Scandalize my name : Black imagery in American popular music
Sam Dennison (Author)
This book investigates racism as it appears in American popular songs featuring black subjects. It is not a study of black music, but a study of the black person as they appear in music throughout American history. The black theme in American popular music reflected generally accepted stereotypes associated with blacks. Only rarely did the black image in song exhibit desirable qualities until the decades following World War II. Significantly, the production of songs on the black subject decreased during the same period. A central theme of songs about the black concerns the myth of the happy, indolent slave, bound to his master by strong ties of devotion--something of an Uncle Tom. The black in song was portrayed as thieving, lying, lazy, hopelessly addicted to gambling and gluttony. His woman, the Negress, was seen as a shrew and a wanton: a female possessed of few desirable traits who yet remained somehow an irresistible sex object to males. The vast numbers of songs on the black subject, and their endurance as a genre, bespeak a considerable influence in the formation of racial attitudes in the collective American mind. This book is devoted to social, political, psychological, economic, and musical ramifications bearing on the black theme in American popular song throughout its history. Within this context, the songs can be seen as a means by which popular attitudes can be revealed and traced to their roots, providing insights into force which guided American attitudes to their present state
Print Book, English, 1982
Garland Publishing, New York, 1982