Music and Some Highly Musical People

As with other works, this task was done while traits such as "character, modesty, and industry" were emphasized as a way to "assure whites" that blacks were not a threat.

In his discussion of, for example, Elizabeth Greenfield, Trotter is unable to examine problematic coverage of the singer lest he alienate a white audience which would not recognize the negative effects of stereotyping of black musicians.

[6] On the other hand, Trotter's work was itself not immune to the scientific racism of the period, for instance he praises lightness of skin and repeats arguments of phrenologists about the relationship between character and cranium shape.

Even so, the book was the first revisionist look at black minstrelsy, an approach which suggests that out of the racist stereotyping and caricature of the style came the chance for musical expression, employment, and audience happiness.

[2] Eileen Southern calls the book, "the first time that anyone, black or white, had attempted to assess a body of American music that cut across genres and styles".

[12] The book more directly influenced many later works on African-American music, especially by black authors, including Penman Lovinggood Sr.'s Famous Modern Negro Musicians in 1921.