The Music of the Roaring Twenties Quiz

Answer: Bessie Smith

Bessie Smith was a powerhouse blues singer of the 1920s with a voice so big that the microphones of the age occasionally needed a moment to gather themselves afterwards. She earned the sobriquet "Empress of the Blues", because she totally commanded the genre during her career.

Her 1923 recording of "Downhearted Blues" sold more than two million copies, an impressive feat at the time, and the song helped turn her into the highest-paid Black entertainer of the decade.

Answer: It Had to Be You

"It Had to Be You", which feels completely out of place outside of a 1920s smoke-filled club, was written by composer Isham Jones and lyrics by Gus Kahn. It debuted in 1924 and quickly became a favorite among crooners, bandleaders, and anyone trying to make doe-eyed audiences swoon. "It had to be you, wonderful you"... it's the kind of tune that practically slow-dances with your girlfriend all by itself if you don't step in.

Answer: Louis Armstrong

Yeah, the guy who sang "What a Wonderful World" in 1967 was a legend of the 1920s, pretty much the gravitational center around which early jazz began to orbit. He was born in New Orleans and absolutely exploded onto the national scene of 1920s America.

Louis Armstrong's recordings with the Hot Five and Hot Seven are now jazz scripture. Armstrong's innovations in phrasing, tone, and improvisation forever altered the very vocabulary of the music while basically inventing the notion of the virtuoso jazz soloist.

Answer: George Gershwin

"Rhapsody in Blue" was Gershwin's jump into serious concert music, although he never strayed too far from his Broadway roots. Commissioned by bandleader Paul Whiteman, the piece made its debut on February 12, 1924 at Aeolian Hall in New York and became one of the earliest and most successful fusions of jazz sensibilities and classical orchestration.

The opening clarinet glissando alone is enough to singe your eyebrows.

Answer: Irving Berlin

Irving was a one-man American songbook factory. By the 1920s he was already a major player in Tin Pan Alley, and unlike many composers of his era, he wrote both the lyrics and the music. "What'll I Do?" came in 1923, a song about heartbreak over a deceptively simple melody. "Puttin' on the Ritz" came out a few years later in 1929, which showed that even the Great Depression couldn't keep Berlin down. And of course, "White Christmas" (1942) would go on to become one of the best-selling songs of any genre in history.

Not too shabby for a guy who couldn't read music.

Answer: Duke Ellington

Duke Ellington, born Edward, became a fixture of the Harlem Renaissance when his orchestra took up residency at the Cotton Club in 1927. His compositions were sophisticated and elegant, bending jazz into something symphonic without losing that improvisational spark that gave jazz its edge.

While "Take the 'A' Train" was actually written by Billy Strayhorn (Ellington's longtime collaborator), it became Ellington's signature tune, and his orchestra's performance made it one of the most famous big-band recordings in history.

Answer: My Blue Heaven

Gene Austin's 1927 recording of "My Blue Heaven" became a major sensation, selling well over five million copies, an enviable figure today, and helping establish the crooning singing style that would later be perfected by the ilk of Bing Crosby and others. Before microphone technology allowed for softer, more intimate singing, most singers had to project like foghorns pointed up at the cheap seats (see Bessie Smith). Austin, however, could lean in close and purr straight into the listener's ear, giving the illusion of a private serenade.

Answer: Ain't She Sweet

Written in 1927 by Milton Ager and Jack Yellen, "Ain't She Sweet" became one of the most beloved novelty hits of the Jazz Age. With a playful tone, catchy rhythm, and flirtatious lyrics, it perfectly reflected the carefree, modern spirit of the Roaring Twenties, a world of short skirts, bobbed hair, and a sense of social freedom.

Its popularity lasted well beyond the '20s, with even the Beatles playing it regularly in their early years.

Answer: The Cotton Club

The Cotton Club was THE hotspot of Harlem during the 1920s, a lavish venue where African American performers like Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, and Lena Horne dazzled white audiences with jazz, tap, and big floor shows. The club's décor screamed opulence: zebra-print patterns, tropical motifs, and glitzy stages that made it feel like an exotic slice of fantasy in the middle of New York City.

Despite the predominance of Black performers at the Cotton Club, it remained segregated, with only people of European descent allowed to enjoy those performances.

This just goes to demonstrate that sometimes people, in the words of Forrest Gump, "do things that, well, just don't make no sense."

Answer: The Charleston

If you've ever watched a movie from the 1920s and seen a flapper on the dance floor looking like she was wired up to 15 thousand volts, that's the Charleston, the defining dance craze of the 1920s and the jazz culture of the time. It involved frenzied footwork, twisting knees, high-energy kicks, and flailing arms swinging around madly. Meanwhile, I'm exhausted just writing that sentence.

The dance took its name from the city of Charleston, South Carolina, and reached national fame after it was featured in the 1923 Broadway musical "Runnin' Wild". It became tied to Prohibition-era nightlife, speakeasies, and the idea of social rebellion, ideas which dominated the culture of the 1920s. It wasn't just a dance. It was a statement. Women, in particular, used the dance to claim their space in a way that shook up the social norms, dancing with enthusiasm rather than Victorian refinement and moving independently rather than being led. Because of its flashy nature, some more conservative locales briefly tried to ban the Charleston, viewing it as immoral, which of course only served to make it more popular.