AP United States History

## Learning Outcomes

- Explain how radio and cinema helped create a national **mass culture** in the 1920s
- Identify key evidence including **KDKA (1920)**, **NBC (1926)**, **CBS (1927)**, and **The Jazz Singer (1927)**
- Analyse how new media strengthened **consumer culture** through advertising, sponsorship, and celebrity
- Connect radio and film to broader Period 7 developments such as urbanization, youth culture, and the Jazz Age
- Evaluate why mass media increased cultural conflict as well as shared national experiences
- Use this topic in SAQ, DBQ, and LEQ responses through clear cause-and-effect reasoning

## AP United States History Syllabus

For the AP United States History, you are expected to understand how radio and cinema spread mass culture in the 1920s, with a focus on the following syllabus points:

- Know that 1920s popular culture became more national because millions of Americans consumed the same entertainment and news
- Identify the significance of **KDKA** broadcasting in **1920** and the rise of national radio networks such as **NBC** in **1926** and **CBS** in **1927**
- Understand how commercial radio connected entertainment directly to advertising and consumer buying
- Explain how **Hollywood** and the **studio system** turned film into a national industry
- Recognise the importance of **movie palaces** and the shift from silent films to **talkies**
- Know why **The Jazz Singer (1927)** mattered as the breakthrough film that accelerated sound cinema
- Analyse how radio and film spread celebrity culture, modern values, and standardised fashions and behaviour
- Distinguish between the growth of shared national culture and the persistence of conflict over morality, race, and traditional values

## Test Your Knowledge

_Attempt these questions before reading this article. If you find some difficult or cannot remember the answers, look more closely at that area during your revision._

1. How did radio help create a shared national culture in the 1920s?
2. What was the significance of **KDKA**, **NBC**, and **CBS**?
3. Why was **The Jazz Singer** important in film history?
4. How did radio and cinema promote consumer culture?
5. Why did mass media create cultural conflict as well as national unity?

## Introduction

In APUSH Period 7, radio and cinema matter because they show how the 1920s became more connected, more commercial, and more national in character. Before this period, many Americans still lived in more regionally separate cultural worlds. By the end of the decade, millions could hear the same songs, follow the same sports heroes, watch the same stars, and absorb the same advertisements.

This did not mean Americans suddenly agreed on everything. In fact, mass media often sharpened disputes over gender, race, religion, youth behaviour, and modern life. That tension is exactly why this topic is useful in essays: radio and film spread common experiences, but they also exposed the divide between **modernism** and **traditionalism**.

> **Key Term: mass culture**
> A shared popular culture spread to large audiences through mass media, so that people in different places consume the same entertainment, ideas, and advertising.

### How radio became a national mass medium

Radio was the first major electronic mass medium to enter American homes on a large scale. Newspapers had already spread information widely, but radio changed the speed and feeling of communication. It let people hear events, music, and voices almost instantly. That mattered because hearing something live or near-live creates a stronger sense of shared participation than reading about it later.

A useful starting point is **KDKA** in Pittsburgh, which began broadcasting in **1920** and became famous for airing presidential election returns. That moment symbolised a major shift: information no longer had to move only by print. Americans could now gather around a device and experience the same news at the same time.

> **Key Term: commercial radio broadcasting**
> Radio broadcasting funded mainly by advertisers and sponsors rather than by direct payment from listeners.

By the 1920s, radio programming had widened far beyond news. It included music, comedy, sports, speeches, and sponsored entertainment. This variety made radio part of everyday domestic life. It also fit the broader expansion of electrification and household technology in the decade. As more homes gained electricity, radios became more practical, and listening became a routine evening activity.

The rise of radio networks made this even more significant. A single local station could influence one city. A network could influence the nation.

> **Key Term: national radio network**
> A system linking many local radio stations so they can broadcast the same programmes across large parts of the country.

**NBC**, founded in **1926**, and **CBS**, founded in **1927**, turned radio from a local novelty into a national cultural force. This is one of the biggest distinctions students should make. The key development was not simply “more people owned radios.” It was that local stations were tied together into national systems. That meant a family in one state and a family hundreds of miles away could listen to the same show, hear the same advertisement, and recognise the same personalities.

This had several effects at once:

- it reduced some regional isolation
- it created national celebrities
- it standardised tastes and reference points
- it strengthened the idea of a national market for products

Radio also changed politics and public life, even when this subtopic is mainly cultural. Leaders, entertainers, and advertisers could all enter the home directly. That gave radio unusual power. It made public culture more immediate and more personal.

> **Test Tip:** In an SAQ or LEQ, do not stop at “radio was popular.” Push the analysis: radio linked local audiences into national networks, which spread shared entertainment and advertising, helping create a national mass culture.

### How radio promoted consumer culture and modern lifestyles

Radio was not just entertainment. It was also a business model tied closely to advertising. That is one of the main reasons it matters for APUSH. The 1920s economy depended heavily on consumer buying, and radio encouraged it.

> **Key Term: consumer culture**
> A culture in which buying goods and services becomes a major part of daily life and identity.

Because commercial broadcasting depended on sponsors, programmes and advertising were closely connected. Companies paid to reach households directly. This meant entertainment itself helped sell products. Listeners did not simply hear a comedy show or music performance; they often heard it in a commercial setting designed to shape what they wanted to buy.

This mattered in a decade already marked by:

- installment buying
- rising sales of appliances
- growth in the advertising industry
- a boom in household technologies
- pressure to “keep up” with modern standards of living

Radio helped normalise modern consumption. It presented products as symbols of comfort, success, and belonging. In that sense, it worked like the automobile: not merely as a tool, but as a marker of the new age.

