Doo-dah!: Stephen Foster And The Rise Of American Popular Culture [Paperback]

Ken Emerson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 22, 1998

Stephen Foster (1826–1864) was America's first great songwriter and the first to earn his living solely through his music. He composed some 200 songs, including such classics as "Oh! Susanna,” “Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair," "Old Folks at Home (Way down upon the Swanee River),” and "Camptown Races (Doo-dah! Doo-dah!).” He virtually invented popular music as we recognize it to this day, yet he died at age thirty-seven, a forgotten and nearly penniless alcoholic on the Bowery. The author reveals Foster's contradictory life while disclosing how the dynamics of nineteenth-century industrialization, westward expansion, the Gold Rush, slavery, and the Civil War infused his music, and how that music influenced popular culture.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Ken Emerson's thickly textured narrative features an affectionate examination of American music's diverse strands as well as a perceptive portrait of the nation's first great songwriter. Stephen Foster (1826-64) was born in Pittsburgh and visited the South only briefly, yet songs like "My Old Kentucky Home" and "Oh! Susanna" drew on black Southern culture to create a uniquely American form of popular music. The author is clear-sighted about the complex blend of racism and genuine compassion that infused Foster's "blackface" compositions. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Stephen Foster might be considered America's first professional composer. His songs include "Oh! Susanna," "Old Folks at Home," and "Old Black Joe," tunes so enduring that they are sometimes considered folk songs. Yet Foster died penniless and didn't help his case for posterity by frequently selling all the rights to his songs, or worse, in the case of "Old Folks at Home," being so foolish as to sell the credit for the song to E.P. Christy for a pittance. Nonetheless, Foster's musical creations have influenced musicians as diverse as Antonin Dvorak, Charles Ives, and Al Jolson. Emerson, an editor at the New York Times Magazine, endeavors in this well-researched and -documented book to reveal the man behind the music. Emerson discusses Foster's life and music (with emphasis on the lyrics) within the context of the events and personalities of the era. The book goes a long way towards dispelling the myths that have surrounded the composer. Recommended for both public and academic libraries.?Michael Colby, Univ. of California, Davis
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: Da Capo Press; 1St Edition edition (August 22, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0306808528
• ISBN-13: 978-0306808524
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #677,781 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dull? Hardly!, March 5, 2011

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THX1138b (NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Doo-dah!: Stephen Foster And The Rise Of American Popular Culture (Paperback)

Though I could not have imagined reading and enjoying a book about the composer of O'Susanna and Old Kentucky Home, I've read this book twice and I could not disagree more with the reviewer who commented that Emerson "goes on for page after page" about what Foster did, said and when. It is after all a biography. In fact there is much more going on in Ken Emerson`s narrative than the serial reporting of SF did, as the title clearly indicates: the rise of American popular culture. Ken Emerson explores the world of music around Foster. The polite music of the parlor, the raucous humor of the traveling show and the bizarre contradiction of black-face and minstrelsy (with considerable insight into that particular chapter of our nation's cultural history).

Emerson has the ability to bring this world to life, to unthread its tangled history, show Foster's contribution and how this melting pot of music and performance led straight to ragtime, jazz, Elvis and the Rolling Stones (not to mention his direct and lasting contribution to folk and bluegrass). He does this with clear headed analysis and more than a little humor ("Ice Cream and the Annihilation of Space and Time!") making this book a delight and an eye opening read. A critical reader will take issue with some of his analyses of particular songs and probably his thoughts on the development of the music. Good! It's the kind of book that should generate debate of those points. But if you have ever wondered how the odd lyrics to Oh Susanna came about and what they might mean, you will certainly enjoy reading Emerson's take on it.

If the story falls flat to some ears it is probably because of the plodding years of Stephen Foster's slow decline and the lack of reliable primary and even secondary sources for the later years. The exciting wave of change inspired by the industrial revolution had passed, changes that sped the transmission of music made Foster a part of past while living in the future his music (or perhaps his attempt to make a living at it) helped to create. It was a future that included the rather dull business of music where there had been precious little business before Stephen Foster and so much after him. Though even in this sad late phase the book sheds light on how that business itself developed (it is after all the engine of the pop music that followed) and also sheds light on the shifting popular taste of the time. Again we see an age so different and yet so much like our own.

Emerson's sources are well documented. If you're inclined to read more into this history, you could do worse than start here. The chapters are short, readable in a sitting. His prose style is anything but flat. If his observations on the connection to or parallels with contemporary culture are a bit obvious, keeping that window to the future open is part of the point of the book. It's the window we look through, backward to Stephen Foster.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Sadly, a Rather Dull Biography, March 1, 2011

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mastermindquiet - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Doo-dah!: Stephen Foster and the Rise of American Popular Culture (Hardcover)

This is the story of Stephen Foster, who wrote so many songs in the nineteenth century that are considered American standards such as "Oh, Susanna", "Campdown Races" and "Swanee River". The book focuses on Foster as one of the first song writers to be benefited by the commercialization of music, in the guise of sheet music and copyrights. He became a well recognized figure based upon his fame as a popular music composer. Foster initially struggled to be a successful composer, then spend of good part of the rest of his life in court defending his rights and chasing "music pirates", to use a modern term. However, the book is not easy to read. The author goes on for page after page, chapter after chapter, relating how Foster did this and went there and said that and after a while it becomes a blur. Recommended only to those who really have an interest in the subject.

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars There's a biography in here, but you'll have to work for it., July 12, 2011

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Busy Reader: Get To The Point (California, USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Doo-dah!: Stephen Foster And The Rise Of American Popular Culture (Paperback)

I recommend this book if you want lots of information on popular music in America during the 19th Century. I can't recommend it as a biography of Stephen Foster.

I was interested in the life story of Stephen Foster. Apparently, the author was more interested in the social and musical forces at play during Foster's lifetime. These are important to the story, to be sure, and the subtitle mentions them. However, it would be more honest to place Stephen Foster's name in the subtitle last, not first, as he does not occupy the center of interest in this book.

Here's what you get: Stephen Foster is born. Twenty pages about blackface minstrel show music, including lyrics, musician biographies, sales receipts. Stephen Foster goes to school. Thirty pages on how much actual African-American melody and lyric made it into the minstrel shows. Stephen Foster gets married. Forty pages on the build-up to the Civil War. It's very difficult to go back and find the pages that talk about Stephen Foster! I found out almost as much about Frederick Douglass.

This book reminded me of a long biography I read on Elvis Presley. In both books, a white musician was influenced--directly and indirectly--by the music of African Americans. For some reason, this phenomenon merits endless analysis. Again, it's an important point in both cases, but I think we do artists a disservice if we over-analyze their influences. At some point, I appreciate Stephen Foster's music for itself, as he wrote it. I credit him with crafting it, and I'd like to know more about the man, less about the century.