Timeline of trends in music (1920-1929)
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1920 in music
- International trends
- Highlife music develops in western Africa, especially in coastal Ghana
- Performers like Carlos Gardel begin to popularize the tango in France, Spain and Latin America
- Xavier Cugat popularizes several forms of Afro-Cuban dances in the United States and Europe
- Erik Satie composes bizarre furniture music
- Music of Algeria
- Music of Argentina
- The tango moved into respectable venues like theaters and cabarets and entered its first Golden Age with artists like Carlos Gardél
- Music of Cuba
- Son montuno takes on its modern form in Havana
- The septeto ensemble develops
- Music of France
- Martinican biguine begins to become popular in France
- Music of Greece
- Music of the Sudan
- Music of the United States
- Popularity of Mamie Smith's "Crazy Blues" alerts music industry to the profitablity of making records by and for African Americans
- Hawaiian musicians like Bennie Nawahi begin incorporating jazz influences into traditional Hawaiian music
1921 in music
- Classical music
- Arnold Schoenberg with his pupils Anton Webern, and Alban Berg pioneer the twelve-tone technique intended on establishing a unifying principle for nontonal music
- Music of Colombia
- Musica de la interior begins to dominate Colombian popular music
- Music of Germany
- Music of the United States
- Harry Pace founds Black Swan Records, the first black-owned record label in the country
- Thomas A. Dorsey's "If I Don't Get There" is the start of the popularization of gospel music, performed outside of a church setting
1922 in music
- International trends
- László Moholy-Nagy encourages the use of phonograph records to produce music instead of merely recording it
- Music of Cuba
- Radio broadcasting begins, helping to popularize son montuno and other forms of Cuban music
- Music of the Philippines
- Kundiman, Westernized forms of traditional songs, are developed
- Music of Spain
- Manolo Caracol, one of the biggest names in early 20th century flamenco, is said to have walked from Jerez all the way to a distant cante jondo competition, which he won, thus beginning his international rise to fame
- Music of Turkey
- The newly-founded Turkish Republic, led by Kemal Atatürk, begins a program to develop a pan-Turkish national identity
- Music of the United States
- Eck Robertson makes the first recording of rural Appalachian folk music, setting the stage for the development of country music
1923 in music
- Music of Denmark
- Saxophonist Valdemar Eiberg forms the first Danish jazz band
- Music of Greece
- Ethnic Greeks from Asia Minor move en masse to Greece; this is the root of rembétika music
- Music of South Africa
- Sol Plaatjie makes the first recording of the South African national anthem "Nkosi Sikelel"
- Music of the United States
- Surge in recordings by African American jazz and blues artists, including first records by Louis Armstrong, Ida Cox, Jelly Roll Morton, Sidney Bechet, King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band, Johnny Dodds, Bessie Smith, and many others
- John Carson records two hillbilly songs, thus forming the root of commercial country music
- Fletcher Henderson begins enlarging jazz ensembles, providing the foundation for swing music
1924 in music
- Music of Lithuania
- The first Dainu Sventes, popular song festivals, take place with the purpose of keeping folk traditions alive
- Music of Mexico
- Minister of Education José Vasconcelos proclaims the jarabe tapatio to be Mexico’s national dance and decrees that it is to be taught throughout the Mexican public school system as a symbol of Mexican identity, designed to supersede any local dance traditions and bind together the ethnically diverse population
- Music of Portugal
- Antonio Menano's guitarradas become popular in Coimbra and abroad
- Music of the United States
- Louis Armstrong joins the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra, arguably the beginning of big band and swing music
- Vernon Dalhart's "The Prisoner's Song" becomes the first commercially-successful country single
- Riley Puckett introduces a vocal method similar to yodelling into country music
1925 in music
- International trends
- Major record companies start recording with electric microphones, allowing records of greater audio fidelity
