Thursday, April 13, 2006

Well, Maybe We Should Bring Back Some of That Thoughtful WWII Propaganda Art


Japanese. Blackface. R&B. Group. On Sony.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

uh, jeff, what is this? pls explain!!!

Anonymous said...

oh, forgot to say, thanks for your blog!

Jeff said...

This is one of the most bizarre things i have run across recently. This group apparently has a following in Japan doing 'soul' music. It's hard to tell whether laughing or crying is the appropriate response.

Having recently read a book exploring the history of blackface in american entertainment (late era practioners included Bob Wills, Sophie Tucker and let's not forget Bing Crosby's blackface number in 'Holiday Inn') I am less 'shocked' than the blogger who directed me to it.

My thoughtful guess is that this is just more Americana-philia from the Japanese w/o enough context to realize how ugly this is to our eyes (now).