Reinventing Dixie : Tin Pan Alley's songs and the creation of the mythic South / John Bush Jones.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Jones, John Bush, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Popular music--Southern States--History and criticism.

Popular music.

Popular music--New York (State)--New York--History and criticism.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (1 PDF (xxi, 270 pages))

Edition:

Lousiana paperback edition.

Place of Publication:

Baton Rouge : Louisiana State University Press, 2022.

Summary:

Tin Pan Alley, once New York City's songwriting and recording mecca, issued more than a thousand songs about the American South in the first half of the twentieth century. In Reinventing Dixie, John Bush Jones explores the broad impact of these songs in creating and disseminating the imaginary view of the South as a land of southern belles, gallant gentlemen, and racial harmony. In profiles of Tin Pan Alley's lyricists and composers, Jones explains how a group of undereducated and untraveled writers--the vast majority of whom were urban northerners or European immigrants--constructed the specific and detailed images of the South used in their song lyrics. In the process of evaluating the origins of Tin Pan Alley's songbook, Jones analyzes these songwriters' attitudes about North-South reconciliation, ideals of honor and hospitality, and the recurring theme of the yearning for home. Though a few of the songs employed parody or satire to undercut the vision of a peaceful, romantic South, the majority ignored the realities of racism and poverty in the region.

Contents:

Preface

Acknowledgments

Prologue : why Dixie?

The alley and its denizens

Weepy time down south : early sentiment and sentimentality

Typecasting : Southern social and ethnic, that is

"Y'all come" : Southern hospitality, conviviality, and leisure-time fun

Dixie is for lovers

Undercutting the idyllic : realism, satire, and parody

"All aboard for Dixie land" : homesickness, traveling home, and "mammy songs"

Glorifying Dixie : southern myths and Southern pride

Moonlight and magnolias : the alley and the myth

Epilogue : the years they drove old Dixie down.

Notes:

Includes index.

Description based on print version record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780807159460

0807159468

9780807159453

080715945X

OCLC:

903985870