The Minstrel Show

• Minstrel shows emerged from working-class urban areas where interracial interaction was common and featured white performers who blackened their skin and enacted parodies of African American music, dance, dress, and dialect.

  • Early Minstrel Performers included George Washington Dixon and Thomas Dartmouth Rice

    • George Washington Dixon was the first white performer to establish a wide reputation as a “blackface” entertainer; “Turkey in the Straw”

    • Thomas Dartmouth Rice was a white actor born into a poor family in New York’s Seventh Ward, who turned his minstrel performance of a character named "Jim Crow" (1829)

      • After the introduction of “Jim Crow,” there was an explosion of blackface performances by White, Black, and mixed-raced performers

        • Rice performed in England in the 1830s, becoming the first American-born performer to export music that was perceived abroad as quintessentially American in style and content.

Cultural Significance of the Music:

• From the 1840s to the 1880s, blackface minstrelsy rose in popularity to become the predominant entertainment genre in the United States, and touring minstrel troupes created an embryonic national popular culture.

  • Minstrel shows began as an opportunity for members of the lower classes to mock the pretensions of politicians and upper-class elites, and the performers were white, Black, and mixed race.

    • Thomas Dartmouth Rice's minstrel character, Jim Crow, was so known throughout the country, that the name was used as a pejorative or slur against African Americans.

Featured Songwriter: Stephen Foster

• Stephen Collins Foster is regarded as the first important composer of American popular song and was influenced by ballas, Italian light opera, Irish and German songs, and minstrel songs

  • He produced around 200 songs and is likely the first person in the United States to make his living as a full-time professional songwriter

    • "Oh! Susanna," "Old Folks at Home," "My Old Kentucky Home," "Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair," and "Beautiful Dreamer."

  • Much of Foster's financial success was possible due to technological advancements. Expansion of the sheet-music publishing business led to increased sales, generating fees and royalties. At the same time, the rapid growth of public music education led to more people purchasing pianos for their homes

The Music Business: Copyright Law

• Copyright law covered the rights of music firms but not those of the composers of songs bought by the firms

  • Musical works were not covered for anyone by U.S. copyright law until 1831 (prior to that, the law only applied to works such as books and maps)

Dance Music and Brass Bands:

• American pop has long been tied closely to dance and the social functions of dancing, and just like with popular songs, the earliest examples of published dance music were modeled on styles popular in England.

The Ball:

• Grand balls were modeled on the aristocratic gatherings of European royalty and provided public venus for Americans who desired to demonstrate their refinement and knowledge of high culture

  • Organized around a program of preselected music and played by an orchestra, a typical dance program at a ball of the late 19th century included dances such as the waltz, mazurka, polka, and cotillion

  • Shift to Couple Dancing:

    • Ballroom dancing began to shift from group dances (where people only occasionally touched each other) to couple dancing (where partners stayed in contact throughout the entirety of the dance)

      • By the end of the century, the waltz was seen as the ultimate symbol of sophistication and romance

    • High Dance vs. Low Dance:

      • Dance in the 19th century was characterized by continual feedback between urban and rural, “high-class” and “low-class” dance styles

Brass Band Concerts:

• Military bands spread rapidly during and after the Civil War

  • High school bands formed during this period, and towns had parks with band shells for the brass band concerts of government, school, church, and company bands

    • This brass band movement drew energy from the interaction of patriotism and popular culture, as well as the growing force of American nationalism.

    • Brass bands were a powerful way for national patriotism to fuse with popular culture and a way to enhance and grow national unity following the Civil War.

      • John Philip Sousa (1854-1932) was the most popular bandleader in the United States from the 1890s to World War I; Sousa was the son of a trombonist in the US Marine band. He became the conductor of the US Marine band and later formed a “commercial” concert band that toured widely in America and Europe.

        • Sousa was one of the first musicians to negotiate royalty payments with publishers, insisting on a percentage of the total sales of his compositions.

