Blackface performance had no relationship to the commercial music business.

Performers combined racial caricature, music, dance, dialect, and theatrical characters into marketable entertainment.

Minstrel shows were the first form of entertainment distributed primarily through radio.

Racial identity was communicated entirely through musical melodies.

They relied exclusively on radio broadcasts.

They primarily distributed audio recordings directly to consumers.

They discouraged popular performers from introducing new songs.

They sold sheet music and promoted songs through performers, song pluggers, and entertainment networks.

Race records were always blues, while hillbilly records were always instrumental dance music.

The categories were determined exclusively by musical instruments.

The two categories represented musical traditions that never influenced one another.

They were industry marketing categories shaped by racial and regional assumptions, even though musical traditions frequently overlapped.