Sound Films In The 1920's

Liberal arts have been present in human history for many decades dating back as early as the seventeenth century. Theater performances such as opera and plays were the beginning of a much larger influence in the later centuries to come. Starting with the performances written by Shakespeare to the first motion capture film in the 1800’s, these methods have evolved into modern movie outlets such as streaming services and sit-in theaters. Film and performance arts have evolved greatly since their era of creation and have been modernized to fit the society in that period. The rise of Hollywood in the early 1920’s is what began the massive influence of movies in pop culture. It has evolved into being able to instantly have hundreds of movies at the tips of your fingers. Movies have a major impact on how society perceives the world and can influence pop culture, but throughout many decades it had evolved into dominating the digital age.

The Jazz Age was a cultural movement that took place in America during the 1920 's (also known as "the Roaring Twenties") from which both jazz music and dance emerged. This movement matched with both the equally phenomenal introduction of mainstream radio and the conclusion of World War I. The 1920s was the decade that marked the beginning of the modern music era. Some of the popular music genres were Jazz, Dance Bands, Blues, and Broadway. The decade marked the beginning of independent record companies, smaller operations that weren’t afraid to take a chance on music and artists that the bigger companies shied away from.

Sound and its absence in modern day cinema is considered as an effect to develop suspense as well as to indicate whether within a story sound can be heard or not by the

During the early 1900s, the film industry had just gained popularity but the films during this era were drastically different from films today. Films during this time were done in white and black, were much shorter, and were without sound. In this silent film era, no star shined brighter than that of Charlie Chaplin. Chaplin is without a doubt the biggest name of film during this or possibly any era. In fact, Chaplin should be considered the greatest influence of the film industry in the 1920s because of his fame in silent film, his career as a director, his controversial satire, and the popularity of The Tramp.

The transition from the era of silent films to the sound era in the mid 1920s was a big transformation for the American film industry and mass entertainment in general. This phase initially brought about much excitement for movie goers who were thrilled with the expectation of hearing the voices of their favorite actors for the first time. However, such expectations were met with much disappointment when the highly fancied actors had voices that did not much the preconceptions of the fans. The technical difficulties and various issues that the American film industry faced during this transition are actually captured in the 1952 movie, “Singing in the Rain”. In part, the film is actually about movie making during the silent-to-sound era as its

Radio spread rapidly, bringing news, sport, light entertainment and advertising into every home. It was realised that radio could be a useful political tool too. The 1920s was also the golden age of silent cinema, with the emergence of Hollywood as the ‘dream factory’ and a new obsession with films stars as celebrities.

The World With a Little Jazz Can you imagine a genre that would appeal to everyone? How about a style of music that would help bring different ethnic groups together? Well, in the beginning of the 1920’s, one genre in particular had an outbreak that would change the United States forever. Jazz music modified the world with its groovy beats, calming instruments and powerful vocalists. “The 1920’s or the Jazz Age, were years of change as America recovered from World War 1 and embraced new ways of behaving and thinking” (Benson, Brannen, Jr. and Valentine Vol. 7).

Silent films first appeared around the 1890s in America. 1 They are films that were without synchronised sound and especially no spoken dialogue. Music was recognised as an important part of film/moving images from the beginning, as it contributed to the atmosphere of the films and allowed the audience to understand and feel the emotions being portrayed. 2 When music was first being combined with moving image pianos, organs and phonographs were the first instruments used to provide the music, and as the popularity of film grew over the years, some of the larger theatres began using orchestras to accompany the film. 3

When silent movies were beginning to be replaced by movies with sound, or ‘Talkies’, controversy began to surround Hollywood and it stars. Between Fatty Arbuckle hitting an actress at a party

“The most exciting moment is the moment when I add the sound… At this moment, I tremble.” (Akira Kurosawa) Sound is arguably the most important concept in cinema studies, being there ever since the beginnings. It can radically change the way a motion picture is looked at and it can render what the director may sometimes find hard to depict using only his camera. Looking upon silent cinema one discovers an era which wasn’t at all silent, but rich in sound of different forms, from the simple narration of the images shown on screen, accompanied by a piano, to the complex score later composed specifically for that film. An example of that complex score is shown in Sunrise, a film by F.W. Murnau, which lies at the border between silent cinema and sound cinema. Considered to be one of the first films with an actual score, Sunrise is a great example of the multitude of dimensions and effects sound can have.

The musical film has always held a special place for me. From my time as a drama student in high school, my eyes have been opened to the amazing world of the musical and especially the musical film. The musical film is a film genre in which the characters sing songs that are integrated into the overall story. Since musicals first began in theaters, musical films usually contain similar elements. These elements often simulate that there is a live audience watching. In a sense, the film viewers become the audience members, at a theater production, as the actor performs directly to them. Due to the popularity of musicals in the theater, the style was quickly brought over into film. In 1927, the musical film genre began

During the Great Depression movies and radio programs became very popular. In the 1930s more than 6o million Americans went to the movies each week; they enjoyed comedies because watching them would allow them to escape from their everyday troubles. They loved actors/actresses; from child stars to people like the Marx Brothers in Animal Crackers. They also watched animated films; the first feature-length animated film was created by Walt Disney in 1937, it was called Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. At that time there were serious films that celebrated ordinary people and the values of small towns in America. Movies brought the imagination and entertainment, but radios brought information along with entertainment. The radio had comedians like Jack Benny, superheros like the Green Hornet, daytime dramas that continued everyday, and programs like the guiding light that showed the personal struggles of middle-class families; the programs became known as soap operas because the sponsors usually made laundry soap. The radio also played music; Americans began to listen to variety(look up another word) of music. They listened to songs from movies, Broadway musicals, and swing and country music. Movies and the radio was the main ways Americans escaped their troubles.

In the 1920’s, one of the biggest studios in Hollywood was Metro-Goldwyn Mayer. Or as you may know it as, “MGM”, or “the company with the lion at the beginning of movies.” This studio was founded in 1924 and their first film was released in 1925. They have released many popular films that most people have either seen or heard of as well as some not-so popular films that most people didn’t even knew existed. Some you may recognize is Poltergeist, The Hobbit, and even The Wizard of Oz. Today, Metro-Goldwyn Mayer is still one if the biggest and most influential studios in Hollywood. However, the success, figuring everything out, and how the studio became, didn’t happen overnight.

In this essay I will explain how sound developed in American cinema in the 1920s, beginning with “silent” films in the 1910s. I will explore the development of sound systems from large corporations in America, and the failed experiments with sound beforehand. I will analyse the use of these sound systems by Warner Brothers and Fox, the first film studios to adopt sound, and explore how this led to the Big Five film studios also adopting the use of synchronised sound. I am going to examine the reasons why synchronised sound developed from a teleological, contextual, and technology determinist approach. To conclude I will evaluate the impact synchronised sound had on the film industry in America during the 1920s.

“Books and movies, they are not mere entertainment. They sustain me and help me cope with my real life.” a quote by Arlaina Tibensky. When we sit down and watch a movie we don't think back to the history on how this billion-dollar industry evolved. Besides a ton of money poured into the idea of movies the incredible talent and skills of the actors.