View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Georgia State University Georgia State University ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University History Dissertations Department of History 4-8-2009 From Countrypolitan to Neotraditional: Gender, Race, Class, and Region in Female Country Music, 1980-1989 Dana C. Wiggins Georgia State University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/history_diss Part of the History Commons Recommended Citation Wiggins, Dana C., "From Countrypolitan to Neotraditional: Gender, Race, Class, and Region in Female Country Music, 1980-1989." Dissertation, Georgia State University, 2009. https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/history_diss/21 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of History at ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in History Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. FROM COUNTRYPOLITAN TO NEOTRADITIONAL: GENDER, RACE, CLASS, AND REGION IN FEMALE COUNTRY MUSIC, 1980-1989 by DANA C. WIGGINS Under the Direction of Michelle Brattain ABSTRACT During the 1980s, women in country music enjoyed unprecedented success in record sales, television, film, and on pop and country charts. For female performers, many of their achievements were due to their abilities to mold their images to mirror American norms and values, namely increasing political conservatism, the backlashes against feminism and the civil rights movement, celebrations of working and middle class life, and the rise of the South. This dissertation divides the 1980s into three distinct periods and then discusses the changing uses of gender, race, class, and region in female country music and links each to larger historical themes.