Lincoln Hayes
Dr. Boyer
Hum 104
April 24, 2024
Pledged
The commodification of Black Culture through music: The complex history of the banjo
The commodification of black culture is a practice that has become systemically engrained in the entertainment industry and modern way of life. In correlation with American exploitation of black bodies from Africa during the transatlantic slave trade, Americans began adopting elements of black culture, especially in music. This history is permeated with mentions of the banjo, allowing us to trace its history and its ties to the exploitation of black culture. The banjo’s eventual movement from black to white spaces has a cluttered past with multiple venues of travel. This movement is incredibly ugly and inauthentic but also nuanced and beautiful. In this paper I will be examining this movement of the banjo from black to white spaces, tracing its path in minstrelsy and old-time music up until its modern image.
Deconstructing the modern image of the banjo through the exploration of its history is a form of reflection of ideology. The way the banjo is thought of today according to its contemporary image is entirely different from its history, and reflecting on the way we think about the banjo is a form of reflection of ideology. The banjos movement from black culture to white culture through minstrelsy is an ugly history, riddled with stealing, stereotype and inauthenticity. The banjo is originally an African instrument that came to prominence in the Americas through enslaved Africans carrying their knowledge and traditions of the banjo to the Caribbean as early as 1688, where its use spread to the rest of the Americas.[1] As the banjo spread across North America, the instrument itself also became physically altered. It was adorned with large metal structural components, fiddle tuning pegs, as well as carved necks, while maintaining its original stretched animal skin drum.[2] Another large change to the banjo was the more common use of a higher droning string plucked by the thumb to resonate along with the other strings as they played melodic or rhythmic parts.[3] The physical and geographical evolution coincided with its movement into white spaces through minstrelsy. Minstrelsy originally began with more folk inspire authenticity but eventually divulged into a “grotesque caricature” of black culture and people.[4] A prominent feature of minstrel shows was the banjo as it was used by white actors in blackface to portray stereotyped African Americans through song and comedy.[5] Minstrelsy is an ethical step down from cultural appropriation as it is blatant culture annihilation through stealing and cruel and inauthentic imitation. There is a distinction to be made between cultural appropriation and what Veccia addresses minstrelsy is in her thesis as expropriation. Expropriation presumes a transfer of ownership where “there is a forced act of deprivation or seizure of property”, which appropriation does not entail.[6]
The banjo moved from black to white spaces in old timey music in an entirely different way than it moved through minstrelsy. This was a much more organic process than its expropriation into minstrelsy, however, it is a history riddled with systemic racism. Old time music is a style of folk music using the bluegrass instruments, including fiddle, mandolin, and the banjo.[7] Throughout its creation and subsequent development as a genre it combined these acoustic instruments into groups, melding the European instruments with the banjo to create a unique blend of sound. Due to the banjo’s original association and popularity within black culture, most of the teachers of famous white banjo players were African American but are not remembered in the same way because they were not recognized in their time.[8] This represents a more systemically racist problem rather than a blatant expropriation of culture. This lack of remembering is due to a gap in recording of “Hillbilly records” for white artists and “colored records” for African American artists where Hillbilly records were much more common.[9] Through these recordings, the banjo became associated with white artists almost exclusively.
These paths through which the banjo moved from black to white spaces created a unique and complex image of the banjo. Artists like Rhiannon Giddens have explored this modern image through writing new minstrel songs. These songs, such as “Get Up in the Morning/Better Git Yer Leaning” are an attempting by Giddens to explore a more nuanced view on minstrelsy. Giddens said “let me write something that reflects what people are actually going through” humanizing the people old minstrel songs originally stereotype.[10] Her songs center around the humanity of the enslaved, imagining songs that encapsulated their conditions.
Because the of the banjo’s association with white culture, I argue that it perpetuates the inauthentic depiction of black culture by denying its history as an African instrument. Szego discusses how old-time community members do not want to remember the history of the banjo, specifically the role it played in minstrel shows.[11] The history of the banjo is often left undiscussed because of the hard reality of its appropriation and subsequent association white culture. Examining the banjo in the way that Szego does, to address the issue of slavery and racial appropriation as integral aspects of the banjo’s identity, can be a useful way to examine the concept of white appropriation of black musical culture as a whole.
Why the banjo? Through examining the history of the banjo, a larger concept for what cultural appropriation and expropriation can be derived. This history teachers us is what ways cultural theft happens and what it can look like, and what we can learn about how to meld cultures and build to make something new. It gives perspective into how systemic problems can be engrained in socially normative practices that are reliant on perpetuating racist thought practices.
Bibliography
Bailey, Jay. “Historical Origin and Stylistic Developments of the Five-String Banjo.” The Journal of American Folklore 85, no. 335 (1972): 58–65. Accessed April 27, 2024. https://doi.org/10.2307/539129.
Epstein, Dena J. “The Folk Banjo: A Documentary History.” Ethnomusicology 19, no. 3 (1975): 347–71. Accessed April 2, 2024. https://doi.org/10.2307/850790.
Evans, Bill. “Bill Evans Tells the History of the Banjo in 14 Minutes”. Fretboard Journal. May 6, 2013. Video, 14:18. https://youtu.be/rhcBA0WRm88?si=vx_L6xhW0-KNdy0f
Giddens, Rhiannon. “Rhiannon Giddens sings ‘Better Git Yer Leaning’ and tells why she wrote it”. Craft in America. October 20, 2015. Video, 2:38. https://youtu.be/V1huZIZAAGQ?si=UszFGhTDwnqaGhau
Otto, John S and Augustus M. Burns. “Black and White Cultural Interaction in the Early Twentieth Century South: Race and Hillbilly Music.” Phylon 35, no. 4 (1974): 407–17. Accessed April 28, 2024. https://doi.org/10.2307/274743.
w, Peter. “Building New Banjos for an Old-Time World.” Galpin Society Journal 73 (2020): 232-234. Accessed April 28, 2024. https://www.proquest.com/docview/2434497603?pq-origsite=gscholar&fromopenview=true&sourcetype=Scholarly%20Journals
Veccia, Maria Giulia. “The Notion of Cultural Appropriation: From Minstrelsy to Hip Hop.”1-105. Venice: Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, 2022.
Winans, Robert B and Elias J. Kaufman. “Minstrel and Classic Banjo: American and English Connections.” American Music 12, no. 1 (1994): 1–30. Accessed April 28, 2024. https://doi.org/10.2307/3052489.
[1] Bailey, Historical Origin and Stylistic Developments of the Five-String Banjo, 59.
[2] Evans, “History of the Banjo,” 2:29-2:54.
[3] Bailey, Historical Origin and Stylistic Developments of the Five-String Banjo, 59.
[4] Epstein, The Folk Banjo, 348.
[5] Veccia, The Notion of Cultural Appropriation, 37.
[6] Veccia, The Notion of Cultural Appropriation, 4.
[7] Winans, Kaufman. “Minstrel and Classic Banjo,” 15.
[8] Otto, Burns “Black and White Cultural Interaction,” 409.
[9] Otto, Burns “Black and White Cultural Interaction,” 409.
[10] Giddens, “Better Git Yer Learning,” 00:45-00:49.
[11] Szego, Peter. “Building New Banjos for an Old-Time World.”
