Vernacular music brokers and mediators in the South 1900-1932

Allen, Lucy H. (2001) Vernacular music brokers and mediators in the South 1900-1932. Doctoral (PhD) thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

[English] PDF (Migrated (PDF/A Conversion) from original format: (application/pdf)) - Accepted Version Available under License - The author retains copyright ownership and moral rights in this thesis. Neither the thesis nor substantial extracts from it may be printed or otherwise reproduced without the author's permission. Download (28MB) [English] PDF - Accepted Version Available under License - The author retains copyright ownership and moral rights in this thesis. Neither the thesis nor substantial extracts from it may be printed or otherwise reproduced without the author's permission. (Original Version)

Abstract

This thesis examines the intersection of business and aesthetics, music, and overlapping networks of people, all focusing on the sounds in the South during the first third of the twentieth century. It accomplishes this examination through a focus on the people who acted as mediators of the vernacular music found in the Southern United States. There are four major groups of mediators—folklorists, both in and outside of the academy; early Artist and Repertoire men working with the record companies; radio station managers and announcers; and the musicians. All had distinct preferences of the types of music they chose to collect and methods of dissemination. -- This thesis looks at the people, the choices made, and the impact those choices had on music today through the relationships and aesthetics of the people who worked actively to represent, transport, and transform vernacular music and musicians in the South from 1900 to the early 1930s. The motives of the collectors varied, but mainly they gave the music a broader exposure, frequently for patriotic reasons, sometimes for commercial goals, but other motives are present as well. Vernacular music is the music of the working class, frequently referred to as "folk music." Most of the examples of vernacular music are what we now refer to as early country and blues music, and most came out of the South. The perceptions we now have of the rural South as the musical heart and soul of the United States did not emerge overnight: they were crafted, predominantly during the first thirty years of the twentieth century by settlement school teachers, folklorists. English professors, artist and repertoire (A&R) men, radio talent scouts, furniture store owners, and countless musicians, who felt, for differing reasons, that the ballads, spirituals, blues and "hillbilly" music epitomized rural and working class America.

Actions (login required)

View Item