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1. Country Music
PERF2065 WEEK 5

2. What this lecture will do
Look at some of the major historical
developments in the country genre, and the
themes that connect them
◦ Bluegrass
◦ Nashville
◦ Outlaw country
◦ The 1990s country ‘boom’
Examine the way class has played an
important role in how country has been
understood

3. Characteristics of country
According to Mann (2008, 80-1) the ‘best-recognised musical and lyrical characteristics’
include:
◦ “emphasis on ‘acoustic’ or so-called ‘traditional’ instrumentation”
◦ “songs [relying] on predictable chord intervals in major keys … composed in a standardized,
more or less ‘square’ song structure with generally perfect rhythmic consistency”
◦ The accentuation of ‘twang’ in string instruments (“an abrupt, relatively sharp initiation
when plucked, which is followed by a quick, usually slightly ascending, muting”)
◦ Vocal inflections suggesting as southern US accent (sometimes this can be the only clear
indicator that a song is supposed to be ‘country’)
◦ Key lyrical themes – “rural life, work and everyday working-class life … heterosexual ‘salvific
love’, family life and ‘values’, the southern US … rebellion, Christianity, alcohol, death,
humour and nostalgia”
◦ Lyrics are clearly enunciated and often tell a story

4. Kenny Rogers – ‘Coward of the County’
Everyone considered him the coward of the county
He'd never stood one single time to prove the county wrong.
His mama named him Tommy, but folks just called him yellow,
Something always told me they were reading Tommy wrong.
He was only ten years old when his daddy died in prison;
I took care of Tommy, 'cause he was my brother's son.
I still recall the final words my brother said to Tommy,
"Son my life is over, but yours has just begun".
[Chorus]
"Promise me, son, not to do the things I've done
Walk away from trouble if you can.
It won't mean you're weak if you turn the other cheek
I hope you're old enough to understand,
Son, you don't have to fight to be a man."
There's someone for everyone, and Tommy's love was Becky.
In her arms he didn't have to prove he was a man.
One day while he was working, the Gatlin boys came calling
They took turns at Becky, n'there was three of them).
Tommy opened up the door, and saw Becky crying.
The torn dress, the shattered look was more than he could stand.
He reached above the fireplace, and took down his daddy's picture.
As the tears fell on his daddy's face, he heard these words again:
[Chorus]
The Gatlin boys just laughed at him when he walked into the barroom;
One of them got up and met him half way cross the floor.
When Tommy turned around they said, "Hey look! old yeller's leaving,"
But you could've heard a pin drop when Tommy stopped and locked the door.
Twenty years of crawling were bottled up inside him.
He wasn't holding nothing back -- he let 'em have it all.
When Tommy left the bar room, not a Gatlin boy was standing.
He said, "This one's for Becky, as he watched the last one fall. (And I heard
him say,)
"I promised you, Dad, not to do the things you've done
I walk away from trouble when I can
Now please don't think I'm weak, I didn't turn the other cheek,
And papa, I should hope you understand
Sometimes you gotta fight when you're a man".
Everyone considered him the coward of the county.

5. Country as ‘bad’ music
“It has been said that North Americans have managed to produce
three things that are practically pure corn: tortillas, moonshine
whiskey and country music. Hailed by some critics as America’s great
musical gift to people the world over, country music has been
viewed less enthusiastically by others as being simplistic,
unsophisticated, right-wing, boring, bedrock Baptist, redneck,
ignorant and probably racist. No doubt it is all these and more: a
kaleidoscopic self portrait of a substantial segment of American
popular culture set to lyrics and music.” (Gritzner, 1978, 857)

6. “For many cosmopolitan Americans, especially, county is ‘bad’ music
precisely because it is widely understood to signify an explicit claim
to whiteness, not as an unmarked, neutral condition of lacking (or
trying to shed) race, but as a marked, foregrounded claim of cultural
identity- a bad whiteness. As “white” music, unredeemed by
ethnicity, folkloric authenticity, progressive politics, or the noblesse
oblige of elite musical culture, Country frequently stands for the
cultural badness of its adherents. Country is, in this sense,
“contaminated” culture, mere proximity to which entails ideological
danger.” (Fox, 2004, 44)

