Explaining Coon Songs' Popularity
It is possible that the popularity of coon songs may be explained in part by their historical timing: coon songs arose precisely as the popular music business exploded in Tin Pan Alley.
However, James Dormon, a former professor of history and American studies at the University of Southwestern Louisiana, has also suggested that coon songs can be seen as "a necessary sociopsychological mechanism for justifying segregation and subordination." The songs portrayed blacks as posing a threat to the American social order, and implicitly that they had to be controlled.
Read more about this topic: Coon Song
Famous quotes containing the words explaining and/or popularity:
“If you’re lucky, you have money. That’s why it’s better to be born lucky than rich. If you’re rich, you can always lose your money, but if you’re lucky, you’ll always get more money.”
—Anthony Pélissier. Explaining her philosophy of life to her son (1949)
“The nation looked upon him as a deserter, and he shrunk into insignificancy and an earldom.... He was fixed in the house of lords, that hospital of incurables, and his retreat to popularity was cut off; for the confidence of the public, when once great and once lost, is never to be regained.”
—Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)