Book Review

[kenjari]

Everybody's Doin' It: Sex, Music, and Dance in New York, 1840-1917
by Dale Cockrell

This book is more a study of the kinds of venues in which pre-jazz popular dance music flourished in 19th century America, and the licentious activities that went hand in hand with the music and dancing, than a study of the music itself. This is partly because there is not as much evidence of what exactly musicians were playing in these contexts, but plenty of evidence describing lower-class establishments and what went on there thanks to the various anti-vice efforts of the era.
Cockrell writes engagingly and often humorously about the dance-halls, saloons, and seedy dives of early New York, painting a rollicking and vivid picture of the grittier entertainments and pastimes available in the city. He's also more sympathetic towards the sexualized dancing that went on and the prostitutes that worked in these places than the sources he's drawing on. It all makes for a fascinating look at the early bar and club scene in the city and the soundtrack that sustained it.

Comments

[sovay]

This is partly because there is not as much evidence of what exactly musicians were playing in these contexts, but plenty of evidence describing lower-class establishments and what went on there thanks to the various anti-vice efforts of the era.

That's still pretty neat, although I'm sorry we don't know as much about the music!