1920-1930"There's nothing surer; the rich get rich and the poor get poorer." was considered the credo of the roaring 20's. Chicago was hot! Harlem was hot with Jazz and the so-called "devil's music'! (The Cotton Club was open to both whites and blacks and packed nightly.) Jazz was hot! Bessie Smith sang the Blues. But most of the best-selling pop hits were sentimental ballads (I'll Be With You in Apple Blossom Time and I'm Just Wild About Harry), old-fashioned walzes (Three O'Clock in the Morning and Deep in My Heart) , and nonsense songs (Yes, We Have No Bananas and I Wish That I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate). Fanny Brice sang Rose of Washington Square and Second Hand Rose in the Ziegfeld Follies and Vaudeville. The Grand Ole Opry was transmitted on the radio from Nashville in 1925. Al Jolson sang his wonderful songs.
The Roaring Twenties is a term sometimes used to refer to the 1920's, characterizing the decade's distinctive cultural edge in New York City, Paris, Berlin, London, and many other major cities during a period of sustained economic prosperity. The French called the, "the Crazy Years."