Michael Jackson and the Blackface Mask

205 Pages·2013·2.16 MB·English

by  Harriet J. Manning

Michael Jackson and the Blackface
Mask
Harriet J. Manning
Michael Jackson and the
Blackface Mask
In memory of Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson and the
Blackface Mask
harriet J. Manning
Newcastle University, UK
© harriet J. Manning 2013
all rights reserved. no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher.
harriet J. Manning has asserted her right under the copyright, designs and Patents act,
1988, to be identified as the author of this work.
Published by
ashgate Publishing limited ashgate Publishing company
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Union road suite 3-1
farnham Burlington, Vt 05401-3818
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Manning, harriet J.
Michael Jackson and the blackface mask. – (ashgate popular and folk music series)
1. Jackson, Michael, 1958-2009 – criticism and interpretation. 2. Blackface entertainers
– history. 3. Music and race – history.
i. title ii. series
782.4’2166’092–dc23
The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:
Manning, harriet J.
Michael Jackson and the blackface mask / by harriet J. Manning.
pages cm.—(ashgate popular and folk music series)
includes bibliographical references and index.
isBn 978-1-4094-5510-3 (hardcover)—isBn 978-1-4094-5511-0 (ebook)—
isBn 978-1-4724-0236-3 (epub) 1. Jackson, Michael, 1958-2009—criticism and
interpretation. 2. Music and race. 3. Blackface entertainers. 4. Minstrel music—history
and criticism. i. title.
Ml420.J175M33 2013
782.42166092—dc23
2012049938
isBn 9781409455103 (hbk)
isBn 9781409455110 (ebk – Pdf)
isBn 9781472402363 (ebk – ePUB)
V
Contents
List of Figures vii
General Editor’s Preface ix
Introduction 1
1 Conflict and Contradiction: Nineteenth-Century Blackface Minstrelsy 5
2 ‘Black or White’: From Jim Crow to Michael Jackson 19
3 The Continuum of Blackface Minstrelsy 51
4 Ghosts: Racial Fantasy and the Lost Black Self 67
5 Turnaround: Love and Theft 95
6 Just Using It: Eminem, the Mask and a Fight for Authenticity 117
7 The Burden of Ambiguity 137
8 This Is It 167
Bibliography 177
Index 187
This page has been left blank intentionally
List of Figures
1.1 T.D. Rice as Jim Crow at the Bowery Theatre, 1833.
Negative number 43478, Collection of The New-York
Historical Society. 17
2.1 Hand-coloured engraving of T.D. Rice in the role of the
Jim Crow stage-type by Thomas Dartmouth. Negative number
48912, Collection of The New-York Historical Society. 21
2.2 The Virginia Minstrels, 1843. [TCS82], Harvard Theatre
Collection, Harvard University. 23
2.3 The black dandy stage-type Dandy Jim as depicted in an 1843
song sheet illustration. John Hay Library, Brown University
Library. 24
2.4 The cocked knee in minstrel dance as depicted in an 1840 song
sheet illustration. [TCS82], Harvard Theatre Collection,
Harvard University. 27
2.5 Jackson’s wide-knee steps in the panther postlude.
Reproduced from Michael Jackson, ‘Black or White’,
HIStory I & II, 1998 (DVD, Sony, 88697360639). 34
2.6 Jackson’s frog-like leaps. Reproduced from Jackson,
‘Black or White’. 35
2.7 Jackson’s second pose. Reproduced from Jackson,
‘Black or White’. 37
2.8 Jackson reveals his white torso. Reproduced from Jackson,
‘Black or White’. 49
3.1 Al Jolson in The Jazz Singer. From the collections of the
Margaret Herrick Library. 52
4.1 Jackson’s parody of the blackface mask in Ghosts.
Reproduced from Michael Jackson, Ghosts, 1997
(VHS, Optimum, 200788 2). 79
4.2 The maestro’s crucifixion pose. Reproduced from Jackson,
Ghosts. 80
4.3 The mayor and the mirror. Reproduced from Jackson,
Ghosts. 84
4.4 The maestro’s layers of face and skull. Reproduced from
Jackson, Ghosts. 88
5.1 Westlife in Turnaround. Reproduced from Westlife,
The Turnaround Tour: Live from the Globe, Stockholm, 2004
(DVD, BMG, 82876660179). 101
viii MIcHaeL JackSon and THe BLackface MaSk
5.2 Michael Jackson’s ‘Smooth Criminal’. Reproduced from
Michael Jackson, ‘Smooth Criminal’, Michael Jackson’s Vision,
2010 (DVD, Sony, 88697 76051 9). 102
6.1 ‘Jackson’ dowses the flames on his head in ‘Just Lose It’.
Reproduced from Eminem, ‘Just Lose It’, 2004
(Enhanced CD, Aftermath/Interscope, 210318-3). 133
6.2 Jackson’s prosthetic nose gets squashed back into place.
Reproduced from Eminem, ‘Just Lose It’. 133
7.1 The typical ‘wench’ caricature and phallic suggestions.
Sheet Music Collection, Music Department, Free Library
of Philadelphia. 143
8.1 Michael’s closing smile. Reproduced from Michael Jackson’s
This Is It, directed by Kenny Ortega, produced by
Randy Phillips, Kenny Ortega and Paul Gongaware, 147 mins.
(DVD, Sony, CDR69320CE02, 2009). 175
General Editor’s Preface
The upheaval that occurred in musicology during the last two decades of the
twentieth century has created a new urgency for the study of popular music
alongside the development of new critical and theoretical models. A relativistic
outlook has replaced the universal perspective of modernism (the international
ambitions of the 12-note style); the grand narrative of the evolution and dissolution
of tonality has been challenged, and emphasis has shifted to cultural context,
reception and subject position. Together, these have conspired to eat away at the
status of canonical composers and categories of high and low in music. A need has
arisen, also, to recognize and address the emergence of crossovers, mixed and new
genres, to engage in debates concerning the vexed problem of what constitutes
authenticity in music and to offer a critique of musical practice as the product of
free, individual expression.
Popular musicology is now a vital and exciting area of scholarship, and the
Ashgate Popular and Folk Music Series presents some of the best research in the
field. Authors are concerned with locating musical practices, values and meanings
in cultural context, and may draw upon methodologies and theories developed
in cultural studies, semiotics, poststructuralism, psychology and sociology. The
series focuses on popular musics of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. It
is designed to embrace the world’s popular musics from Acid Jazz to Zydeco,
whether high tech or low tech, commercial or non-commercial, contemporary or
traditional.
Derek B. Scott,
Professor of Critical Musicology,
University of Leeds, UK