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Country Music and the Rise of “Ezra K. Hillbilly” in Interwar America

Anthony Harkins

in Hillbilly: A Cultural History of an American Icon

This chapter examines the role of “hillbilly” in commercially recorded rural white music, by the early 1930s commonly (although often disparagingly) labeled “hillbilly music”. The hillbilly image in ... More

This chapter examines the role of “hillbilly” in commercially recorded rural white music, by the early 1930s commonly (although often disparagingly) labeled “hillbilly music”. The hillbilly image in country music was both a fabrication of music industry producers and promoters, and an outgrowth of farcical performances by folk musicians. The hillbilly label and image was accepted by most musicians of the 1920s and early 1930s because it partially evoked a nostalgic sense of a mythic mountaineer. By the late 1930s, however, the growing power of a derisive hillbilly stereotype led musicians and the burgeoning country music industry increasingly to embrace the more unambiguously positive cowboy image and the less stigmatized term “country”. Nonetheless, as “hillbilly” and string-band music became interwoven in the popular imagination, its meaning shifted from one denoting only threat and violence to one that primarily signified low humor and carefree frivolity.Less

Early Commercial Era

Ryan André Brasseaux

in Cajun Breakdown: The Emergence of an American Made Music

This chapter examines the dawn of Cajun recording. The Cajun community’s relationship to recording technology, the evolving nature of America’s recording industry, and Cajun music’s relationship to ... More

This chapter examines the dawn of Cajun recording. The Cajun community’s relationship to recording technology, the evolving nature of America’s recording industry, and Cajun music’s relationship to the ethnic, race, and hillbilly markets, are examined to illustrate the cultural intersections between the Bayou Country and America writ large. The pioneering recording careers of Joe Falcon, Cleoma Breaux Falcon, and Leo Soileau are also offered as further examples of the recording industry’s impact on local traditions and perceptions of Cajun music.Less

A New Mental World

Ryan André Brasseaux

in Cajun Breakdown: The Emergence of an American Made Music

Records and radio built an industry around imagination. Media technologies created an auditory world where sound, language, and music expanded listeners’ mental worlds. The Cajun imaginary represents ... More

Records and radio built an industry around imagination. Media technologies created an auditory world where sound, language, and music expanded listeners’ mental worlds. The Cajun imaginary represents in this study the varied ways in which individuals understood their connection to a larger imagined community—America—through the soundscape generated by mass communication. This chapter examines those communication networks directing the flow of cultural exchange between Cajuns and mainstream mass media between 1946 and 1955. As this auditory sphere enveloped Cajun life, an emergent Cajun musical subgenre sprouted: Cajun honky tonk—small but amplified string bands featuring an accordion. The Opera, O.T., Khoury, and Folk Star labels are also discussed here in relation to the most famous and influential Cajun artists to emerge during the post-World War II era—fiddler Harry Choates and accordionist Iry LeJeune. The premise of this study is derived from conclusions of the landmark treatise The Psychology of Radio compiled in 1935 by Hadley Catril and Gordon Allport, who suggest that an individual’s engagement with mass culture within this universal network of sound could stimulate a “new mental world” for the listener.Less

Ballads for the Crabgrass Frontier: Suburbanization, Whiteness, and the Unmaking of Okie Musical Ethnicity

Peter La Chapelle

in Proud to Be an Okie: Cultural Politics, Country Music, and Migration to Southern California

This chapter argues that pressure to fit in was an important impetus for the rightward turn in country music. Consumers, sponsors, and musical producers strived in the mid- to late 1950s to ... More

This chapter argues that pressure to fit in was an important impetus for the rightward turn in country music. Consumers, sponsors, and musical producers strived in the mid- to late 1950s to rehabilitate local country music's hayseed image and disassociate the genre from the Depression-era anti-Okie campaign and its lingering stigma by downplaying working-class and Okie identity, discouraging liberal-populist political dissent and stressing how elements of the music culture could convey social status. While this muzzled some performers, it also provided room for a small group of wealthy, well-connected performers—especially some of the 1930s cinematic singing cowboys—to come to the forefront and present themselves as antielitist spokesmen for a new, conservative cultural populism.Less

