David Brackett
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780520248717
- eISBN:
- 9780520965317
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520248717.003.0004
- Subject:
- Music, Popular
The early history of what would eventually be called “country music” drew on many of the same ideas about genre and audience that had been developed in the marketing of foreign music and race music. ...
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The early history of what would eventually be called “country music” drew on many of the same ideas about genre and audience that had been developed in the marketing of foreign music and race music. The idea that rural, white people from the South constituted a distinct audience led to a rapid formation of the category some three years after the initial interest in “race” music. The ambiguous social position of southern, rural white people led to difficulties in finding a convenient label for the category, although “Old-Time Music” came closest to achieving official status, and “Hillbilly Music” was used informally in the press. Old-Time Music increasingly pursued connections to mainstream popular music even while continuing to refer to an imagined rural past. One of the most successful recording artists of the 1920s, Vernon Dalhart, is used to exemplify the trajectory of Old-Time Music during the mid-1920s.Less
The early history of what would eventually be called “country music” drew on many of the same ideas about genre and audience that had been developed in the marketing of foreign music and race music. The idea that rural, white people from the South constituted a distinct audience led to a rapid formation of the category some three years after the initial interest in “race” music. The ambiguous social position of southern, rural white people led to difficulties in finding a convenient label for the category, although “Old-Time Music” came closest to achieving official status, and “Hillbilly Music” was used informally in the press. Old-Time Music increasingly pursued connections to mainstream popular music even while continuing to refer to an imagined rural past. One of the most successful recording artists of the 1920s, Vernon Dalhart, is used to exemplify the trajectory of Old-Time Music during the mid-1920s.
Tony Russell
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- March 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780190091187
- eISBN:
- 9780190091217
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190091187.003.0004
- Subject:
- Music, History, American, Popular
This chapter discusses Vernon Dalhart, Floyd Collins, Mary Phagan, topical ballads, old-time music, and Columbia Records
This chapter discusses Vernon Dalhart, Floyd Collins, Mary Phagan, topical ballads, old-time music, and Columbia Records
