Minstrel Shows, Tin Pan Alley, and Early American Popular Music (19th–early 20th c.)

Vocabulary flashcards covering key terms from the lecture notes on minstrel shows, blackface, Tin Pan Alley, and the development of early American popular music.

Minstrel show

A traveling 19th-century American entertainment featuring primarily white performers who darkened their faces (blackface) to caricature Black people; a major vehicle for popular music and stereotypes, popular 1830–1870.

Blackface

The practice of darkening the skin to imitate Black people in minstrel shows; now viewed as racist and socially unacceptable due to its hateful history.

Jim Crow (song)

A minstrel song by Thomas Dartmouth Rice that became an international hit and lent its name to the Jim Crow laws of racial segregation.

Stephen Foster

Prolific 19th-century American composer associated with minstrel-era songs; later recognized as a foundational figure in American popular music and education.

Vaudeville

A 20th-century form of theater with varied acts (singers, dancers, comedians, jugglers) that stayed in one venue, bridging minstrel shows and Broadway.

Tin Pan Alley

A nickname for the New York City music publishing hub, centered on Lower 28th Street, which dominated the publishing of popular songs in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Songplugger

A promoter who pitches new songs to performers in bars, theaters, and venues to disseminate sheet music.

John Philip Sousa

The March King; conductor of the U.S. Marine Band; pivotal figure in American band music and national marches.

Stars and Stripes Forever

Sousa’s best-known march; widely performed by the U.S. Marine Band and designated as a national march in 1987.

Regimental bands

Military bands that flourished after the Spanish–American War, helping spread band culture and patriotic music in towns.

Sheet music

Printed music sold widely; the main vehicle for distributing popular songs before recordings; millions of copies sold and crucial for home music-making.

Copyright law (copyright reform)

Early laws protecting composers and publishers, enabling payment for copies of sheet music and helping formalize the music publishing industry.

Ragtime

A syncopated musical style that emerged among African American communities, influencing early 20th-century American popular music and Tin Pan Alley.

Dance bands / ballroom dancing

The rise of dance bands and formal ballroom dancing in the late 19th to early 20th centuries, blending European and African American rhythms in social settings.

Spanish-American War impact on music

The war (1898) spurred the growth of regimental bands and a patriotic music culture, contributing to the development of America’s popular music infrastructure.