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Cabaret songs' have been in existence for a little more than a century, which makes the genre surveyable.2 The reasons for its former popularity and recent decline in Europe and for its continued popularity in the USA can be discerned.3 If, however, we are asked for a precise definition of what a "cabaret song" is as compared to other kinds of songs - e.g., pop songs or jazz songs-we soon find ourselves confronted with considerable difficulties. The simplest imaginable answer that a cabaret song is a song performed in a cabaret or nightclub of a certain, originally European, type, is not necessarily true. Cabaret songs can be heard in music halls,4 in movies (e.g., sung by Marlene Dietrich or Hildegard Knef), in "One Wo/Man Shows" (e.g., by Ute Lemper, Liza Minnelli, or Tony Bennett), and on recordings of all kinds. As we shall see, we aim with the term at a certain style of performance rather than song, even though obviously not every kind of text can be performed as a cabaret song.
Therefore, we start this investigation of the Cabaret Song in Europe and the USA not-as would be normally expected-with a historical introduction, but rather with an analysis of two styles of presentation found in cabaret songs to this day. This is followed by a description of the original cabaret audience, which naturally had a strong influence on the genre. Following this, we examine the four main types of content of cabaret songs, which at the same time, constitute subgenres of the cabaret song. Only then are we equipped to focus on the most important subgenre of the cabaret song, the "Prostitute Song" (in the form of "self-introduction"). In the "Prostitute Song," all the important stylistic features of the Cabaret Song can be found, most importantly its "camp" style. We hope that the results in the concluding summary will justify this unorthodox order of presentation.
Two Styles of Presentation
We can experience some of the songs of the first cabaret singers on precious old discs, which have been "cleaned" of static noise and other interference. When we listen to recordings of the two unquestionably most famous pioneers of the first days of the cabaret, Aristide Bruant5 and Yvette Guilbert,'' we immediately realize-even if...