Featured Recording: “After the Ball”

• “After the Ball” was the first “mega-hit” pop song, eventually selling over 5 million copies in sheet music.

  • It was written Charles K. Harris (1867-1930), a self-taught banjo player from Wisconsin who could not write music, but instead dictated it to a professional musician.

    • Published in 1892, “After the Ball” became even more popular after it was performed by John Philip Sousa’s band at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago.

    • "After the Ball" (featured below) is made up of three main sections, or strophes. Each strophe includes a verse and a chorus. This basic verse and chorus structure is derived from the ballad tradition. The emphasis on the chorus positions the song as a predecessor of 20th-century popular song forms. And, with the chorus announcing the title of the song twice, it embeds the title into the listener's memory.

The Birth of Tin Pan Alley

• At the end of the 19th century, the music publishing business in the United States was centered in New York City

  • Established publishers were challenged by smaller companies specializing in more exciting popular songs being performed in dance halls, beer gardens, and theaters.

  • New publishing firms were founded by Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe and set up in lower Manhattan, particularly in the stretch of 28th Street in lower Manhattan where composers and “song pluggers” produced and promoted popular songs.

    • This area became known as Tin Pan Alley due to the music in the area (made by “cheap upright pianos” all playing different tunes

Rise of the Modern American Music Business

• The 1890s saw the rise of the modern American music business. The industry aimed to provide “hits” for the expanding urban mass market.

  • Popular songs were printed as sheet music and then promoted by song pluggers (whose job it was to promote a given company’s product)

    • Song pluggers would visit these locations, delivering bundles of sheet music and singing the company’s latest songs to get customers’ attention.

      • Later in the evenings, song pluggers could be found singing from tables in a saloon or trying to convince performers to sing them while backstage at a theater.

Vaudeville:

• Vaudeville: a popular theatrical form descended from music hall shows and minstrelsy, had become an important medium for popularizing Tin Pan Alley songs

  • Vaudeville consisted of a series of performances by singers, acrobats, comedians, jugglers, dancers, animal handlers, and more (circus)

  • Performers had to provide their own transportation, lodging, costumes, songs, and arrangements (while also being dependent on the whims of booking agents, to whom they paid substantial fees)

    • Vaudeville theater was racially segregated; there was a separate chain of theaters for black performers and audiences.

Featured Songwriters:

• The songs of Tin Pan Alley drew on the principles established by Stephen Collins Foster. Romantic songs, songs with simple melodies, and songs influenced by the minstrel tradition were popular styles of the time.

  • Paul Dresser (1857-1906) was one of the most popular composers of the early Tin Pan Alley period.

    • He wrote a series of sentimental and nostalgic songs, including “On the Banks of the Wabash, Far Away” (1899), which later became the state song of Indiana. (evocative, wistful character)

  • Harry von Tilzer (1872-1946) was considered the “Daddy of Popular Song.” He advised aspiring songwriters to keep their tunes simple, with a limited melodic range (catchy and memorable as possible to non-musician listeners)

  • James A. Bland (1854-1911) was the first successful black songwriter. An ex-minstrel show performer from a middle-class background, his style of song (known as “plantation songs”) descended from the minstrel song tradition.

    • Bland wrote approximately 700 songs during his career, including “Carry Me Back to Old Virginny” (1878), which was once the state song of Virginia.

      • Popular in Europe and the United States, Bland was both criticized for reinforcing racial stereotypes as well as lionized for popularizing authentic African American music. (upbeat character, enhanced by faster tempo, the bright harmonies of the voices, and the active piano accompaniment

The Ragtime Craze:

• Ragtime music emerged in the 1880s, with its popularity peaking between 1900 and 1910. Ragtime represented a more authentically African American style, by utilizing musical techniques and values from an increasing number of Black songwriters and performers in the music industry

  • Scott Joplin is the best-known composer and performer of ragtime music

Ragtime Music:

• The term "ragtime music" likely got its name from the African American term “to rag,” which refers to enlivening a piece of music by shifting the melodic accents to the offbeats.

