The Invention of The American Desert

Some songs are so deeply rooted in the attitude to life of a region that one can rightly call them 'Hits.' Broadway and its motion picture shows and theaters were synonyms of national cultural identity for New York and the American way of life. The names and melodies of composers such as Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, George Gershwin, Benny Goodman were omnipresent in New York. They are part of national history, just as the film in Babelsberg in Berlin developed a unique cultural flowering after the First World War. Talented composers such as Friedrich Hollander, Walter Jurmann, and Peter Kreuder became famous overnight through films like 'The Blue Angel.' The famous hit 'Falling in Love Again' (the German translation writes literally: 'I am attuned to love from head to toe') and the legs of the beautiful Marlene Dietrich enchanted Berlin and the whole world. With the invention of sound film, a new, sparkling musical genre emerged: dance and film music, which developed its specific sound through jazz bands.