Demons of Disorder: Early Blackface Minstrels and their World

by Dale Cockrell

Carnival, charivari, mumming plays, peasant festivals, and even early versions of the Santa Claus myth--all of these forms of entertainment influenced and shaped blackface minstrelsy in the first half of the nineteenth century. In his fascinating study Demons of Disorder, musicologist Dale Cockrell studies issues of race and class by analyzing their cultural expressions, and investigates the roots of still-remembered songs such as "Jim Crow," "Zip Coon," and "Dan Tucker." The first book on the blackface tradition written by a leading musicologist, Demons of Disorder is an important achievement in music history and culture.

Genres: History, Music

Paperback

First published July 28, 1997

Reviews

[Jared · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have given this book the full 5 star deal for one reason. Cockrell's biography of George Washington Dixon. There are other sources for Thomas Rice and Jim Crow, and I was well aware of many of the traditions he alludes to in America prior to 1843. His thesis is well thought out and works through the story of Rice who has been written about in numerous places, but it is the compelling and complicated story of Dixon that is the gem. Maybe you aren't interested in the origins of the black face and minstrels, maybe just a fan of American history, then read the Zip Coon chapter and be amazed by the exploits of Dixon and wonder why you never heard of him before.

[Austin · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Once we get past sound that provides caution, alarm, or awareness, it has no intrinsic worth. Spoken language goes some ways toward encoding value in sound, but there are all sorts of problems with that enterprise, as a glance at the bulk and complexity of any unabridged dictionary makes evident. Music takes comprehension to the final degree, in that a community of listeners agree collectively on the meanings of sounds, and do so with such unanimity that music becomes a popular representation of communal values. College songs, church music, Spike Lee's movies, national anthems, the Grateful Dead, presidential inauguration ceremonies (which tend increasingly toward concerts) - all and more are about communities of shared values expressed through music.

The powerful and the weak both have long expressed their respective values through sound. The music of Rev. Dr. Hawks's Episcopalian St. Thomas Church differed, I am sure, in significant ways from that heard in the small, rural, western Kentucky Southern Baptist church that nurtured me in my youth; and the music of the opera house is emphatically not hip-hop. To undo the values of the powerful, the powerless have turned to undoing their music: burlesques of Italian opera, ring shouts, the grotesque ‘horse fiddles’ of the callithumpians, syncopation, Jimi Hendrix's version of ‘The Star-Spangled Banner,’ the Feast of Fools: All and many more are the patterned responses.

The powerful have a formulaic response to the ear culture of the weak: Dismiss it all as noise first, then associate it with antisocial behavior.”