Coon song: Difference between revisions

'''Coon songs''' were a genre of music that presented a [[Stereotypes of African Americans|stereotype of Black people]]. They were popular in the [[United States]] and [[Australia]] from around 1880{{sfn|Dormon|1988|p= 452}} to 1920,<ref>Reublin, ''Parlor Songs'', April 2001.</ref> though the earliest such songs date from [[minstrel show]]s as far back as 1848, when they were not yet identified with "coon" epithet.<ref>Hubbard-Brown, Janet; ''Scott Joplin: Composer''; Chelsea House; New York: 2006. p. 22. {{ISBN|0-791-092-119}}</ref> The genre became extremely popular, with whiteWhite and Black men<ref>Chude-Sokei, Louis; 'The Last 'Darky': Bert Williams, Black-on-Black Minstrelsy, and the African Diaspora; Duke University Press Books; Durham, North Carolina: 2006. 288p. {{ISBN|082233643X}}</ref> giving performances in [[blackface]] and making recordings. Women known as coon shouters also gained popularity in the genre.<ref>Stras, Laurie; ''White Face, Black Voice: Race, Gender, and Region in the Music of the Boswell Sisters'', in ''Journal of the Society for American Music''; Vol1:Issue 2; May 2007, pp 207-255. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.</ref>

Although the word "coon" is now regarded as racista [[racial slur]], according to [[Stuart Berg Flexner|Stuart Flexner]], "coon" was short for "[[raccoon]]", and it meant a frontier rustic (someone who may wear a [[coonskin cap]]) by 1832{{citation.<ref needed|datename=October 2023}}. "tunearch"/> By 1840, it also meant{{citation needed|date=October 2023}} a [[Whig Party (United States)|Whig]] as the Whig Party was keen to be associated with rural white common people.<ref name="tunearch">{{cite web |url=https://tunearch.org/wiki/Annotation:Old_Zip_Coon |title=Old Zip Coon |work= The Traditional Tune Archive |date=24 February 2022 }}</ref> At that time, "coon" was typically used to refer someone white, and a coon song referred to a Whig song. itIt was only in 1848 whenthat the first clear case of using "coon" to refer to a Black person in a derogative sense appeared. It is possible that the negative racial connotation of the word may have evolved from "[[Turkey in the Straw#Zip Coon|Zip Coon]]", a song that first became popular in the 1830s, and the common use of the word "coon" in blackface [[minstrel show]]s.<ref name="roediger">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6z14EAAAQBAJ&pg=PA98|title=The Wages of Whiteness: Race and the Making of the American Working Class |first= David R. |last=Roediger |date= 2022 |publisher=Verso Books |isbn=9781839768309 |page=98}}</ref> The song "[[Zip Coon]]", a variant of "[[Turkey in the Straw]]", notably in performances by [[George Washington Dixon]] who performed in blackface, was published around 1834.<ref name=Doo-dah!>{{cite book |last=Emerson |first=Ken |title=Doo-dah!: Stephen Foster and the Rise of American Popular Culture |year=1997 |publisher=Simon & Schuster |location=New York |isbn=978-0684810102 |page=[https://archive.org/details/doodahstephenfos0000unse/page/60 60] |url=https://archive.org/details/doodahstephenfos0000unse/page/60 }}</ref><ref name=fuld>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EVninY59ul0C&pg=PA591 |title=The Book of World-famous Music: Classical, Popular, and Folk|first= James J. |last=Fuld |date=2000 |isbn=9780486414751 |publisher=Dover Publications |pages=591&ndash;592}}</ref> The word "coon" meaning "Black person", was in use by 1837.<ref name=etymologyonline>[https://www.etymonline.com/word/coon "Coon", ''Online Etymological Dictionary'']. Retrieved 28 April 2020</ref> An alternative suggestion of the word's origin to mean a Black person is that it was derived from ''[[barracoon]]'', an enclosure for slaves, which became increasingly used in the years before the [[American Civil War]] as temporary enclosure for slaves escaping or traveling.<ref name="roediger" /> It may also have been used earlier on the stage; a Black man named Raccoon was one of the lead characters in a 1767 colonial comic opera "The Disappointment".<ref name=etymologyonline />