Duets with Modernity: Dolly Parton and Country

Eric Weisbard

in Top 40 Democracy: The Rival Mainstreams of American Music

Diane Pecknold’s history of country music as a business, especially its trade organization the Country Music Association, showed that Nashville’s creation of a selling sound all its own had to be ... More

Diane Pecknold’s history of country music as a business, especially its trade organization the Country Music Association, showed that Nashville’s creation of a selling sound all its own had to be viewed outside narratives that framed country as either an often betrayed roots music or the voice of white backlash. Dolly Parton, with her allegiances to the Smokey Mountains and equally strong affinity for pop culture, reveals how artists as well used country identity strategically. Like country, Parton flirted with adult contemporary crossover, modernizing on her own terms. Country as a term can speak to both a genre, rooted in the honkytonk, and a format, mediated by radio and television. For women like Parton, formatted displays of identity allowed for possibilities that country as a genre curtailed. She is the voice of “Coat of Many Colors,” an anthem of traditional upbringing. But she is equally the voice of “I Will Always Love You,” a power ballad that sonically predicted country’s mainstream rise. Parton, like her exact contemporary Bill Clinton, represents the “southernization of America” as a complex outcome; and like her successor, Garth Brooks, demonstrates why country, as a format, embraced the center more than the conservatism of talk radio.Less

Introduction: Making Country Music “Progressive”

Travis D. Stimeling

in Cosmic Cowboys and New Hicks: The Countercultural Sounds of Austin's Progressive Country Music Scene

The introduction outlines the main topics, points of discussion and arguments of this book. At the beginning of the 1970s, “progressive country music” seemed to be a contradiction in terms, the ... More

The introduction outlines the main topics, points of discussion and arguments of this book. At the beginning of the 1970s, “progressive country music” seemed to be a contradiction in terms, the chapter states. However, while many observers believed that country music was old fashioned, it gained increasing currency during the late 1960s and early 1970s among politically and socially liberal young people in one of the most rapidly modernizing regions of the United States, the so-called Sun Belt. The introduction talks about the progressive country music scene in Austin, Texas, and about other changes taking place in that area and how they affected each other.Less

Country Music Crossroads

Tracey E. W. Laird

in Louisiana Hayride: Radio and Roots of Music along the Red River

Louisiana Hayride was a big success in the music industry of the South. After it started, country music could reach a larger audience. World War II had a huge part in catalyzing ... More

Louisiana Hayride was a big success in the music industry of the South. After it started, country music could reach a larger audience. World War II had a huge part in catalyzing country music's ascent to all regions of the nation. During this time, radio stations tapped into the booming demand for country music matching the burgeoning of the postwar radio industry. Though the notion of radio barn dance was not new, the Louisiana Hayride was one among many radio shows devoted to live Saturday night country performances which followed the basic format of alternating comedy parts, country songs, advertisements, and gospel tunes. Unlike the other shows of that time, Hayride stood out as a lightning rod for talent for an iconic era.Less

Conclusion

Tracey E. W. Laird

in Louisiana Hayride: Radio and Roots of Music along the Red River

Due to the fact that the Louisiana Hayride brought to the national spotlight both Hank Williams and Elvis Presley, they took a risk in claiming the annals of country music and rock-and-roll during ... More

Due to the fact that the Louisiana Hayride brought to the national spotlight both Hank Williams and Elvis Presley, they took a risk in claiming the annals of country music and rock-and-roll during the postwar era in U.S. history. But the Hayride's story does not end with its final broadcast, but with the multiple directions taken by the four influential sidemen formed during the post-World War II era in Shreveport. Commerce plays an essential role in this story of music. In the context of country music, Presley manifested fluency between black and white musicians that had deep roots in the religious singing of the South's evangelical past. The Hayride might have remained as another live radio broadcast; still Shreveport gained a central position in the history of country music and a place in the larger context of southern musical culture because of its radio station.Less

Introduction

Peter La Chapelle

in Proud to Be an Okie: Cultural Politics, Country Music, and Migration to Southern California

