Stephen Foster's Influence On American Music

Stephen Foster’s music is part of Americana and has have survived to the present day. He proved that songwriting could be profitable, and he changed minstrel songs so that anyone could enjoy listening to them. His music contains themes that millions of people can relate to and are extremely flexible which is shown by the numerous reinterpretations by musicians since Fosters death.
Stephen Foster was important in several ways. He showed that it was possible to make a living by writing songs. Foster can be considered to be one of the first professional songwriters. Unfortunately for him, copyright laws for songs were created after he died so he didn’t make as much money as he should have. Another impact he had was on minstrel songs. Ironically, if it had been up to Foster he would have made his living solely by writing parlor songs. However, wrote minstrel songs because they were his main source of income. Despite this, he felt very uncomfortable with them so he decided to make them respectable. Therefore, he replaced words that were offensive to African-Americans with wording similar to his parlor songs. …show more content…
It is a combination of white and black culture to create something unique that could be considered American. The songs have themes that can be felt by anyone such as a feeling of nostalgia for home, slavery, as well as life in the South. They also have “extraordinary flexibility and resilience.” This makes it similar to Soul Food which was also a result of creolization. Moreover, songs by Foster have been referenced in multiple songs following his death. One example is “Rock a Bye Your Baby With a Dixie Melody” which refers to “Old Folks At Home” by mentioning Swanee river. This also shows that performers have been able “to reinterpret and reinvigorate Foster’s music.” Nevertheless, people are becoming less aware of Foster because of “the racist dialect and