In 1908, the Broadway company Cinemaphone, created by J. A. Whitman, released a short film "Coon Song" which had an audible track featuring singers such as Blanche Ring, Anna Held, Eva Tanguay and Stella Mayhew.<ref>{{cite book|title=Blacks in Films|author-link=Jim Pines|first=Jim |last=Pines|publisher=Littlehampton Book Services Ltd|isbn=978-0289703267|date=1975}}</ref><ref>The First Holywood Musicals: Edwin M Bradley</ref> Following further criticism, the use of "coon" in song titles greatly decreased after 1910.{{sfn|Abbott|Seroff|2007|p= 35}} On August 13, 1920, [[Marcus Garvey]]'s [[Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League]] created the [[Pan-African flag|red, black and green flag]] as a response to the song "[[Every Race Has a Flag but the Coon]]" by [[Will A. Heelan|Heelan]] and [[J. Fred Helf|Helf]]. That song along with "[[Coon, Coon, Coon]]" and "[[All Coons Look Alike to Me]]" were identified by [[H. L. Mencken]] as being the three songs which firmly established the derogatory term "coon" in the American vocabulary.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Mencken|first1=H. L.|title=Designations for Colored Folk (1944)|url=http://www.virginia.edu/woodson/courses/aas102%20(spring%2001)/articles/names/mencken.htm|website=www.virginia.edu|access-date=18 February 2017|language=en}}</ref> Originally in the 1830s, the term had been associated with the [[Whig Party (United States)|Whig Party]]. The Whigs used a raccoon as its emblem, but the party also developed a more tolerant attitude towards Black people than the other political factions. The latter opinion is likely what transformed the term "coon" from mere political slang into a racial slur.<ref>Sotiroupoulos, 91.</ref>

At the height of their popularity, "just about every songwriter in the country" was writing coon songs "to fill the seemingly insatiable demand".<ref name="reublin"/> Writers of coon songs included some of the most important [[Tin Pan Alley]] composers, including [[Gus Edwards (vaudeville)|Gus Edwards]], [[Fred Fisher]] (who wrote the 1905 "If the Man in the Moon Were a Coon", which sold three million copies),<ref>Lemons, 108.</ref> and [[Irving Berlin]].<ref>Hamm, 145–146.</ref> Even oneOne of [[John Philip Sousa]]'s assistants, [[Arthur Pryor]], composed coon songs.<ref name="reublin"/> (This was meant to ensure a steady supply to Sousa's band, which performed the songs and popularized several coon song melodies.<ref name="reublin"/>) Many coon songs were written by whites, but some were written by Black people.<ref name="l106"/> Important Black composers of coon songs include [[Ernest Hogan]] (who wrote "[[All Coons Look Alike to Me]]", the most famous coon song);{{sfn|Dormon|1988|p=459}}<ref>Lemons, 105.</ref> [[Sam Lucas]] (who wrote the most racist early coon songs by modern standards);{{sfn|Dormon|1988|p= 452}} minstrel and songwriter Sidney L. Perrin (who wrote "Black Annie,", "Dat's De Way to Spell Chicken,", "Mamma's Little Pumpkin Colored Coons,", "Gib Me Ma 15 Cents,", and "My Dinah"); [[Bob Cole (composer)|Bob Cole]] (who wrote dozens of songs, including "I Wonder What the Coon's Game Is?" and "No Coons Allowed"); and[[Irving Jones]], [[Bert Williams]] and [[George Walker (vaudeville)|George Walker]].<ref>Lemons, 107.</ref> Even classic [[ragtime]] composer [[Scott Joplin]] wrote at least one coon song ("I Am Thinking of My Pickaninny Days"), and may have composed the music for several more, using lyrics written by others.<ref>Blesh, Rudi and Harris, Janet; ''They All Played Ragtime''; Alfred P. Knopf; New York: 1950.; p.37.</ref>

