Blackface

Blackface minstrelsy and world popular culture

Despite its racist portrayals, blackface minstrelsy was the conduit through which African-American and African-American-influenced music, comedy, and dance first reached the American mainstream. It played a seminal role in the introduction of African-American culture to world audiences. Wrote jazz historian Gary Giddings in Bing Crosby: A Pocketful of Dreams, The Early Years 1903-1940:

Related Topics:
Jazz - Bing Crosby

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Though antebellum (minstrel) troupes were white, the form developed in a form of racial collaboration, illustrating the axiom that defines—and continues to define—American music as it developed over the next century and a half: African-American innovations metamorphose into American popular culture when white performers learn to mimic black ones.

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Virtually every new genre in popular music in the United States from the twilight of the 19th century to the dawn of the 21st century—from ragtime to blues, to jazz and swing, to rhythm and blues and rock and roll, to funk and classic rock, to hip hop and neo soul— is due to the contributions of African-Americans. Indeed, the broad spectrum of popular music as it exists today would be unrecognizable absent the influence of African-American culture. Classical music as well has benefited from African-American influence. Standard early jazz tunes included numerous numbers such as "The Darktown Strutters Ball", a song about the slave cakewalk tradition, and "The Birth of the Blues". Even into the '50s, R&B artists from Louis Jordan (in, for example, "Saturday Night Fish Fry") to the Dominoes (in "The Deacon is Moving In") harkened back to minstrelsy. A lot of vaudeville shtick, and its earliest comedians, musicians and actors as well, were transplants from the blackface minstrel tradition—among them Laugh-In's Pigmeat Markham. The radio antics of "Amos 'n' Andy", which featured white actors impersonating blacks, were straight from the minstrel stage. The popular radio show lasted more than a decade and then moved to television, utilizing black actors, in the 1950s. Under fire from critics as being demeaning to blacks, it ran until only 1953.

Related Topics:
21st century - Ragtime - Blues - Jazz - Swing - Rhythm and blues - Rock and roll - Funk - Classic rock - Hip hop - Neo soul - Classical music - R&B - Louis Jordan - Dominoes - Laugh-In - Pigmeat Markham - Amos 'n' Andy - 1950s - 1953

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Country music and humor, too, were deeply influenced by blackface minstrelsy. According to Dale Cockrell's account in The Encyclopedia of Country Music, many traditional hillbilly fiddle tunes, including "Turkey in the Straw" and Old Dan Tucker came from minstrelsy, as did much of the format and content of the (still running) Grand Ole Opry radio show. In part because of the popularity of blackface minstrelsy, the banjo, which is African-American in origin, became a standard feature of country and bluegrass music. Cockrell notes that Hee Haw "in structure, humor, characterization, and, in many ways, music, was a minstrel show in 'rube face'". As with jazz, many of country?s earliest stars—such as Jimmie Rodgers and Bob Wills—were veterans of blackface performance.

Related Topics:
Country music - Hillbilly - Fiddle - Turkey in the Straw - Old Dan Tucker - Grand Ole Opry - Radio - Banjo - Bluegrass - Hee Haw - Jimmie Rodgers - Bob Wills

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The immense popularity and profitability of blackface were testaments to the power, appeal, and commercial viability of not only black music and dance, but also of black style. This led to cross-cultural collaborations, as Giddings writes; but, particularly in times past, to the often ruthless exploitation and outright theft of African-American artistic genius, as well— by other, white performers and composers; agents; promoters; publishers; and record company executives. The precedent set by blackface, of aggressive white exploitation and appropriation of black culture, is alive today in, for example, the anointed, white, so-called "royalty" of essentially African-American music forms: Benny Goodman, widely known as the "King of Swing"; Paul Whiteman, who called himself the "King of Jazz"; Elvis Presley, known as the "King of Rock and Roll"; and Janis Joplin, crowned "Queen of the Blues".

Related Topics:
Benny Goodman - Paul Whiteman - Elvis Presley - Janis Joplin

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For more than a century, when white performers have wanted to appear sexy, (like Elvis); or streetwise, (like Eminem); or hip, (like Mezz Mezzrow); or cool, (like actor John Travolta's Chili Palmer, or even ZZ Top); or urbane, (like Frank Sinatra), they have turned to African-American performance styles, stage presence and personas. Sometimes this has been done out of genuine admiration, as in the case of Eric Clapton or innumerable other blues revivalists. Sometimes it is done with a good deal of calculation by, for example, the many white lead performers who use black backup singers and musicians; or (as bell hooks argues), when Madonna uses black male dancers to give her stage show a transgressive, sexually charged patina. The referencing and cultural appropriation of African-American performance and stylistic traditions by whites and others— often resulting in tremendous profit— has its beginnings in blackface minstrelsy.

Related Topics:
Eminem - Mezz Mezzrow - Cool - John Travolta - ZZ Top - Frank Sinatra - Eric Clapton - Bell hooks - Madonna - Cultural appropriation

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The international imprint of African-American culture is pronounced in its depth and breadth, in indigenous expressions, as well as in a myriad of blatantly mimetic and subtler, more attenuated forms. This "browning", à la Richard Rodriguez, of American and world popular culture began with blackface minstrelsy. It is a continuum of pervasive African-American influence which has many prominent manifestations today, among them the ubiquity of the cool aesthetic and hip hop culture.

Related Topics:
Richard Rodriguez - Cool aesthetic

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