Jewish Americans have been the pioneers of many new sounds throughout America’s entertainment industry boom. Between a mixture of African Americans and Jews, the popular music of the last century has been evolving and changing, all the while people loving what was being performed, or what was heard on the radio. Jewish producers were some of the most influential in creating the distinct sounds of their eras and the widespread popularization of the music. Much like the movie industry, the pioneers willing to gamble on a young industry were immigrants or born in New York, and since then has evolved. The first Jew to become famous, and maybe the most famous was Irving Berlin. Berlin, who was born in Russia, started his music career at the age …show more content…
The time period in between the beginning of the popularization of the radio and the outbreak of rock and roll was still dominated by Irving Berlin but more Jews were finding their way into the music industry via jazz. Milt Gabler emerged onto the music scene in the mid-1930s with his record label Commodore Records, which started as a radio shop located on East 42nd Street in Brooklyn. His record label was responsible for producing music for the most well-known jazz musicians of his time. Time’s Best Song of the century award went to a song on Commodore Records called “Strange Fruit” by Billie Holiday, who was signed with Columbia at the time, but chose Gabler’s record label because she shopped at his store. After Commodore’s success, Gabler was recruited by a larger record label called Decca Records where he produced for Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald. At Decca, he expanded from producing jazz hits and produced country music, folk music, and the song “Choo Choo Ch’ Boogie”, which is seen as one of the first popular rock and roll songs, and preview to what was going to happen to the music industry in the next 20 years. The new sounds of jazz and blues brought along a revolution in the music industry that stems from African-American culture, like many other music genres, known as rock and