Chapter 2: American Popular Music in the Nineteenth Century Pt.1
Chapter 2 explains how American popular music developed during the colonial period and the 19th century through the blending of European, African, and Indigenous musical traditions. It discusses how westward expansion, immigration, religion, slavery, and the growth of commercial entertainment influenced music while also showing how cultural exchange often came with appropriation and racial discrimination, especially through blackface minstrelsy.
Important Terms
Manifest Destiny - The belief that the United States was destined to expand westward across North America.
Congregational Singing - Church members singing together during worship.
Psalm Singing - The singing of biblical Psalms in church services.
Lining Out - A worship leader sings one line, and the congregation repeats it.
Shape-Note Singing - A notation system using different note shapes to make music easier to read.
The Sacred Harp - An influential shape-note hymnal first published in 1844.
Call-and-Response - A musical style where a leader sings or plays a phrase and a group answers.
Broadside Ballad - A cheaply printed sheet containing song lyrics, often about current events or politics.
Strophic Form - One melody repeated for every verse.
Chorus - A repeated musical section between verses.
Ballad Opera - A theatrical work using spoken dialogue mixed with popular songs.
Bel Canto - Italian vocal style emphasizing beautiful, smooth singing.
High Lonesome Sound - A high, nasal vocal style associated with Appalachian and country music.
Klezmer - Traditional instrumental music of Eastern European Jewish communities.
Middle Passage - The forced transportation of enslaved Africans across the Atlantic.
Polyrhythm - Two or more rhythms performed simultaneously.
Syncopation - Emphasis on unexpected or off-beats.
Spirituals - Religious songs created by enslaved African Americans.
Riff - A short repeated musical phrase.
Banjo - String instrument adapted from West African instruments.
Cakewalk - Dance created by enslaved Africans that parodied European ballroom dancing.
Minstrelsy - Popular 19th-century entertainment featuring racist blackface performances.
Blackface - Dark makeup worn by white performers to caricature African Americans.
Minstrel Line - Opening section of a minstrel show.
Olio - Middle variety-act section of a minstrel show.
Stump Speech - Comic political speech in minstrel performances.
Afterpiece - Final plantation-themed musical skit.
Verse-Chorus Form - Popular song structure alternating verses and choruses.
Sheet Music - Printed music sold for home performance.
Artists Discussed
Francis Scott Key - Wrote the lyrics to The Star-Spangled Banner.
John Gay - Wrote The Beggar's Opera.
Thomas D. "Daddy" Rice - Created the Jim Crow minstrel character.
Dan Emmett - Co-founder of the Virginia Minstrels; wrote Dixie and Old Dan Tucker.
Virginia Minstrels - First full-length minstrel troupe.
Ethiopian Serenaders - Famous minstrel troupe.
E.P. Christy - Founder of Christy's Minstrels.
Christy's Minstrels - Most successful minstrel troupe of the 19th century.
Stephen Foster - "Father of American popular song"; wrote numerous influential songs.
Songs Referenced
“The Star-Spangled Banner” - Francis Scott Key (lyrics); tune from “To Anacreon in Heaven”
“Yankee Doodle” - Traditional
“To Anacreon in Heaven”- Anacreontic Society (traditional British tune)
“Auld Lang Syne” - Traditional Scottish (popularized by Robert Burns)
“Long Tail Blue” - George Washington Dixon
“Coal Black Rose” - George Washington Dixon
“Jim Crow” - Thomas D. "Daddy" Rice
“Zip Coon” - Traditional minstrel song
“Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah” - Influenced by Zip Coon
“Old Dan Tucker” - Dan Emmett
“Dixie (I Wish I Was in Dixie’s Land)” - Dan Emmett
“Turkey in the Straw” - Dan Emmett (minstrel version); traditional fiddle tune
“Old Folks at Home (Swanee River)” - Stephen Foster
“Massa's in de Cold Ground” - Stephen Foster
“De Camptown Races” - Stephen Foster
“Open Thy Lattice, Love” - Stephen Foster
“Oh! Susanna” - Stephen Foster
“Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair” - Stephen Foster
“Beautiful Dreamer” - Stephen Foster
“My Old Kentucky Home” - Stephen Foster
“Jimmy Crack Corn” - Traditional minstrel song
“Arkansas Traveler” - Traditional
“Ching-a-Ring-Chaw” - Traditional/minstrel repertoire