Music recorded in 1929
The year 1929 marked a turning point, when the foundations of the systems and markets that had supported the "stability" of the interwar period were shaken by simultaneous developments in politics, economics, and the media. At the start of the year, Herbert Hoover (1874–1964) was inaugurated as president of the United States on March 4, 1929, raising hopes for continued prosperity. Meanwhile, in Europe, the British general election on May 30, 1929, left Parliament in a state of limbo, and Ramsay MacDonald (1866–1937) formed a minority government on June 5, 1929. That same year, the Lateran Treaty, which settled the "Rome Question" between the Kingdom of Italy and the Holy See, was signed on February 11, 1929, establishing the framework for the sovereign state of Vatican City. This reorganization of the political order affected not only the legitimacy of nations and national borders, but also the composition of international public opinion, and radio and newsreels became increasingly important as channels for sharing the "contemporary" world.
The international community also attempted to institutionalize war avoidance and crisis management. The General Treaty for Renunciation of War as an Instrument of National Policy (commonly known as the Kellogg-Briand Pact) came into effect on July 24, 1929, and established the principle that nations should renounce war as a policy tool. Furthermore, the Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War was signed in Geneva on July 27, 1929, marking progress in the establishment of international humanitarian norms. However, in reality, tensions were becoming more acute in various places. In North America, organized crime conflict during the Prohibition era became visible with the St. Valentine's Day Massacre (February 14, 1929), and names like Al Capone (1899–1947) and George "Bugs" Moran (1891–1957) became a hot topic of public opinion. In East Asia, the Sino-Soviet armed conflict (1929) over the Chinese Eastern Railway in Manchuria exposed the fragility of regional order. In Japan, the cabinet of Prime Minister Tanaka Giichi (1864–1929) resigned en masse on July 2, 1929, bringing tensions between party politics and the military to the surface. Furthermore, in British India, the Indian National Congress adopted the Purna Swaraj (Complete Independence) mandate in Lahore, and the movements of Jawaharlal Nehru (1889–1964) and Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) advanced to the next stage.
In the economic sphere, the Young Plan, a final solution to the reparations issue, was considered and adopted at the Hague Conference (August 6–31, 1929), and an attempt was made to design a European financial system. However, the foundations of this plan were undermined by the sudden drop in stock prices in October 1929, starting with the New York Stock Exchange. A chain reaction of market turmoil occurred between October 24 (known as "Black Thursday") and October 29 ("Black Tuesday"), opening the door for credit uncertainty to spread globally. Despite this upheaval, science and technology were also pioneering new horizons. In astronomy, Edwin Hubble (1889–1953) presented a paper in 1929 on the relationship between the distance of galaxies and their recession speed, solidifying the understanding of the expansion of the universe based on observational evidence. As a symbol of aviation and transportation, the rigid airship LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin completed its round-the-world flight in August 1929, signaling the shift from long-distance air travel from a "wonder" to a "realistic plan." On the cultural front, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences held its first Academy Awards on May 16, 1929, ushering the post-talkie era of the film industry into a system of film evaluation. The combination of image and sound, radio broadcasting networks, and record distribution interacted with each other, accelerating the pace of popular culture through the duplication and repetition of voices, performances, and news. Amid this acceleration, 1929 was also a year in which the global economic fault lines dramatically redefined the conditions for contemporary expression and consumption.