Beginning with Woody Guthrie and Merle Haggard, this chapter introduces the social movement of country music in Los Angeles. It follows the history of country music culture in Southern California ... More

Beginning with Woody Guthrie and Merle Haggard, this chapter introduces the social movement of country music in Los Angeles. It follows the history of country music culture in Southern California from the height of the Dust Bowl migration in the mid-1930s to the relocation of key components of the local country music industry to Nashville in the early 1970s. The chapter discusses Okie country music and the rise and fall of an eclectic liberal populism, and also reassesses the cultural politics of country music. It concludes that the cultural ethnicity of country music is the Grapes of Wrath culture, a testament to the fans and performers that the Okie experience continues to resonate so powerfully within country music today.Less

New England Country and Western Music and The Myth of Southern Authenticity

Clifford R. Murphy (ed.)

in Yankee Twang: Country and Western Music in New England

This chapter illustrates how the story of New England country and western music is ultimately about how working-class New Englanders living in the multiethnic age chose to understand themselves as ... More

This chapter illustrates how the story of New England country and western music is ultimately about how working-class New Englanders living in the multiethnic age chose to understand themselves as Americans through the frontier symbolism of western music. When the Country Music Association (CMA) coalesced in Nashville and rebranded the music as “country music,” a fundamental change took place in how country music functioned within working-class New England. The courting and subsequent takeover and abandonment of New England country and western music by national or corporate entities is just another in a long line of such losing battles for New England's working people, which led many to believe that the interests of working-class New Englanders are not the interests of the nation.Less

The Corny-ness of the Folk

David Brackett

in Categorizing Sound: Genre and Twentieth-Century Popular Music

Country music in the late 1930s was more disconnected from the mainstream than swing. Appearing initially only in cover versions of songs by crooners, or in the recordings of “singing cowboys,” ... More

Country music in the late 1930s was more disconnected from the mainstream than swing. Appearing initially only in cover versions of songs by crooners, or in the recordings of “singing cowboys,” turmoil in the music industry during the war years created an opening for a few extremely successful country recordings exemplified by Al Dexter’s “Pistol Packin’ Mama.” “Hillbilly Music” (as country was usually called during this time) was associated with the concept of “corn,” which allied the music to rural agricultural production and lowbrow, “corny” comedy routines. The popularity of recordings like “Pistol Packin’ Mama” affected a discursive shift, and the status of the music was worked out via the use of labels such as “Folk Music,” “Hillbilly,” “Country,” and “Western.” By the late 1940s, a major hillbilly hit like “Smoke! Smoke! Smoke! (That Cigarette)” drew on some of the same minstrelsy tropes as had “Open the Door, Richard.”Less

When you're lookin' at Hank (you're looking at country)

David Brackett

in Interpreting Popular Music

This chapter explores how the idea of country music emerged through a confluence of forces, focusing on the case of Hank Williams. It comments on Chet Flippo's controversial 1981 biography of ... More

This chapter explores how the idea of country music emerged through a confluence of forces, focusing on the case of Hank Williams. It comments on Chet Flippo's controversial 1981 biography of Williams. It investigates how voices, lyrics and music create the effect of authenticity in country music and how this effect emerges and shifts historically. It also considers how the association of country music with the culture industry affects the production of authentic effects and how images of resistance and marginality may contribute to the popularity of artists and songs in country music.Less

Playing Second Fiddle no More?: Country Music, Domesticity, and the Women's Movement

Peter La Chapelle

in Proud to Be an Okie: Cultural Politics, Country Music, and Migration to Southern California

Although the gender politics of local country music moved in conservative directions, especially within some segments of fan culture, new women auteurs began playing significant and often ... More

Although the gender politics of local country music moved in conservative directions, especially within some segments of fan culture, new women auteurs began playing significant and often underacknowledged roles in challenging the constrictions that women faced in the 1950s and 1960s. This chapter explores the complex interplay between the progressive messages offered by these female Okie stars and the general gender conservatism of locally produced country music fan magazines.Less

Reprise: Dueling Populisms: The Okie Legacy in National and Regional Country Music

Peter La Chapelle

in Proud to Be an Okie: Cultural Politics, Country Music, and Migration to Southern California

