Michael Pickering sets out to provide a serious historical study of blackface minstrelsy in Britain from the 1840s to the 1970s, a trend that has been neglected in academic scholarship despite its integral role in Victorian Music Hall (which has been the subject of studies by authors such as Peter Bailey and Dagmar Kift). Conscious of the potential pitfalls of analysing a historical phenomenon through a modern lens, Pickering attempts to place himself in a contemporaneous mindset and evaluate minstrelsy on its own terms. Throughout, he illustrates and augments his argument with detailed and often anecdotal reference to individuals and specific stage acts.
In his Preface, he explains the differing role of the blackface minstrel in Britain from that in America, and its enduring longevity and success despite racist elements in its reception. British minstrelsy, Pickering explains, was not an imitation of black critical expression and practice, but rather a caricature based on white conceptions of Africans and African-Americans. Examples of distinctively British characteristics that emerged in British minstrelsy include word play and puns in songs (e.g. p. 47), and the use of blackface buffoonery as a racial foil for the promotion of English nationalism at a time when the old Empire was in decline.
In nine wide-ranging chapters, Pickering covers the emergence of minstrelsy in 1840s Britain, its urban and rural practitioners, issues of race and the use of blackface as a mask by white minstrels, and later developments in minstrelsy and its legacy. This approach is useful in providing a commentary on the issues from different viewpoints, but chronological cohesiveness suffers. A running theme of the book is the way in which minstrelsy was able to cross traditional class and social boundaries. (Pickering claims that such distinctions were eliminated, because ‘the eschewal of vulgarity was central to British minstrelsy's cross-class appeal’, p. 40). A further recurring element of Pickering's argument is the light shed upon British conceptions of race and blackness during this period.
The first three chapters present the first appearances of minstrelsy in London, the development of a stage-show formula, and the genre's geographic dispersal to other urban centres and more rural areas. In Chapter 1, ‘Mock Blacks’, Pickering divides the history of minstrelsy in Britain into three stages: the evolution from solo performances into theatre packages (1830s–1840s), expansion and growth of respectability (1840s–1900), and the decline of the minstrel stage show from 1900 to the present day. Pickering explains that the traditional division between classical and popular music was circumvented by the universally popular minstrelsy, thereby avoiding typical class and social differentiations. Chapter 2, ‘Metropolitan Minstrelsy’, explains that by the second half of the 19th century, British blackface minstrel troupes were more popular than genuine black American stage shows in Britain. The emergence of a specifically British genre of minstrel entertainment led to the shows being tailored to a British audience, and a cycle of production and reception began. Chapter 3, ‘Everyday Ethiopians’, explains the growth of amateur minstrelsy alongside its stage counterparts. Several amateur minstrel troupes formed in 1860s Huddersfield, the midlands and the north. Ethiopian street ‘serenaders’ (buskers) also appeared at country fairs, regattas, football matches and pleasure cruise quays, therefore spreading the appeal of minstrelsy into rural areas.
Chapters 4, 5 and 6 consist of a more in-depth exploration into the social and anthropological reasons for minstrelsy's popularity and continuing success in Britain. Considerations of racial and/or racist attitudes in Britain always provide an intriguing counterpoint to the oft-told history of race relations in America, and Pickering's assessment is no exception. In Chapter 4, ‘British Masks’, he suggests that the blackface mask cut through the existing nationalist conceit, allowing Brits to shed their reserve. ‘In playing at being black, performers and audiences could escape from the seriousness of being white without contaminating whiteness’ (p. 106). The strict behavioural codes dictated by Victorian social norms could be discarded when wearing or watching blackface minstrels. Chapter 5, ‘Racial Mockery’, suggests that blackface encouraged members of all classes to think in terms of racial differentiation rather than class terms. British assumptions of racial and national superiority came hand in hand with the development of the Empire, and were counterbalanced by the reverse assumptions of black inferiority promoted by blackface comic performance. This construction of an inferior race through caricature and mockery is emphasised in Chapter 6, ‘Black Clowns’, which stresses the contrast between repressed Victorian concerns for the future and minstrels' heedlessness of tomorrow. Pickering suggests that projecting all negative feelings onto an inferior racialised ‘Other’ was the British way of coming to terms with the decline of the Empire and insecurities about their way of life.
Chapter 7 covers the late 19th-century construct of the blackface ‘coon’, by the minstrel singer Gene Stratton. This dandy figure was an exaggeration of the corrupting influence of a city lifestyle, and served to further the existing racial stereotyping of blacks. An interesting development in racial attitudes is illustrated by Stratton's successor, G. H. Elliott, who attempted to perform without blackface makeup in the 1920s. Although his songs were better received when wearing blackface, this showed a softening of the racist edge in minstrelsy reception. For a chapter entitled ‘Early Ragtime’, Pickering gives surprisingly little musical detail. He seems instead to see minstrelsy as early ragtime in that both were facets of the modernist movement.
Although titled ‘Blackface Media’, Chapter 8 is really a discussion of representations of blackface minstrelsy on the radio. The Kentucky Minstrels radio show, which ran from 1933 to 1950, was an adaptation of the successful minstrel formula. Pickering addresses the difficulties of adapting a primarily bodily and visual humour form for the radio. However I felt that more discussion could be given to the effect of a sightless medium on blackface performance, which had been a key theme of the book until this point. It is implied, rather than made explicit, that racial humour softened during these decades, and radio removed some of the focus on blackface. Pickering comments on the transition from racist humour to sexist humour in the 1940s, and the cumulative combination of racist and sexist humour reinforced the dominance of white men in society. The BBC programme The Black and White Minstrel Show, which ran from 1957–1973, is mentioned but merits further discussion.
Pickering's concluding chapter, ‘Minstrelsy's Legacy’, draws examples from many different times to prove that white forms of blackness have had many faces. He emphasises the anachronistic nature of minstrelsy in Britain, as exemplified by the long-running Black and White Minstrel Show. Pickering notes that ‘Even after rock and soul changed popular music in Britain and America, performers in the Black and White Minstrel Show continued to sing songs and dance dances that had virtually nothing to do with African-American music, though they still wore blackface’ (p. 219). This chapter could have benefited from a further discussion of the rock 'n' roll movement, which stemmed from white musicians imitating and adapting African-American musical styles.
While Pickering provides a fascinating and multifaceted overview of blackface minstrelsy in Britain, the book contains no notated music examples, and is very light on actual musical description. This may come as no surprise, considering the ‘serious historical study’ he intended, but seems out of place in the Ashgate Popular Music Series. However, this is only a slight criticism of what is an enlightening and very readable history of minstrelsy in Britain.
