Repaso

Contemporary Era

1920-Present

Daily Life Many Americans now owned modern

conveniences such as cars, telephones, radios and electric washers and dryers.

Cars gave people freedom and ease of traveling for business and pleasure

Motion pictures became a main form of entertainment

Major changes in fashion 1929 – stock crashes and depression

starts (The Dust Bowl) remained until after WWII (1945)

Suburbs developed

Government

1920 – women can vote1935-1945 – Holocaust1939-1945 – World War II1963 – President Kennedy

assassinated1968 – Martin Luther King

assassinated

Religion

Very, very diverse

Science and Math

1920s – Television and frozen foods

1930s – modern plastics, radar and tape recorder invented

1940s – atomic bomb, digital computer and Polaroid camera invented

Science and Math

1950s – polio vaccine1960s – 1st man on

the moon (1969)1970s – organ transplants, open heart surgery

1980s – internet, emails and cell phones

1990s – DNA mapping and cloning.

Music 1920s – creative musical explosion, a period when

classical and popular music began to blend. For example a blend of classical music and jazz rhythms lead to George Gerswhin’s Rhapsody In Blue

1930-1970 – styles of country music, jazz, rock, pop and musical comedies and music from motion pictures became prevalent.

Country came from folk music of the south and Rock music is a mixture of blues, country, jazz and American music.

Composers in this era are constantly experimenting with new ways to create music but stay true to traditional form of music (same form used throughout all eras)

Art

1920s & 1930s – dreamlike states make way for Surrealism as artists share a fascination with the strange

1940s & 1950s – artistic center moves from Paris to New York as abstract expressionism in art takes over

1960s – optical illusions begin to pop up in art galleries everywhere and Pop Art

(Andy Warhol) begins to make way Today artists feel there are no limits and

experiment with many different mediums to create the new and upcoming art of

today