- Music of Australia
- Release of the first Australian jazz recording, "Yes Sir That's My Baby" by Ray Tellier's San Francisco Orchestra
- Music of Kenya
- The first clubs playing European-style dance music appear in the Mombasa area
- Music of Mexico
- The Golden Age of Corridos begins
- Music of Sweden
- August Bohlin invents a chromatic nyckelharpa
- Music of the United States
- Jazz finally enters the mainstream with the popular success of Paul Whiteman
- Blind Lemon Jefferson, T-Bone Walker and Lightnin' Hopkins help invent the Texas blues
- Gospel music begins to enter the mainstream, promoted by jubilee quartets (such as the Norfolk Jubilee Quartet), jackleg preachers (such as Blind Willie Johnson and Washington Phillips) and singing preachers (such as Reverend J. M. Gates)
- The Mills Brothers popularize Barbershop
- The program that will eventually become the Grand Ole Opry begins broadcasting on WSM Radio, the first major station in Nashville
- Carl Sprague becomes the first singing cowboy
1926 in music
- Music of the Solomon Islands
- Bamboo bands, who play by hitting bamboo tubes with coconut husks, become popular
- Music of the United States
- Rudolph Valentino films like The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse popularize the tango
- Ukrainian-American fiddler Pawlo Humeniuk releases "Ukrainske Wesilie", which sells about 150,000 copies and launches his career as the King of the Ukrainian fiddlers
- A new type of microphone enables Bing Crosby to introduces a new style of "crooning" on his debut record
- Will Shade founds the first jug band in Memphis, Tennessee
1927 in music
- International trends
- Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht begin combining jazz and pop music into soundtracks
- Music of Canada
- Gerald S. Doyle's Old Time Songs and Poetry of Newfoundland is first published; it becomes the most popular anthology of traditional Newfoundland music
- Music of Cuba
- Septets largely replace son montuno sextets
- Music of Italy
- Dionigi Burranca, the most influential launeddas player of the 20th century, begins his career
- Music of Russia
- Leon Termen performs the first concerto that uses a theremin
- Music of Spain
- Association of Txistularies in the Basque Country is formed to promote txistu music
- Music of the United States
- Big band and swing music begin to break into the fringes of the mainstream
- Gus Cannon, Noah Lewis and Will Shade represent the commercial peak of jug band-styled folk music
- Hillbilly music's two biggest performers, The Carters and Jimmie Rodgers, make their first recording in a session led by Ralph Peer; Jimmie Rodgers proves most influential, adapting yodelling, Hawaiian slide guitar and blues-style musicianship for country music
- The first massively popular musical comedy, Show Boat (Jerome Kern, Oscar Hammerstein II) receives its first performance
1928 in music
- International trends
- Django Reinhardt emerges in the world of jazz; he will go on to begin a strong jazz tradition among European Gypsies
- Rita Montaner's "El Manicero" becames a hit in Paris, breaking Cuban music into Europe for the first time
- Music of Germany
- Marlene Dietrich and Margo Lion's "Wenn die beste Freundin" marks the biggest period of cabaret's popularity, and becomes an important and early song to deal with lesbianism
- Music of Ghana
- Sam's Trio records their debut, three versions of the song "Yaa Amponsah", which remains one of the most popular highlife songs
- Music of Tanzania
- Siti bint Saad makes the first commercial recordings by a Swahili musician
- Music of the United States
- Recordings by banjoist Dock Boggs become one of the early pivotal recordings of folk music
- Joseph and Cleoma Falcon record the first Cajun song, "Allons à Lafayette"
- Pawlo Humeniuk's "Kanarek" is the best-selling polka of its time, and becomes one of the standards of later east coast US polka
1929 in music
- Music of Iceland
- Music of Italy
- Genoese trallalero music is popular
- Music of the United States
- Blues musicians like Memphis Minnie and Furry Lewis emerge with the Memphis blues
- Musicians like Cow Cow Davenport, Roosevelt Sykes, and Clarence "Pine Top" Smith use the piano in the blues, coining the term boogie woogie to describe this sound
- The first recordings of Texan conjunto music begin