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1920 |
TM, ®, Copyright © 2003 Piero Scaruffi All rights reserved.
Mamie Smith's Crazy Blues is the first blues by a black singer to become a nation-wide hit
Eric Satie composes music not to be listened to ("musique d'ameublement", furniture music)
Westinghouse Electric starts the first commercial radio station, "KDKA"
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| TM, ®, Copyright © 2003 Piero Scaruffi All rights reserved. |
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1921 |
106 million records are sold in the USA, mostly published on "Tin Pan Alley", but control of the market is shifting to the record companies
Okeh introduces a "Colored Catalog" targeting the black community, the first series of "race records"
The Donaueschingen Festival of avantgarde music is founded
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1922 |
Trixie Smith cuts My Man Rocks Me With One Steady Roll
Texan fiddler Eck Robertson cuts the first record of "old-time music"
Laszlo Moholy-Nagy advocates the use of phonograph records to produce music, not only to reproduce it
James Sterling buys out the British division of Columbia
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1923 |
Bessie Smith cuts her first blues record
John Carson records two "hillbilly" songs and thus founds country music 
Arnold Schoenberg completes his 12-tone system of composition (the first form of "serialism")
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1924 |
The Music Corporation of America (MCA) is founded in Chicago as a talent agency
German record company Deutsche Grammophon (DG) founds the Polydor company to distribute records abroad
Andre' Breton publishe the "Surrealist Manifesto" in Paris
Riley Puckett introduces the "yodeling" style of singing into country music
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1925 |
The Mills Brothers popularize the "barbershop harmonies"
Carl Sprague is the first musician to record cowboy songs (the first "singing cowboy" of country music)
the electrical recording process is commercially introduced, quickly replacing the mechanical one
78.26 RPM is chosen as a standard for phonographic records because phonographs at that speed could use a standard 3600-rpm motor and 46-tooth gear (78.26 = 3600/46).
Nashville's first radio station is founded (WSM) and begins broadcasting a program that will change name to "Grand Ole Opry"
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1926 |
Bing Crosby cuts his first record and invents the "crooning" style of singing thanks to a new kind of microphone
Blind Lemon Jefferson is the first bluesman to enter e major recording studio
Will Shade founds the first "jug band" in Memphis, inspired by Louisville's first jug bands
The magazine "Phonograph Monthly Review" is founded
Vitaphone introduces 16-inch acetate-coated shellac discs playing at 33 1/3 RPM (a size and speed calculated to be the equivalent of a reel of film)
The British magazine "Melody Maker" is founded
General Electric founds the "National Broadcasting Company" (NBC)
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1927 |
Meade Lux Lewis cuts Honky Tonk Train, the most famous boogie woogie
Russian composer Leon Termen performs the first concerto with the "theremin"
Jimmie Rodgers, the first star of country music, adopts "yodeling" style of singing, the blues style of black music, and the Hawaian slide guitar
Classical composer Kurt Weill begins a collaboration with playwright Bertold Brecht, incorportating jazz, folk and pop elements in his soundtracks
Sales of "race records" reach $100 million
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1928 |
The United Independent Broadcasters (later renamed Columbia Broadcasting System, or CBS) of 47 affiliate stations is founded
Clarence "Pinetop" Smith cuts Pinetop's Boogie Woogie
Maurice Martenot invents an electronic instrument, the Ondes-Martenot
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1929 |
Decca is founded in Britain by Edward Lewis as a classical music company
RCA buys Victor Talking Machines
The "Great Depression" destroys the record industry
Blind Lemon Jefferson dies
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