QMH101: Queer Music History 101 - Part 1 of 10
Part 1: The Beginnings, Humor, Blues, and even Bing Crosby
Songs for Part 1:
Merrit Brunies & His Friar’s Inn Orchestra – Masculine Women, Feminine Men (1926)
Ma Rainey – Prove It On Me Blues (1926)
Bessie Jackson – B.D. Woman’s Blues (1935)
Frankie “Half-Pint” Jaxon – My Daddy Rocks Me With One Steady Roll (1929)
Bing Crosby – Ain’t No Sweet Man Worth the Salt of My Tears (1928)
Douglas Byng & Lance Lister – Cabaret Boys (1928)
Background:
Queer Music History 101 (QMH101) is a special project of my radio show and website Queer Music Heritage. It was designed as sort of a study guide, or lesson plan, and I hope it appeals to those LGBT Studies courses now found at many universities around the country. So this is a two-hour crash course, and you have no idea how difficult it was to keep it to that, as I've been doing my QMH show since January 2000, and have over 420 hours of programs archived on my site.
There are now three ways to take the lesson, with the first two residing on the website http://www.qmh101.com. There, in the audio version you can just listen and follow along to the two-hour segment, while viewing the graphics. The same can be done with a "flipbook" version, perhaps more attune to a generation raised on the internet. I used short song clips, 65 of them. But in the actual website lessons I have links to full versions of the songs. They will give a much greater appreciation and understanding of not only the meaning of the song, but also the place of the artist or song in history. This lesson spans music from 1926 through 1985.
I created this lesson in 2010, and in early 2013 developed this YouTube version in an effort to reach a broader audience. This time it is broken down into ten parts, of about twelve minutes each. This version features many more graphics, but I want to mention that a more thorough approach is still from the website, due to additional text information and direct links to references and in some cases my own interviews with some of the artists. The YouTube version takes therefore a perhaps a less academic approach and may appeal to more casual viewing. I do hope the appeal is not just to students assigned the lesson, but to anyone interesting in LGBT music history, as I have always tried to educate while entertaining.
Please see http://www.qmh101.com specifically for the information about this lesson, and visit my website, at http://www.QueerMusicHeritage.com for more information about the history of GLBT music.
Music under video intro is "Woodland" by Margie Adam, from "Naked Keys," 1980
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In general, use of the songs on my channel is done under the "fair use" doctrine of the U.S. Copyright law, Section 107, number 1. Section 107 contains a list of the various purposes for which the reproduction of a particular work may be considered fair, such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Section 107 also sets out factors to be considered in determining whether or not a particular use is fair, such as: The purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes.