Coon songs portrayed Black people as "hot", in this context meaning promiscuous and libidinous. They suggested that the most common living arrangement was a "honey" relationship (unmarried [[cohabitation]]), rather than marriage.{{sfn|Dormon|1988|p=458}} Black people were portrayed as inclined toward acts of provocative violence. [[Straight razor|Razors]] were often featured in the songs and came to "symbolize" blackBlack people's "wanton tendencies".{{sfn|Dormon|1988|p= 455}} However, violence in the songs was uniformly directed at Black people instead of whites (perhaps to discharge the threatening notion of Black violence amongst the coon songs' predominantly white consumers). Hence, the spectre of Black-on-white violence remained but an allusionillusive.{{sfn|Dormon|1988|p=460}} The street-patrolling "[[bullying|bully]] coon" was often used as a stock character in coon songs.{{sfn|Dormon|1988|pp=460–461}} The songs showed the social threats that whites believed were posed by Black people. [[Passing (racial identity)|Passing]] was a common theme,{{sfn|Dormon|1988|p=461}} and Black people were portrayed as seeking the status of whites, through education and money.{{sfn|Dormon|1988|p=462}} However, Black people rarely, except during [[dream sequence]]s, actually succeeded at appearing white; they only aspired to do so.{{sfn|Dormon|1988|p= 463}}

Coon songs were popular in [[vaudeville]] theater, where they were delivered by "coon shouters", who were typically white women.<ref name="reublin"/> Notable coon shouters included [[Artie Hall]],{{sfn|Abbott|Seroff|2007|p=17}} [[Sophie Tucker]], [[May Irwin]], [[Mae West]], [[Fanny Brice]], [[Fay Templeton]], [[Lotta Crabtree]], [[Marie Dressler]], [[Emma Carus]], [[Nora Bayes]], [[Blanche Ring]], [[Clarice Vance]], [[Elsie Janis]], [[Trixie Friganza]], [[Eva Tanguay]] and [[Julia Gerity]].<ref name="reublin"/> As with minstrel shows earlier, a whole genre of skits and shows grew up around coon songs, and often coon songs were featured in legitimate theater productions.<ref name="reublin"/> [[File:Artie Hall.jpg|[[Artie Hall]] in blackface on the sheet music cover to "Jessamine" (c) 1906 Jerome H. Remick & Co. NY, NY. | thumb|180px]]

Coon songs contributed to the development and acceptance of authentic [[African-American music]].<ref name="d467">Dormon, 467.</ref> Elements from coon songs were incorporated into turn-of-the-century African-American folk songs, as was revealed by [[Howard W. Odum]]'s 1906–1908 [[ethnomusicology]] fieldwork.{{sfn|Abbott|Seroff|2007|pp= 25–26}} Similarly, coon songs' lyrics influenced the vocabulary of the [[blues]], culminating with [[Bessie Smith]]'s singing in the 1920s.<ref name="d467"/> The term "Coon shouting" has also been used to describe an energetic singing technique used by Black female singers like [[Josephine Baker]] and [[Ethel Waters]], though Waters emphasized that her delivery was softer than 'shouters' like [[Bessie Smith]] and [[Ma Rainey]]. <ref name="Stratton">{{cite book |last1=Stratton |first1=Jon |title=Moanin Low: Jews, Race and Popular Music |date=2017 |publisher=Routledge |page=28 |isbn=978-1-351-56170-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Py8rDwAAQBAJ&dq=%22coon+shouters%22&pg=PA28 |access-date=Jan 20, 2024}}</ref> Black songwriters and performers who participated in the creation of coon songs profited commercially, enabling them to go on to develop a new type of [[African American musical theater]] based at least in part on African-American traditions.<ref name="d467"/> Coon songs also contributed to the mainstream acceptance of [[ragtime]] music, paving the way for the acceptance of other African-American music.<ref name="d467"/> [[Ernest Hogan]], when discussing his "[[Ernest Hogan#Creation of ragtime genre|All Coons Look Alike to Me]]" shortly before his death, commented:

* Hamm, Charles. "Genre, Performance and Ideology in the Early Songs of Irving Berlin." ''Popular Music 13'': 143-150143–150 (1994).

* Lemons, J. Stanley. "Black Stereotypes as Reflected in Popular Culture, 1880-19201880–1920." ''[[American Quarterly]]'' 29: 102-116102–116 (1977).

* [httphttps://wwwdetroitpubliclibrary.detroit.lib.mi.usorg/featuredcollectionresearch/e-azalia-hackley-collection Detroit Public Library E. Azalia Hackley Collection of African Americans in the Performing Arts] (Featuring Songs of this Genre)