Amcult 208 Lecture 4 Outline of Last Lecture I. The Origins of Hip in Regards to the Comingling of Black and White Culture Outline of Current LectureII. Where did minstrelsy begin?III. The idea of the Hip OutsiderIV. The South and the BluesCurrent Lecture: The Minstrel Show1840-1880, continues well into the 20th centuryone of the core elements of the creation of hip, first thing that really bring the two races together in a form of popular entertainment- Thomas Dartmouth Rice: invented minstrelsy by creating the Jim Crow character after anold folk songMinstrelsy combined white curiosity and co-optation of Black forms with the promise of reinventionBeginning of an odd relationship and give and take, between African American and white culturesStephen Foster, born in Pittsburgh and never south of the Ohio River wanted to be best “Ethiopian” songwriter in the country, had never actually been in the southDan Emmett: a white Ohioan was taught the song “Dixie” by two African Americans, the Swnoden Bros, and then he went on to create the first Minstrel Troup in 1843The Minstrel show, or Blackface tradition would last from the 184-2 up through the 20th centurySophie Tucker a white Jewish won form the Ukraine worked in minstrel shows and became the first person ever to record a blues song in 1911 for Edison recordsBlues singers Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith both learned the blues from working in minstrel shows“Jimmy can crack corn but I don’t care, my masters gone away”- poisoning mastercake walk: was kind of like a strutting thing that made fun of the way that black people danced, but really the slaves were making fun of their mastersBlues artists like Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf, rockers like Little Richard, country artists like Jimmie RodgersLeland even claims that ganagsta rap and other forms that could be referred to as the These notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor’s lecture. GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes, not as a substitute.“commodification of nigga culture” continues selling their stereotypes to a largely white audience AND, he says, it is precisely the close affinity that white rappers such as Eminem and Kid Rock have with repackaging their whiteness in an urban black context that gives them their “cred”What is the white fascination with black culture?- don’t just be a blind consumer, question this stufThis “strategic employment of Black stereotyping: for profit would seem, as described by Frederick Douglas in 1848 as: “white society (making) money (and) pandering to the corrupt taste of their… fellow citizens.”But after Douglas saw a show in 1849 he wrote that: “when the colored man in any form can appear before a white audience may yet be instrumental in removing the prejudice against our race”So this idea of empathy and the stealing (or borrowing) of culture would play an important role in the creation of hip:- Hip would become not black, not white, but a combination of the twoIt may have begun as a form of working class whites expressing their affinity with African-American cultural forms as a means of recognizing their own marginal status.Is there any evidence to support this idea?This would continue to be echoes in white culture as a fascination with the “exotic” savage, and would especially take hold during the Beat generationThe “Hip” Outsider- Therefore, this idea of white men parodying, or imitating in a satirical fashion may actually have been the only way that whites could actually admit that African Americans had traits hat they not only admired, but coveted.African-Americans have always lived on the edge of society, they have forever been on the outsideCulturally, this “outsider status” was really the beginning of the American anti-hero image to be exploited by Marlon Brando, James Dean, and othersThe Blues: Mississippi, Slaves, The DeltaMississippi was feared by most BlacksWhat Mississippi was to Blacks, the Delta was to MississippiThe Delta comprised less than 1/6 of the area of Mississippi yet, it accounted for more than 1/3 of all the lynchingsBy the 1920s sharecropping had to developed to the point where it was virtually no diferent form slaveryAfrican Music: Slaves would have drawn upon three unique musical traditions: Senegal and Gambia= plucked strong instruments including the “banjar” which would become the banjo Wolof= call and responseThe Coast (sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria,