1. How did changes in the music business affect American popular music during the 1920s?
2. What were the new technologies that changed the sound of popular music during the 1920s?
3. Where did jazz first develop?
4. What were the stylistic features found in early jazz?
5. What is ASCAP? When and why was it founded?
6. Around the beginning of the twentieth century, several fundamental changes took place in American social dancing, closely paralleling shifts in popular music. Describe these changes.
7. Who were Vernon and Irene Castle?
8. Describe the career of James Reese Europe.
9. What were the earliest jazz bands like?
10. Who were Sissle and Blake?
11. Dance bands in the 1920s tended to specialize in one of three main categories, “hot,” “sweet,” or “Latin.” Give an example of a band from each category.
12. What factors contributed to the tremendous impact of jazz on mainstream popular music?
13. Who billed himself as the “King of Jazz”? Why is this term deserved or not deserved?