-1960’s Popular CulturePopular culture became a huge part of American life in the 1930s and continued to drastically change through the 1960's. Throughout the time period, Radio, movies, sports and music influenced America in great ways. The Great Depression, that started in 1929 and ended in1939, and World War 2 that started in 1939 and ended in 1945 affected American popular culture in several ways. In the 1950's the Cold War began and anti communism began rising in America. In The 60's, popular culture started becoming more innovative and cutting edge. In the 1930's, radio and Hollywood films began to take over the American culture. The radios best years were due to the Great Depression. …show more content…
Movies started off a little slow in the 30's but two legendary films were made. The Wizard of Oz and Gone With The Wind released and have remained a part of American popular culture till this day. The Depression had a huge impact on sports in the 30's. Almost every athlete took a salary cut and all ballpark renovations were suspended. The sports entertainment business became increasingly commercialized because of the shortage of money and people began looking for different ways to make extra money. During the Great Depression, the entertainment industry used "hope" to get audiences. People wanted to escape the harsh realities of their life and looked to the radio and movies that portrayed the true American dream. They lived through the actors and how they lived life with money, cars and power. In the 1940's, popular culture was highly impacted by World War 2. Instead of having trouble financially, the movie industry soared because of its morale boosting qualities. Radio during World War became a mass medium. Almost 80 percent of the households in the U.S. owned a radio. Yet before the war, only seven percent of the airtime was devoted to news. By theend of the war, 25 percent of the airtime was news, and audiences had been transported to the battlefront in live and recorded reports. Radio stations broadcast countless local programs educating neighbors how to use their ration books or why they needed to grow a Victory Garden.National war bond …show more content…
There was three main types of movies in 1940’s. The included Combat action films, Personal Stories of Individuals facing Life and Death situations, Documentaries. Also cartoon characters played a huge role. Cartoon characters sold war bonds, flew planes, built bombs and even warned recruits about the dangers that they would face. If you were to visit a movie theater during the war you would not only receive two full-length feature movies, but you would also get previews, a serial, newsreels. Although the newsreels focus on other topics about 75% of the showed military, naval or other war-related activities. Songs during war captured emotions. Some spoke of the longings that loved ones felt for each other when they were separated by events. There were all kinds of genres of music being listened too during the war. Some including country music, R&B, western swing, and rhythm and blues. But the most popular during the 1940’s was Jazz. In the 1930’s and 40’s the major spectator sports were boxing, horse racing, MLB and college football. Boxing became popular especially after Joe Louis won a rematch and regained the world heavyweight championship in 1938. Louis was laterdrafted and later spent the war with the USO giving boxing exhibitions around the country. Manyathletes, college and professional, including Joe DiMaggio, Yogi Berra, Jackie Robinson and others, traded in their sports uniforms for military uniforms. Women’s sports then became more popular because
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