Jazz was the product of mostly urban, African-American communities. It was an innovative form of expression that did not follow the musical conventions of the day. Jazz was commonly dismissed as "devil's music" at the time. However, its rise coincided with the commercial success of phonograph records. People who would not go to a jazz club could still hear the music at home. Artists such as King Oliver and Louis Armstrong rose to fame in the 1920s. Armstrong's "Mack the Knife" came out in 1928.
Blues music originated in the rural towns of the South. The most well known form of the blues is Mississippi Delta, which took traditional country guitar music and mixed it with personal lyrics that spoke of hardship and adversity. By the end of the 1920s, new styles such as Memphis blues emerged. Memphis blues used homemade instruments in conjunction with more traditional instruments such as the guitar. Ida Cox, Hart A. Wand and W.C. Handy were among the biggest blues acts of the 1920s.
Music of the 1920s had to pick up speed to keep up with the changing dances. Youthful crowds congregated in dance halls to move to ragtime tunes. Ragtime was a generally upbeat music usually led by a piano. It featured syncopated rhythms, but mixed minor and major melodies of the same key. Jelly Roll Morton, Eubie Blake, and Thomas Walker were among the top ragtime artists. Bands incorporated lively but rhythmic music to accommodate popular dances like the foxtrot and the waltz.
Over 50 new Broadway musicals opened each season during the 1920s. The public appetite for musicals was so great that four major hits opened in one week in September of 1925. "No, No Nanette," "Sunny," "Dearest Enemy" and the "Vagabond King" all ran for more than 285 performances. Sheet music helped spread the show tunes to folks who could not reach New York. Having a hit show was important enough to the owner of the Boston Red Sox that he sold his best player to have enough money to stage "No, No Nanette." That player was Babe Ruth.