This chapter notes that in the years following “Okie from Muskogee,” Southern California remained influential in the world of country music, but more as a site for consumption than one of production, ... More

This chapter notes that in the years following “Okie from Muskogee,” Southern California remained influential in the world of country music, but more as a site for consumption than one of production, and examines the post-9/11 world and the national legacies of Okie populism. It also looks at ballads for the other Los Angeles performers, autonomy, economic populism, and social justice.Less

Country Music and the Nashville Sound

in Genre in Popular Music

This chapter argues that country music lost its market share and that the Nashville industry's efforts at moving country closer to mainstream pop led to the hegemony of the Nashville Sound. The ... More

This chapter argues that country music lost its market share and that the Nashville industry's efforts at moving country closer to mainstream pop led to the hegemony of the Nashville Sound. The historically tense relationship between country music and national mainstream popular culture constitutes a broader background for understanding how country reacted to rock and roll. The corporate music industry became more interested in country music during the 1940s. The resistance to rock and roll is reflected in the recorded output from Nashville. The Nashville Sound was a move toward (white) mainstream pop. So although the Nashville Sound has become accepted as part of the canon, the ongoing attempts to compete with rock and pop are still critiqued by hard-core fans, who have even less power over the production and representation of the genre than they had forty years ago.Less

“#1 on NCI”: Country Music and the Aboriginal Public

Byron Dueck

in Musical Intimacies and Indigenous Imaginaries: Aboriginal Music and Dance in Public Performance

This chapter begins with an account of the 2002 NCI Jam, a singing competition that brought together aboriginal performers from across the province of Manitoba. The chapter explores how aboriginal ... More

This chapter begins with an account of the 2002 NCI Jam, a singing competition that brought together aboriginal performers from across the province of Manitoba. The chapter explores how aboriginal Manitoba represented itself to itself at that event, and the negotiations that took place concerning how best to do this. Two historical questions are subsequently considered: first, how it was that “cowboy” music and clothing came to represent “Indians”; and second, the connections between country music and the long-standing stigmatization of aboriginal drinking. The chapter then returns to the subject of the NCI Jam, broadly to consider how certain generic themes of country music—love and heartache, drinking and the problems associated with it, and the rural home—resonate with the experiences of Manitoban aboriginal people.Less

The Newness of Old-Time Music

David Brackett

in Categorizing Sound: Genre and Twentieth-Century Popular Music

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. ... More

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

Crossover Dreams: From Urban Cowboy to the King of Pop

David Brackett

in Categorizing Sound: Genre and Twentieth-Century Popular Music

This chapter focuses on the rise of the concept of “crossover” in response to the transformation of radio formats and music industry categories during the 1970s and early 1980s. Country music is ... More

This chapter focuses on the rise of the concept of “crossover” in response to the transformation of radio formats and music industry categories during the 1970s and early 1980s. Country music is examined for its close proximity to the “Adult Contemporary” radio format, and the music for the film Urban Cowboy is analyzed for how it uses a variety of country music sub-genres. The transformation of Billboard’s popularity chart from “Soul” to “Black,” and of the radio format for black popular music from “Soul” to “Urban Contemporary” is examined in relation to the almost all-white format of “Album-Oriented Rock” (“AOR”). Michael Jackson’s breakthrough album Thriller is discussed for its ability to transcend what were widely viewed as impermeable boundaries. In spite of Thriller, however, a recording such as George Clinton’s “Atomic Dog” reveals how mainstream popular music remained largely segregated at the beginning of the 1980s.Less

The Country in Country Music

Gene Logsdon

in The Mother of All Arts: Agrarianism and the Creative Impulse

This chapter discusses country music, which was had become an amorphous term by the 1970s. It reveals that country music lyrics, when taken together, form a haphazard history of America and very ... More

This chapter discusses country music, which was had become an amorphous term by the 1970s. It reveals that country music lyrics, when taken together, form a haphazard history of America and very definitely a history of farming in America, as expressed by working class people and the underprivileged, often with artful cleverness. It also looks at the blues, which is another musical genre related to country music.Less