In 1950, the popular television host Arthur Godfrey, sporting a Hawaiian shirt, actually gave lessons to millions of viewers right in their living rooms. Television offered a golden opportunity for the instrument. Indeed, bluegrass music took off during that period as well, and the ukulele is still strongly associated with the string-band phenomenon. As sales of pianos, accordions, and other pricey instruments soared, saving and scrimping Americans helped boost the ukulele to peak popularity in the 1930s. The Great Depression provided another gateway for the ukulele. For four decades, the sounds of Hawaii drifted over the air to hundreds of radio stations. Tin Pan Alley songsmiths cranked out dozens of “Hawaiian” novelty hits like “On the Beach at Waikiki,” followed by parodies of those same hits (“Oh How She Could Yacki Hacki Wicki Wacki Woo.”) Soon came an avalanche of inexpensive, mainland-made plastic ukuleles, ukulele method books like “Hum and Strum,” and “Beach Boy Method Hawaiian Style,” pandering to the appeal of faraway Hawaii as an exotic paradise. By the 1920s, Sears Roebuck and other department store catalogs offered ukes for a couple of dollars-and sometimes even for free with the purchase of lessons. In 1913, a reporter for the Hartford Courant described how "the wonderfully sweet voices and weird melodies of these ukalele (sic) players strike a plaintive heart-note never to be forgotten once heard.”Ĭutesy Hawaiian kitsch became big business. What mainland Americans lacked in understanding of their exotic territory’s music, they made up for in enthusiasm. The ukulele got its first taste of mainland popularity in the 1900s when the Panama Pacific International Exposition lured over 17 million visitors with hula dance and song at the Hawaii Pavilion. Participants lapped up advice on fingerpicking, playing by ear, and songwriting in workshops with titles like “Something in the Way She Ukes” and “Game of Ukes.” The inner sanctum offered a hodgepodge of instruments on display: ukes fashioned from indestructible polycarbonate and painted in retro pastels, cigar-box ukes, and the classic natural wood Hawaiian models. True enough, cases plastered with stickers like “Ukes Heal” and “I’m Pro Ukulele and I Vote” were sprawled out throughout the rooms. “Strum with your index finger or thumb-whatever feels good,” ukulele teacher, author, and songwriter Jim Beloff told the beginners. Take New Jersey's second annual Ukefest last August at the Morristown Unitarian Fellowship Hall, which kicked off with 86 beginners tackling their first piece, "Surfin' USA." During the festival, the rented church was awash with love for the novices-a kind of generosity rarely seen at a piano or guitar convention. The instrument's renewed appeal can be seen in the rise of ukulele music festivals, which have cropped up in places like Reno, Milwaukee, Napa, Port Townsend, Washington, and Rockville, Maryland. But with the help of trendsetters and tastemakers, it's making a strong comeback-the National Association of Music Merchants reported a 54 percent jump in ukulele sales in 2013-that can be traced in large part to the instrument's accessibility, affordability, YouTube popularity, and celebrity esteem. (It won a Grammy, of course.) And then a Hawaiian ukulele prodigy played a Beatles cover in Central Park, and the video went viral-but more on that later.ĭespite a long history that once included a reputation as an exotic and highbrow instrument, the ukulele has also endured decades of snubbing from both the pop music scene and the more cultured world of classical music. When Eddie Vedder impulse-bought one on a trip to Hawaii, he was compelled to record a whole album of Ukulele Songs. Tony Blair disrupts Labour Party conventions with one. Zooey Deschanel strums one while crooning sweetly with Joseph Gordon-Levitt. With its chunk-a-chunk sound, whispery nylon strings, and diminutive body, the ukulele is having a moment.
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