Coon songs spoke volumes about white attitudes towards African Americans. Unfortunately, in many cases, they also spoke volumes about some black composers’ sense of personal pride and self-image. They are a historical document that clearly shows white attitudes and the oppressive social world that African Americans had to cope with. Coon songs tend to reinvent the archetypical antebellum “Zip Coon” as a black urban dweller whose primitive nature is both revealed and disguised by clothes and habits. Whereas the old “Zip Coon” satirized pretentious, effete eastern socialites, the new coon represented backward blacks who wanted to impress with ostentatious speech, dress, and jewelry. Earlier coon songs of the 1880s and 1890s often portrayed blacks cutting one another with razors over games of chance. Sheet music covers often portrayed blacks wearing top hats, tailcoats, and watches on chains. Ragtime made the “Zip Coon” the most recognizable character in American music by 1900. 

Coon songs aimed to be funny and incorporated the syncopated rhythms of ragtime music. Coon songs contributed to the development and acceptance of authentic African American music. Ragtime and coon songs were enjoyed by African Americans as they reflected the full gamut from conservative to liberal attitudes.