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Activities: Context Activities Broadcasting Modernization: Radio and the Battle over Poetry  Back to Context Activities
With the creation of nationwide radio networks and the drop in the cost of home equipment, poetry, jazz, symphonic music, and fresh commentary on the news and the arts became available to a vastly expanded audience, including people who could not read. The immediacy of radio and the increased access to the arts that radio gave people of all classes revolutionized American culture. For many American poets, including William Carlos Williams, Langston Hughes, and Robert Frost, this change was welcome. Their search for an American idiom and more accessible subject matter complemented this modern medium. For Sandburg and Taggard, the ability to reach a cross-section of the public increased the reach and influence of their words. The immediacy of radio created an intimacy between poet and audience, and the medium played a crucial role in turning the poet into a celebrity figure. Other poets, including Ezra Pound and T. S. Eliot, regarded the popularization of art as a threat. They prided themselves on writing poetry that was allusive and difficult. For them, poetry was not meant to be mainstream. Broadcasting poetry seemed a degrading form of commercialization, a mass-consumer approach to art (although Eliot did present his work on the radio). To these artists, radio meant that art would become the territory of middlebrow taste. Questions
[2360] Anonymous, Listening to the Radio at Home (1920), courtesy of the George H. Clark Radioana Collection, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution. Family seated around their radio in the early 1920s. Radio was the first affordable mass media entertainment to enter the homes of nearly all Americans. A powerful tool for rapid communication of news, radio helped advertise products and spread music like jazz and swing around the country. [2363] Anonymous, "Radiotron" Vacuum Tube Display (1927), courtesy of the George H. Clark Radioana Collection, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution. Department store display of vacuum tubes for radios. The advent of the radio allowed people from all walks of life to have access to poetry and classical music and set the stage for what was to become "pop culture." [5177] Russell Lee, Radio with Ornaments and Decorations (1938), courtesy of the Library of Congress [LC-USF33-011602-M2 DLC]. Radio with photographs and knickknacks on top, in the home of a Farm Security Administration client near Caruthersville, Missouri. Radios made art and news accessible to a larger audience. [5225] Russell Lee, John Frost and Daughter Listening to Radio in Their Home (1940), courtesy of the Library of Congress [LC-USF34-037961-D DLC]. Father and daughter inside a farm home in Tehama County, California, listen to the radio together. Radio was an important source of art, entertainment, and information for many families. [5226] Marion Post Wolcott, A More Well-to-Do Miner Listening to the Radio When He Returns Home in the Morning After Working on the Night Shift (1938), courtesy of the Library of Congress [LC-USF34-050293-E]. Family seated around radio. Many poets, among them Genevieve Taggard, were excited about the advent of radio, especially because they were able to broadcast their poetry to a wide range of people. [5594] Anonymous, It Was Common Practice for Small Town and Country Dealers to Bring Radios Directly to Prospects and Customers Alike (1925), courtesy of the George H. Clark Radioana Collection, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution. Photograph of dealers delivering radios from vehicle. Increased geographical mobility and mass culture were intertwined. As travel became easier, small towns became less culturally isolated. [6137] Doubleday, Page and Company, Radio Broadcast (1926), courtesy of the Library of Congress. Promotional material for radio broadcasting technology. Technological developments made art more accessible to larger audiences and contributed to a sense of breaking with the Victorian era. |
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