On judging a society by its pop
Both of the jobs I'm working at now have me working with American popular sheet music from the 19th and 20th centuries. The Tin Pan Alley era (about 1885 to 1930ish) is probably my favorite, in terms of the diversity of styles, topics, depictions of various ethnic groups1, and general awesomenitude of the songwriting in this era. I find it interesting and often entertaining to see what people have written songs about, how they've written them, and how the marketing and cover art treats the topic.
Working for INHarmony has been fun, digging through the archives of digitized sheet music as I work, and browsing just to see what I can find. At my AAAMC job, on the other hand, I just started going through a pile of sheet music donated by one of our donors, and I have to say that nothing beats the tactile and immediate experience of handling the real thing.
All of that said, I've dug up some great (and by great, I mean cool, fun, ridiculous, or otherwise entertaining) stuff. For example:
The Air Ship Waltz, 1891-- proto-steampunk?
Bacon and Greens, 1861; when I first found this, I immediately sent the link to styossarian, who blogged about it as an example of old skool baconpunk.
Where Did Catherine Winters Go?, 1914, written about the true disappearance of a little girl from New Castle, IN, that year. "Gypsies" stole her, doncha know... or so her [questionably suspicious] father insisted.
Today at AAAMC, I encountered a 1930s novelty song titled "I'm My Own Grandpaw". Lyrics are here, with interactive colored flowcharts ftw. Also, d00d! The Muppets did it.
Russian Pony Rag: A Syncopated Prance, 1910. I'm not really sure what makes this "Russian," but hey, ponies! Note that on the bottom of page 3 there's an ad for the "Persian Lamb Rag", which sounds like either a very delicious recipe or a lovely thing to put on one's wooden floors.
The Egyptian Glide, 1912, which sounds like it needs to be a bellydance-hiphop fusion move. Hmmm....
On the other hand, there have been a few really, really messed up songs. I'm not even talking about any of the coon songs, minstrel songs, or other derogatory portrayals of African Americans-- the messed-upness of those goes with without saying. I'm talking about pieces which seem like they were intended to be innocuous, but are in fact filled with deep and seething Wrong.
At the AAAMC this morning, I came across a song with the unwieldy title "There's Only One That I Would Ever Lose My Sleep For-- And That's For Daddy." (On a particularly surreal note, the words for this song are credited to one Joe McCarthy.) Now, songs of this period do often have a tendency to take a pun or metaphor much further than need be, and there are plenty of "Daddy" songs. However, this one particularly disturbed me because it was indeterminable whether the narrator was a young woman looking for a romantic partner with a paternal attitude, or if she actually was talking about her biological father. Not only that, there was an alternate verse for a male singer to set up talking about a sweet young girl who's "like a little mother" to him, who likes to sing (the chorus) about losing sleep for her daddy. W. T. F.?
Ragging the Baby to Sleep, 1912: Ur doin' it wrong.
This next one may be my favorite, just cause it's so ridiculous. It's a great example of how to not actually bother writing a song, of the mid-19th-century penchant for dramatics, and how to make a quick buck off of popular fiction (at least, I hope that Mr. Barker did.) I give you, ladies and gentleman, The Raven, A Descriptive Poem by Edgar A. Poe, Arranged as a Recitative Chant by George Barker.
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1 - By and far nearly all of the standard ugly ethnic and racist stereotypes are covered in these depictions, in ways variously meant to be taken humorously or sincerely. Some scholar (Charles Hamm? I forget now) has proposed that this was a form of cultural hazing, for mainstream America to deal with waves of immigrants from different places before accepting them into the melting pot. I think there's some merit to this, as ethnic song trends changed from decade to decade (even West Side Story was originally supposed to be set on the East Side between gangs of Jewish and Italian immigrants before Bernstein deemed that too dated). It doesn't, of course, explain the neverending racist portrayals of African Americans, though I suppose it could be argued that they never were fully accepted into the mainstream melting pot.
Working for INHarmony has been fun, digging through the archives of digitized sheet music as I work, and browsing just to see what I can find. At my AAAMC job, on the other hand, I just started going through a pile of sheet music donated by one of our donors, and I have to say that nothing beats the tactile and immediate experience of handling the real thing.
All of that said, I've dug up some great (and by great, I mean cool, fun, ridiculous, or otherwise entertaining) stuff. For example:
On the other hand, there have been a few really, really messed up songs. I'm not even talking about any of the coon songs, minstrel songs, or other derogatory portrayals of African Americans-- the messed-upness of those goes with without saying. I'm talking about pieces which seem like they were intended to be innocuous, but are in fact filled with deep and seething Wrong.
This next one may be my favorite, just cause it's so ridiculous. It's a great example of how to not actually bother writing a song, of the mid-19th-century penchant for dramatics, and how to make a quick buck off of popular fiction (at least, I hope that Mr. Barker did.) I give you, ladies and gentleman, The Raven, A Descriptive Poem by Edgar A. Poe, Arranged as a Recitative Chant by George Barker.
--
1 - By and far nearly all of the standard ugly ethnic and racist stereotypes are covered in these depictions, in ways variously meant to be taken humorously or sincerely. Some scholar (Charles Hamm? I forget now) has proposed that this was a form of cultural hazing, for mainstream America to deal with waves of immigrants from different places before accepting them into the melting pot. I think there's some merit to this, as ethnic song trends changed from decade to decade (even West Side Story was originally supposed to be set on the East Side between gangs of Jewish and Italian immigrants before Bernstein deemed that too dated). It doesn't, of course, explain the neverending racist portrayals of African Americans, though I suppose it could be argued that they never were fully accepted into the mainstream melting pot.