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 The "Roaring Twenties" opened with an experiment that was to forever change the face of American popular music. The U.S. branch of German-based OKeh Records had not had much success in America before it signed a Black vaudeville singer named Mamie Smith. When Smith's "Crazy Blues" was released in November, 1920, it sold as estimated 75,000 copies the first month--and it continued to sell. Apparently, there was a market for Black music, and the next year, OKeh launched a "Race" series. In 1923, Columbia followed suit.
1920 also saw the first commercial radio transmission, by Pittsburgh's station KDKA. At first, record company executives were terrified: who would want to buy phonograph records when radio provided free music? They needn't have worried. Instead of diminishing interest, live radio performances by orchestras and dance bands actually served to help promote songs available on disc (as well as fuelling dance crazes such as the Charleston at hotels and other venues where those bands entertained).
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