Music recorded in 1924
The year 1924 was a turning point, during which the unstable balance of the postwar world was reorganized in three ways: political systems, international frameworks, and media technology. Vladimir Lenin (1870–1924) died on January 21, and the Soviet Union adopted the 1924 Constitution of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics on January 31, formalizing the nation's governing structure. In the United Kingdom, Ramsay MacDonald (1866–1937) became Prime Minister on January 22, forming a minority Labour government known as the First MacDonald Ministry. On March 3rd, the Grand National Assembly of Turkey passed a resolution to abolish the Ottoman Caliphate, symbolically marking the start of a modern reorganization of the relationship between religious authority and the state.
Economic and international politics saw the design of systems centered around "reparations" and "credit." Regarding the German reparations issue, the "Dawes Plan," known as the Dawes Plan by Charles G. Dawes (1865–1951), came into effect on September 1, attempting to stabilize the situation through financial assistance and payment frameworks. Meanwhile, the League of Nations adopted the "Protocol for the Pacific Settlement of International Disputes" on October 1 and opened it for signature on October 2. In the United States, the "Immigration Act of 1924 (Johnson–Reed Act)" was enacted (signed May 24 and effective May 26), solidifying immigration control, including quotas based on nationality and the exclusion of Asians. In the 1924 United States presidential election held on November 4, Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933) was re-elected, facing off against John W. Davis (1873–1955) of the Democrats and Robert M. La Follette (1855–1925) of the Progressive Party, creating a three-way race.
At the same time, the infrastructure of sound, video, and information expanded the "simultaneous experience of the masses." On June 10, the 1924 Republican National Convention in the United States was broadcast live on radio, strengthening the connection between politics and radio waves. On February 14, the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company (CTR) changed its name to International Business Machines (IBM), accelerating the industrialization of recording and computing under Thomas J. Watson Sr. (1874–1956). In the film industry, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) was founded on April 17, and the studio system further expanded the entertainment supply network.
On the cultural front, the I Olympic Winter Games (Chamonix 1924) from January 25 to February 5 and the VIII Olympiad (Paris 1924) from May 4 to July 27 will expand the celebrations into global events. On the musical front, on February 12, George Gershwin (1898–1937) premiered his Rhapsody in Blue at New York's Aeolian Hall, bringing the sounds of the new city to the big stage with the orchestra of Paul Whiteman (1890–1967). In the fields of thought and literature, André Breton (1896–1966) published the Surrealist Manifesto in October, and Franz Kafka (1883–1924) passed away on June 3rd. In science, Edwin Hubble (1889–1953) discovered a Cepheid variable star in the Andromeda Galaxy in 1924, providing conclusive evidence that spiral nebulae are extragalactic objects. Furthermore, Louis de Broglie (1892–1987) proposed the idea of matter waves in his doctoral thesis, "Recherches sur la théorie des quanta," further expanding the horizons of quantum theory. The simultaneous reorganization of national borders and media during this year set the stage for recordings, broadcasting, and film to influence each other and further expand the circuits of popular culture.
