Music as Public Discourse

Given today’s all-pervasive media, it is difficult for us to conceive of a time when the primary form of public discourse was face-to-face interaction.¹ There were, of course, newspapers in eighteenth and nineteenth century America, though few resembled our papers of today in their approach to content; rather they were a more thoughtful publication, a “literary diversion rather than the hard news…”² These papers were dominated by essays, letters, poetry, music, and only the occasional major news event. It was not unusual to see speeches by important public figures and even entire legislative bills reprinted in full for all to see and read; however, breaking news reporting was not the standard of the times.³

In addition to newspapers, pamphlets and broadsides were also commonly used to communicate a position or idea in early America. These were published and sold, or even given away, by print shops or partisans on the street or at mass rallies. Additionally, they were often posted in public places for all to read.

However, in the eighteenth, nineteenth, and early twentieth centuries, especially outside of the major cities, face-to-face communication was the primary component of political interaction. Politicians held rallies that were often accompanied by barbecues with free liquor, parades, stump speeches, and lots of singing.⁴ The art of one-on-one campaigning was perfected and ingrained into our national psyche during this era. “It was…in their rich array of parades, festivals, civic feasts, badges and songs that most Americans experienced national politics.”⁵

According to Michael Delli Carpini, “researchers have ignored or downplayed entertainment media, popular culture, art, and so forth, in construction of both news and public opinion.”⁶ As early as 1925, music historians began to recognize the importance of music in early American politics: “In those days [Colonial America] a new patriotic song was a most important matter, and its first performance became almost a national affair.”⁷ Tony Scheurer argues, “Popular songs play a key role in establishing social consensus through the selection of patriotic symbols songwriters choose to employ … Symbols, images, and themes that songwriters select – for whatever emotions they are trying to evoke – are important because they are a site where cultural consensus about values and attitudes is reaffirmed.”⁸

One major form of entertainment and mass media social communication during the pre-electronic era of American history that has largely escaped serious academic study is popular music; in particular, published sheet music. According to Suzanne Flandreau, “Sheet music is [was] the primary means by which music was disseminated from 1800 to the 1920s.”⁹ Because the role and place of music in our society today is so different from its role in pre-electronic America, it is often overlooked as a valuable source of primary research material that reflects the thoughts and priorities of the people of those eras.

Alan Merriam states, “From the standpoint of the relative influence of various musical traditions on American life, popular music is probably the most important. This is because it reaches the largest number of people.”¹⁰ He specifically cites “song texts” as important windows into the “kinds of ideas welcomed” in the culture.¹¹ In the study of America’s political history, particularly in the pre-electronic age where forms of mass communications were limited, music was not just entertainment: it played a key role in the dissemination of social and political information.

<sup>1 Richard D. Brown, Knowledge is Power: The Diffusion of Information in Early America, 1700-1865 (New York: Oxford Press, 1989), 41.

2 Brown, Knowledge is Power, 39.

3 Brown, Knowledge is Power, 47. In Colonial times, Brown states that most of the elite still preferred English newspapers and magazines. In the Virginia region, these materials might arrive from England “in as little as two months and as much as two years after publication.”

4 Much time was spent at these events one-on-one with supporters and prospective supporters as the lack of amplified sound made mass discourse difficult if frequently impossible.

5 Simon P. Newman, Parades and the Politics of the Street (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1997), xiii.

6 Michael X. Delli Carpini, “Let Us Infotain You: Politics in the New Media Age,” Annenberg School for Communications Departmental Papers (2001), 161,  http://repository.upenn.edu/asc.papers/14.

7 Arthur Elson, The History of American Music (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1925), 148.

8 Timothy E. Scheurer, Born in the U.S.A.: The Myth of America in Popular Music from Colonial Times to the Present (Jackson: University of Mississippi, 1991), 10. I would expand upon his reference to songwriters by adding music publishers also.

9 Suzanne Flandreau, Review of Louis Schultz and Sara Shaw, “Cataloging Sheet Music,” Archival Issues Vol. 28, No. 2 (2003-2004), 140.

10 Alan P. Merriam, “Music in American Culture,” American Anthropologist Vol. 57, No. 6 (1955), 1175.

11 Merriam, “Music in American Culture,” 1176</sup>.