7. Charley Pride:
Country Music
Association
Entertainer of
the Year 1971

10. Johnny Rebel
Quit your bitchin’ n*gger and just let things
be
You're messin' up big time take it from me
Quit your bitchin’ n*gger or you'll get your
due
'Cause the Ku Klux Klan will come-a-callin' on
you
For forty-somethin' years you've been raisin'
all hell
And n*ggers that ain't enough
We're all gettin' mighty fed up with you
And all of your civil rights stuff
Don't you love this country, either you do or
you don't
If you ain't happy, then what the hell do you
want
[Chorus]
You got money and jobs and your equal rights
Given by the government
You got welfare, food stamps, a medical card
And sometimes a little free rent
You just keep begging, takin' everything we've got
Well damn you n*gger, don't you think it's time to
stop
[Chorus]
Lately you're yelling 'bout our rebel flag
Wantin' us to take it down
It represents our history and southern pride
And rebel blood on the grass
So go to hell n*gger, I'm tellin' ya loud and clear
It ain't comin' down, the rebel flag is stayin' right here

11. Country has never been ‘recuperated’ in the way that rock was. Even when
claims are made for its worth, they focus on its folkloric aspects, and not its
artistic merits. Why?
Changing ideas about what constitutes ‘good taste’ still exclude country because
of its association with uneducated whites
BUT in many ways this works for country, and is reinforced from within the
industry – its perceived ‘outsider’ status (despite immense commercial success)
makes it more appealing to its key audience, and reflects the way they think
about themselves.
From this comes the main tensions in country music, seen throughout its history
– how to balance ‘outsiderness’ with commercial success, and how to balance
change with tradition.

12. Hillbilly music
Roots of country music came from English and Irish
folk music
‘Country’ music designation as a way of separating
it from ‘race’ music (ie the blues) and Tin Pan Alley
– so marked as ‘white’ from beginning
Early stars established ongoing themes – rurality,
nostalgia, emphasis on everyday themes and
troubles
Emphasis on home, family, religion (Carter Family)
vs the ‘outsider’ character (Jimmie Rodgers)

13. Jimmie Rodgers – ‘Waiting for a Train’

14. The Grand Ole Opry
A radio show and later television show broadcast out
of Nashville, Tennessee. First show 1925, still running
today.
Four-hour showcase of country.
Helped establish the careers of many key artists in the
genre, including Bill Monroe, Hank Williams, Kitty
Pearl & Patsy Cline
Helped consolidate ideas of what country was, and
later what it should look like

15. Bluegrass
Popular postwar style based on traditional acoustic
string instrumentation (guitar, banjo, double bass,
fiddle, mandolin) and traditional vocals from the
Appalachian region(sometimes described as the
‘high lonesome’ voice).
Some influences from blues musicians
Key performers – Bill Monroe and his Blue Grass
Boys, Earl Scruggs, Stanley Brothers
Not hugely commercial at the time, but consistently
influential. Early 2000s revival with ‘O Brother
Where Art Thou?’

18. Watch
Lost Highway – the Road to Nashville
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-RY_KTUVtA
Watch 33min – 50min (but the whole thing is quite good)

19. Outlaw Country
Development in late 60s, early 70s.
Described as reaction against both the overly-
produced and ‘pop’ sounding Nashville sound,
and the recording processes used there that left
artists with little autonomy
Based in alternative country centres Austin and
Bakersville
Key artists – Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Kris
Kristoffersen, Merle Haggard, Johnny Cash to
some extent
A return to ‘hardcore’ country sounds but with
some rock influences

22. Group discussion
The story of Outlaw Country is that it developed as a reaction against the formulaic Nashville
sound and the corporatized music-making processes in use there
◦ Can you think of other times in music history when a story like this has been told about the
development of a new music style or genre?
◦ What’s up with that?

