Music aboard the luxury liners mirrored the popular song hits passengers were used to hearing over the radio at home – and the radio, at least in the commercial sense, was a relatively new invention.
Commercial radio in the United States grew quickly from its infancy in the 1920’s under the steady hand of Radio Corporation of America (RCA). RCA exists today only as a brand name but the subsidiary network it helped create in 1926 for radio broadcasting (the National Broadcasting Company, better known today as the NBC television network), a spin-off network from NBC (American Broadcasting Company, better known today as ABC) and its competitor, the Columbia Broadcasting System (better known today as the CBS television network) are still very much alive today.
RCA quickly realized that the real money was in selling radio sets to the public, and by 1930 over 40% of households in the country had a radio. While RCA and many other manufacturers sold radios, the networks took over the job of filling the programming need – and music was a big part of what they provided.
Here are some of the national hit artists that graced the airwaves in the 1930’s and would have also seen their music played aboard the great luxury liners.
Take a look at any of these artists on Amazon and reward yourself with period music to read by!
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