CARMEL, Ind. — A new exhibit tracking a century of music, technology and culture in America is open to visitors inside the Palladium in Carmel.
The Great American Songbook Foundation’s new interactive gallery exhibit compares and contrasts the popular music and pop culture of the 1920s and the 2020s.
The Songbook exhibit is titled "From the Jazz Age to Streaming: The Soundtrack of the 20s/20s" features the two decades, 100 years apart, in terms of how music has been recorded, marketed, purchased and experienced. It also touches on how music has reflected the social disparities and other trends of its time.
The exhibit explores the advent of electronic recording and radio in the 1920s and streaming and social media now.
Artists including Cole Porter, George Gershwin, Louis Armstrong and Bessie Smith are highlighted along with Lil Nas X, Lizzo, Taylor Swift and Billie Eilish.
Rising stars, who are alumni of the Foundation’s annual Songbook Academy summer intensive, who are just beginning their careers are also part of the exhibit.
Artifacts include the historic 1920s photo print of jazz pioneer Bix Beiderbecke recording at Gennett Records in Richmond, Indiana.
Visitors can access music from the two eras via a large interactive touch screen and use their mobile devices to answer questions posed by the exhibit and receive recommendations and playlists for further listening.
“A key element of our mission is showing how the music and the developments of the Great American Songbook era remain relevant and influential today,” said Christopher Lewis, executive director of the Songbook Foundation. “This exhibit demonstrates that in a way that families and multiple generations of music fans can enjoy together.”
Another corner of the gallery features, in a separate exhibit, the late songwriter Harold Arlen. His Grammy Award and 1931 upright piano donated by his family are part of the tribute to Arlen, whose hits included “Get Happy,” “Stormy Weather” and “Over the Rainbow,” which was named the top American song of the 20th century by the Recording Industry Association of America and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Arlen’s piano was recently restored by technicians at Piano Solutions in Carmel.
The Songbook Exhibit Gallery is open weekdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and one hour before scheduled performances in the Palladium.
Visitors should enter through the Palladium’s west doors.
More information is available at TheSongbook.org or (317) 844-2251.