Radio also spread cultural trends that students often study separately, such as the Jazz Age, flappers, and sports celebrity. These were connected. When people across the country heard jazz, followed sporting events, or listened to sponsored variety programmes, they were participating in the same broad consumer world.

The result was not only more buying, but more standardised desire. That is a strong analytical point. Radio did not just reflect consumerism; it actively built it by creating common wants across regional boundaries.

At the same time, this raised tension. Traditionalists often saw mass-mediated urban culture as morally loose, too commercial, or socially destabilizing. So when writing essays, show both sides: radio spread modern culture, but it also made backlash stronger.

### How Hollywood cinema created a shared visual culture

If radio nationalised sound, cinema nationalised images. Movies gave Americans common stories, styles, fantasies, and role models. The 1920s film industry was centred in **Hollywood**, which had become the leading production centre of American movies.

> **Key Term: Hollywood studio system**
> A film industry structure in which a few major studios dominated production, distribution, and often the theatres showing films.

Major studios such as the major studios, MGM, Warner Bros., and Fox did not simply make films. They built a powerful entertainment industry. Their control over production and distribution helped standardise what audiences saw across the country.

A further part of that control was **vertical integration**.

> **Key Term: vertical integration**
> Business control over multiple stages of an industry, such as production, distribution, and exhibition.

In film, this meant studios could help control the making of movies, the shipment of movies, and the theatres where they were shown. That gave them enormous influence over culture and profits. This is important because APUSH often rewards students who connect culture to economics and big business.

Theatre culture mattered too. **Movie palaces** made filmgoing feel glamorous but still affordable enough for mass audiences. A worker, immigrant family, or middle-class couple could all enter the same broad film culture, even if their lives outside the theatre were very different.

Movies spread mass culture in several ways:

- they circulated the same stories nationwide
- they turned actors into national celebrities
- they spread fashions, gestures, and ideals of romance and success
- they reflected urban modernity back to a mass audience

This is where students should be careful. Film did not just entertain. It also shaped behaviour. Stars influenced clothing, beauty standards, and personal style. Repeated exposure to similar plots and values helped define what success, attractiveness, and modern life looked like.

By the 1920s, moviegoing had become one of the biggest forms of popular leisure. That made cinema one of the clearest examples of a mass culture industry.

> **Test Tip:** A strong analytical sentence is: “Hollywood films spread a shared visual culture, while the studio system tied mass entertainment to corporate control and national markets.” That kind of sentence does more than describe.

### The Jazz Singer, talkies, and the limits of national unity

The most famous film turning point of the decade was **The Jazz Singer (1927)**. It was not literally the first sound film ever made, but it was the major breakthrough feature that popularised synchronised dialogue and accelerated the move from silent films to **talkies**.

> **Key Term: talkies**
> Films with synchronised spoken dialogue and sound, replacing the earlier dominance of silent films.

Why did this matter so much? Silent films could already reach huge audiences, but sound made movies even more immersive and commercially powerful. It increased realism, strengthened emotional appeal, and widened audience interest. It also deepened the star system, because now audiences could hear performers as well as see them.

The shift to sound helped cinema compete even more effectively as a national medium. It strengthened the common cultural experiences that moviegoers shared. But it also made media influence more direct and more controversial.

Not everyone welcomed that influence. Critics worried about morality, sexual content, crime, and cultural decline. In response to pressure, the film industry created the **MPPDA** in **1922** under **Will H. Hays** to promote self-regulation and avoid stronger outside censorship. This is worth mentioning because it shows that mass culture created political and moral anxiety.

Mass culture also had ugly limits. It could spread prejudice as well as entertainment. For example, **The Jazz Singer** included blackface performance, reminding us that national culture could also circulate racist images to mass audiences. So students should avoid writing as if shared culture meant equal inclusion.

This leads to one of the most important APUSH judgements on the topic: radio and cinema made culture more national, but not necessarily more equal or more harmonious.

The same media that spread common music, celebrities, and leisure also sharpened debates over:

- race and representation
- urban versus rural values
- youth behaviour
- women’s roles
- commercialism and morality

This is why the topic fits so well into Period 7 arguments. It belongs not only to technology, but also to culture, politics, and identity.

## Key Point Checklist

_This article has covered the following key knowledge points:_

- **Mass culture** in the 1920s meant large numbers of Americans shared the same entertainment, news, and advertisements
- **KDKA** in Pittsburgh began broadcasting in **1920** and symbolised the rise of commercial radio
- Radio became more powerful when local stations were linked into national systems
- **NBC** was founded in **1926** and **CBS** in **1927**, helping create national radio networks
- Commercial radio tied entertainment directly to sponsorship and advertising
- Radio strengthened **consumer culture** by encouraging mass buying and standardised desires
- **Hollywood** became the centre of the American film industry during the 1920s
- The **studio system** and **vertical integration** gave major film companies large economic and cultural control
- **Movie palaces** helped make cinema a major form of mass entertainment
- **The Jazz Singer (1927)** accelerated the transition from silent films to **talkies**
- Radio and cinema spread celebrity culture, modern values, and common fashions across regions
- Mass media created shared national experiences, but it also intensified conflicts over morality, race, and modern life

## Key Terms and Concepts

- mass culture
- commercial radio broadcasting
- national radio network
- consumer culture
- Hollywood studio system
- vertical integration
- talkies


1920s: Innovations in Communication and Technology - Radio and cinema spread mass culture