Humor in Early Twentieth-Century Sheet Music

Humor in early twentieth-century sheet music is often difficult to grasp without an understanding of historical, social, and musical contexts. Today, many Tin Pan Alley songs seem merely quaint and old-fashioned (if not odd) rather than engagingly comic or satirical. A large number of early sheet music songs intended to be funny, however, must now be seen as racist and xenophobic. While such songs may be difficult to consider as humorous today, they must be acknowledged as an important part of the history of musical humor rather than ignored.