I was just thinking that I can hear music essentially any time I want now and I'll also hear it quite often in public places as background music. I'm assuming this wasn't the case before the existence of things like recording and radio, but what would the average American's experience of music have been at the time? Would they hear it in a normal day or just on special occasions? What sort of music would they hear and how would it be presented or appreciated?
Good question!
An important consideration is the number of people competent in music. It was a sign of a families place in bourgeoise society that children would receive education in music, although musical aptitude was certainly not confined to this class. If we examine, for example, Creole families in New Orleans we would find considerable emphasis placed upon the European musical tradition as a way of differentiation from the "more" black lower class.
It's important to also note the change in culture we've experienced. Parades and public musical performances are much less common now than they used to be, due (I suspect) to the easy availability of recorded music. Charles Hersch describes a bit of how such performances used to influence youngsters in the context of emerging musicians.^1
Music was more common in the family home, consider the decline in piano sales^2 which has occurred this century. People used to entertain themselves with music, as opposed to leaving it to professionals. So music was quite common, but you were more likely to have played a role in creating it. An effect of this was fragmentation in style! That's why we cant ell the difference between New Orleans and Chicago style Black-American Music from the 1920's, folks would come up with their ideas locally instead of leaving it to Nashville or LA based studio players as is common today.
^1) ^Charles ^Hersch^, ^Subversive ^Sounds: ^Race ^and ^the ^Birth ^of ^Jazz ^in ^New ^Orleans, ^pg. ^167-170
^2) ^http://www.thetakeaway.org/story/despite-gradual-decline-piano-industry-stays-alive/