#SKEDADDLE SONG PROFESSIONAL#

During the 1830s and 1840s at the height of its popularity, it was at the epicenter of the American music industry. Spirituals (known as jubilees) entered the repertoire in the 1870s, marking the first undeniably black music to be used in minstrelsy.īlackface minstrelsy was the first theatrical form that was distinctly American. Minstrels claimed that their songs and dances were authentically black, although the extent of the black influence remains debated. These were further divided into sub-archetypes such as the mammy, her counterpart the old darky, the provocative mulatto wench, and the black soldier. Minstrel songs and sketches featured several stock characters, most popularly the slave and the dandy. The final act consisted of a slapstick musical plantation skit or a send-up of a popular play. The second part featured a variety of entertainments, including the pun-filled stump speech. The troupe first danced onto a stage then exchanged wisecracks and sang songs. The typical minstrel performance followed a three-act structure. As the civil rights movement progressed and gained acceptance, minstrels lost popularity.

#SKEDADDLE SONG PROFESSIONAL#

It survived as professional entertainment until about 1910 amateur performances continued until the 1960s in high schools and local theaters. By 1848, blackface minstrel shows were the national artform, translating formal art such as opera into popular terms for a general audience.īy the turn of the 20th century, the minstrel show enjoyed but a shadow of its former popularity, having been replaced for the most part by vaudeville. The minstrel show began with brief burlesques and comic entr'actes in the early 1830s and emerged as a full-fledged form in the next decade.

Minstrel shows lampooned black people as dim-witted, lazy, buffoonish, superstitious, happy-go-lucky, and musical. Each show consisted of comic skits, variety acts, dancing, and music, performed by white people in make-up or blackface for the purpose of playing the role of black people. Minstrelsy was an American form of entertainment developed in the 19th century.

Skedaddle song