Encounter IV

The Roaring Twenties/Music at the Millennium, 1920–2000

The first commercial radio appeared in 1920, and by 1929 there were twelve million families tuning in daily and going to the movies weekly. Some one hundred million phonograph records were sold in 1927, as jazz took the United States and the world by storm. Classical composers, too, were listening to jazz and took notes, literally. Music in the 1920s saw a fresh fusion of classical and popular styles, yet national traits were still a major factor. Ravel had a crush on the Gershwins’ music but remained French even as he wrote the blues. By the 1990s, the commingling of classical and popular idioms had become standard fare, and a new, accessible modern music emerged, particularly in the United States. Composer, writer, educator, and performer extraordinaire Bruce Adolphe closes this summer’s Encounter series, guiding audiences in an exploration of the Roaring Twenties and the dawn of the new millennium.