Song Character Analysis Worksheet - The University of North ...

Minstrel Shows
The minstrel show began in the 1830s as a white imitation of black plantation and
urban life. White performers would dress in slave or dandy clothes, use burnt cork as
make up for “blackface,” and perform skits, musical numbers, and dances that parodied
the dialogue and music of African-Americans through great exaggeration. Even more
popular after the Civil War, minstrelsy was the first organized form of “black” musical
theatre. Julian Mates described its importance to American theatre as the “backbone of
American popular entertainment for over half a century.” 9 Minstrel show elements, such
as the olio mix of songs and comedic bits, became pervasive in all forms of entertain-
ment. The circus and the show boat became expedient means of conveying this new
entertainment to every community, even across the frontier. Organized choral groups,
such as the Virginia Minstrels and the New Christy Minstrels, mixed minstrel songs with
spirituals and traditional songs. They traveled across the American continent and became
a sensation in Europe as the first indigenous musical export of the United States. 10 Now
considered another racist blight on American cultural history, minstrelsy at this time was
a subversive means of presenting societal norms to the white, middle-class audience.
Performers in blackface could behave outside the boundaries of “accepted norms to
comment candidly on social, political, and economic conditions.” 11 Actor/dancer Ben
9 Mates, 89.
Burkholder, 677.
10 Several of Stephen Foster’s best-loved songs were written for the New Christy Minstrels.
11 Burkholder, 677. “Coon” songs, the standard solo song of the minstrel show, became one of the
most popular ragtime song genres of the early twentieth century. These were sung in black dialect with
ragged rhythms by both white and black performers. Sheet music sales were amazingly successful after
Ernest Hogan’s runaway hit, “All Coons Look Alike to Me” (1886). See Charles Hamm, Yesterdays:
19