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158
CHAPTERfi38 Marketing Music: Foster and Early
“Popu lar” Song
1. composer, born outside Pittsburgh
2. composed for Christy Minstrels, blackface
minstrel show
3. first American to make living as professional
songwriter, little profit
4. hit songs include: Oh! Susanna, Camptown Races,
Old Folks at Home, My Old Kentucky Home
5. accidental death, died a penniless alcoholic
D. A Song by Foster: Jeanie with the Light Brown
Hair
1. love song, written for his wife, Jane Denny
McDowell
2. two- verse poem by Foster, Anglo- Irish folk song
influence
3. not popu lar during his lifetime
a. pop u lar ized in 1941, older music broadcast
4. themes of lost youth and happiness
E. LG 29: Foster: Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair
(1854)
1. strophic parlor song; solo voice and piano
2. moderate tempo, qua dru ple meter, major key
3. homophonic texture, simple accompaniment
4. free cadenza in each verse
5. bittersweet tone, wishing for days gone by
OVERVIEW
This chapter draws on the songs of Stephen Foster to intro-
duce the larger repertory of popu lar song in nineteenth-
century Amer i ca. Foster and his music are placed within the
context of minstrelsy and the economics of sheet- music
publishing.
OUTLINE
I. Music in Early North Amer i ca: Cultivated and
Vernacular
A. Cultivated repertoires: “high art”
1. Eu ro pean immigrants brought cultivated
repertoire
a. operas, chamber music, and symphonies
B. Vernacular: “American popu lar identity”
1. lighter music: dancing, singing at home, public
events, parades
2. popu lar: belonging “to the people,” great finan-
cial profit
C. “Classical” and “popu lar”
1. no clear distinction in 19th century
2. mutually influential traditions
3. cultivated and vernacular encountered in same
spaces
II. Stephen Foster, Parlor Song, and Minstrelsy
A. Foster songs: intersection between American ver-
nacular and Eu ro pean art tradition
1. parlor songs: sweet, sentimental
2. blend two traditions:
a. Italian operas, popu lar among upper classes
b. financial success of nostalgic “folk songs”
3. intended for amateur per for mance, parlor of
middle class homes
4. several pop u lar ized through minstrel shows
B. Minstrelsy: theatrical variety shows
1. stereotyping of African American culture
2. featured white performers in blackface
3. widespread popularity in 1800s
4. plantation songs: most of Foster’s income
C. Stephen Foster (1826–1864)
Marketing Music: Foster and Early “Popu lar” Song | 159
pose do these songs serve? What do you think motivates
people to create these songs?
2. As the textbook mentions, the song “Happy Birthday”
is protected under copyright law, which requires that in
certain circumstances anyone who wants to perform the
song legally must compensate the copyright holder(s).
What is the purpose of copyright law? Who or what is
protected under law in the case of “Happy Birthday”?
Do you agree that a com pany, or person, should be able
to own the rights of a song whose author is no longer liv-
ing? Why or why not?
TEACHING CHALLENGES
Minstrelsy, with its unsettling racial narratives, may be the
most challenging subject from the textbook to teach. Although
it is impossible to sidestep the difficult history of nineteenth-
century minstrelsy, class discussions on the subject are an
opportunity to reflect on the intersections between race (or
racial constructions) and music, and can be easily extended
to today’s popu lar music.
SUPPLEMENTAL REPERTORY
SUPPLEMENTAL BIBLIOGRAPHY
Emerson, Ken. Doo- Dah! Stephen Foster and the Rise of Ameri-
Lott, Eric. Love and Theft: Blackface Minstrelsy and the Ameri-
can Working Class. New York and Oxford: Oxford University
YOUR TURN TO EXPLORE
What can you find out about the economic networks that sup-
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. To understand American popu lar song in the nineteenth
century as incorporating ele ments from Eu ro pean culti-
vated repertories and native vernacular- music traditions
2. To understand the popularity of nineteenth- century
American song within the contexts of minstrelsy and the
economics of sheet- music publishing
3. To understand Stephen Foster’s songs as emblematic of
the nineteenth- century American popular- song tradition
LECTURE SUGGESTIONS
1. Discuss with your students the definitions and meanings
of vernacular and cultivated. Consider the following
questions to spark class discussion: How are the catego-
ries of vernacular and cultivated applicable to music?
What are some examples? Can we speak of competing
cultivated and vernacular musical styles? How are the
categories of cultivated and vernacular particularly use-
ful for characterizing American musical traditions, both
past and pres ent?
its ability to communicate to whites—in a misinformed
and ste reo typed way— the experiences of black slaves.
When Camptown Races was published in 1850, the
slaves had not yet been emancipated. What is this song
3. Before listening to Foster’s Jeanie with the Light Brown
Hair, ask students to consider how the song bridges the
ASSIGNMENT SUGGESTIONS
1. Before and for many years after the Civil War (1861–65),
minstrel shows featured white performers in blackface,
acting out scenes and singing songs that supposedly por-
160 | Chapterfi38
(Spotify, iTunes, Tidal, etc.). The Vevo model creates a
dous influence on the creative choices of and opportunities
for commercial music artists, somewhat reminiscent of opera,
film music, or the “first wave” of pop music videos during
the 1980s.
MODEL RESPONSE
nel on YouTube (https:// www . youtube . com / user / VEVO
/ featured) is an incredibly popu lar and successful music video
streaming platform. Vevo is unique in that music videos com-
prise its media products, as opposed to the audio- only tracks
for formats like radio and audio streaming music ser vices
