{"id":1301,"date":"2015-04-22T21:01:36","date_gmt":"2015-04-23T02:01:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/?p=1301"},"modified":"2015-04-28T16:17:44","modified_gmt":"2015-04-28T21:17:44","slug":"minstrelsy-never-really-died-it-simply-changed-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/2015\/04\/22\/minstrelsy-never-really-died-it-simply-changed-media\/","title":{"rendered":"Minstrelsy Never Really Died\u2014it Simply Changed Media"},"content":{"rendered":"

While many of these southern folk music pieces wrote by Stephen Forster presented sympathetic portrayals of African American characters, like the heartbreaking \u201cOld Black Joe\u201d(I mentioned in my first post), songs like \u201cCamptown Races\u201d and \u201cOh! Susanna\u201d became linked with offensive stereotyped images of slaves, and was used in minstrel performance. Strangely, in the early and mid-twentieth century, in addition to using the songs to establish geography and time period, film scores and cartoons also began using Foster\u2019s music as a way to negatively define a minority character\u2019s station in life.<\/p>\n

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Although they by no means initiated the trend, film like Blazing Saddles used \u201cCamptown Races\u201d in a shorthand way of defining characters\u2019 region (southern), race (african American), and personalities (hedonistic). The boss assumes his request was misunderstood. He wanted a \u201cdarky\u201d song, like \u201cCamptown Races.\u201d In the film, when the boss starts to sing it, he wants to imitate a buffoon in minstrel performance with his untrained voice, awkward dance movements, and exaggerated \u201cnegro dialect\u201d.<\/p>\n