23. Always remember
to be a bit cynical
about stories like
these!

24. Loretta Lynn – The Pill (1975)
You wined me and dined me
When I was your girl
Promised if I'd be your wife
You'd show me the world
But all I've seen of this old world
Is a bed and a doctor bill
I'm tearin' down your brooder house
'Cause now I've got the pill
All these years I've stayed at home
While you had all your fun
And every year that's gone by
Another baby’s come
There's a gonna be some changes made
Right here on nursery hill
You've set this chicken your last time
'Cause now I've got the pill

25. Nashville revisited
Despite the romance of the moment, the Outlaw movement’s
characterisation of Nashville didn’t make much difference
Still seen as the heart of country music
Has more music industry jobs per capita than anywhere else in
the US, and “by one observer’s analysis, Nashville accounted for
virtually all of the measurable job growth in the music industry
between 1970 and 2012” (Pecknold, 2014, 33)
“The stories told about Nashville as a city and as a centre of the
music business have been instrumental in maintaining the
institutional independence that contributes to country’s
particularity, and they have allowed the preservation and
expression of the ideals valorized as authentic within country
culture despite dramatic changes in the material conditions of its
production and consumption.” (Pecknold, 2014, 34)

26. 90s country boom

27. Causes and responses
Technological change – Soundscan and CMT
Country stars’ use of marketing based more in rock (eg, spectacular stadium tours, focus on
performers’ attractiveness)
Changing demographics? Appeal to older, suburban baby boomer fans
But also coming on the back of decades of ‘crossover’ country success (eg, Kenny Rogers, Linda
Ronstadt, Olivia Newton John, The Eagles, Dolly Parton etc)
Response towards it changed over time – initially hailed as the saving grace of country, the
artists were eventually criticised as being overly commercial and moving away from the ‘real’
country music (Jenson, 2002)

28. Into the 2000s…

29. Concluding thoughts…
“… the genre has retained its working-class connotations, and often class-based
combativeness, as a central distinguishing feature. (…) ‘hard’ country in particular is
built around the recurring trope of white, working-class, male abjection, which
simultaneously laments and celebrates the inability or unwillingness of its song
characters to conform to middle-class expectations. If anything, this characteristic
became more pronounced in the 2000s…” (Pecknold, 2014, 20)
BUT “Country music’s working-class fans embrace what is ‘bad’ about the music’s – and
their own – cultural identity and meaning, as a way of discovering and asserting what is
valuable and good about their lives and communities. (…) Pathetic or foolish, it is meant
to be hated, and it is loved for that, as a symbol of working-class experience.” (Fox, 52)
So the rejection and condemnation of country by those with ‘high brow’ tastes actually
adds to its appeal

30. References
Bryson, B. (1996). ""Anything but Heavy Metal": Symbolic exclusion and musical dislikes." American Sociological Review 61(5), pp. 884-899.
Fox, Aaron A. (2004) ‘White Trash Alchemies of the Abject Sublime: Country as ‘Bad’ Music’, in Christopher Washburne and Maiken Derno Bad
Music: Music we love to hate, New York: Routledge, pp. 39-61.
Gritzner, Charles (1978) 'Country Music: A Reflection of Popular Culture’, Journal of Popular Culture, 11, pp. 857-64.
Holt, Fabian (2007) Genre in Popular Music, University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London.
Jensen, Joli (2002) 'Taking Country Music Seriously: Coverage of the 90s Boom’, in Steve Jones (ed.), Pop Music and the Press, Philadelphia: Temple
University Press
Mann, Geoff (2008) ‘Why does country music sound white? Race and the voice of nostalgia’, Ethnic and Racial Studies, 31 (1), pp. 73-100.
Negus, Keith (1999) Music Genres and Corporate Cultures, Routledge, London.
Pecknold, Diane (2014) ‘Heart of the Country? The Construction of Nashville as the Capital of Country Music’ in Brett Lashua, Karl Spracklen and
Stephen Wagg Sounds and the City: Popular Music, Place and Globalization, Basingstoke: Palgrave, pp. 19-37
Peterson, R. A. & Kern, R. M. (1996) Changing highbrow taste: From snob to omnivore. American Sociological Review, 61(5), 900-907.
Starr, Larry and Christopher Waterman (2013) American Popular Music: From Minstrelsy to MP3, Oxford: Oxford University Press
Stimeling, Travis D. (2013) ‘Narrative, vocal staging and masculinity in the ‘Outlaw’ country music of Waylon Jennings’, Popular Music, 32(3), pp.
343-358.