The soundies were a three to five minute early form of a music video produced in hollywood in the late 30's early 40's, at the time the TV had only just recently been invented and very few people had one so the soundies were shown in movie theatres. They were very controversial often featuring black stars and revealed more of women than was appropriate at the time for public viewing. At the time slavery had only ended in America 40 years previously and many people objected to having black people in the soundies let alone having starring roles.
In our example "Dorothy Dandridge- Cow Cow Boogie" we can see how at the time it would have been considered controversial as the main roles are filled by black people and women both of which would have at the time been considered second class citizens as slavery had only recently been abolished and women and black people still didn't have the right to vote. Also the women in the video are dressed in burlesque outfits. the music in the video is representative of the mainstream music at the time which was jazz.
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