  • This technique of playing “against the beat” intensifies the beat and creates rhythmic momentum. Possible influences of this musical pattern include the banjo, Latin American rhythms, and marching band music.

    • Ragtime music was played by solo pianists as well as every type of ensemble — dance bands, brass bands, country string bands, symphony orchestras, banjo and mandolin ensembles.

    • The first piece of sheet music to bear the team "rag" was a minstrel-style song by African American songwriter Ernest Hogan.

      • Such songs were usually accompanied by a simplified version of the syncopated rhythms of ragtime piano music; which contributed to the racial stereotypes established by minstrel show performances

Tin Pan Alley composers added syncopated rhythms and black dialects to spice up otherwise bland popular tunes; the racial imagery depicted in the music and lyrics reveal the complex and intertwined relationship between race, social class, generation identity, and morality plays of the time used ragtime music as an indicator of depravity

Featured Composer: Scott Joplin:

• African American composer and pianist Scott Joplin (1868-1917) was the best-known composer of ragtime music and was influential in both popular music and classical music around the world.

  • Joplin attended the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, where he heard ragtime pianists and eventually started a brass band.

    • From 1895- 1915, Joplin composed many of the classics of ragtime music and helped popularize the style with his unique piano arrangements

      • Joplin's biggest hit, “Maple Leaf Rag” (1898), was named after the Maple Leaf social club in Sedalia, is known worldwide, and is still performed today.

      • “Maple Leaf Rag” is a classic example of the form and style typical of ragtime music. AABBACCDD pattern with the right hand playing syncopated rhythms against the regular bass part played by the left hand

The Rise of the Phonograph:

• The invention of the phonograph in 1877 by Thomas Alva Edison, had an immeasurable impact on the development of American popular music.

  • Phonographs provided the ability to record music or preserve performance, and the ability to listen to music in the home

    • 1877: Invention of the Phonograph: Thomas Alva Edison invented the phonograph in 1877. Around the same time, French inventor Charles Cros wrote a paper on the process of recording sound

    • 1887: Development of the Gramophone Disc: Emile Berliner developed a flat gramophone disc. It was more durable, cheaper to produce, and easier to store than wax cylinders

    • 1890-1900: Recorded Music Moves to Public Spaces: The first nickelodeons were set up in public places in the 1890s. These machines played the latest hits for a nickel

    • 1902: Introduction of the 12-inch Disc: The 12-inch shellac disc was introduced in 1902. These discs were played at a speed of 78 rpm and could hold four minutes of music

    • 1904: Introduction of the Double-Sided Disc: the double-sided disc was introduced. This remained the industry standard for records until the 1940s

Effects on the Music Business:

• Although phonographs were not originally intended to promote the commercial distribution of music, their potential was quickly realized.

  • Opera singer Enrico Caruso (1873-1921) was the first to demonstrate this financial opportunity. In 1902, Caruso recorded a series of opera arias.

    • The discs sold well during his lifetime, but after he died in 1921, sales surpassed $2 million, benefitting the Victor Company which had purchased the American recording rights.

Music and Cultural Change:

• Prior to WWI, Immigration, social and geographical mobility, technological innovation, and music provided a calming effect.

  • Hit songs fall into one of two broad categories:

    • Sentimental songs with messages of reverence for home, family, and the “good old days”

    • Syncopated ragtime songs, represented the progressive, stimulating side of change

  • As the popularity of the phonograph increased, it gave rise to a set of philosophical and aesthetic issues.

    • The mechanical recording process requires the splitting of sounds from their original sources.

      • This splitting, called schizophonia, creates a gap between the original context and meanings of music and existence as sound, creating, a purely acoustic phenomenon that can be reproduced and consumed by a huge audience.