Archetypes in White Commercial Gospel Musics
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ARCHETYPES IN WHITE COMMERCIAL GOSPEL MUSICS: CONSTRUCTING CHRISTIAN NATIONALIST IDENTITY VIVIA KAY KIES WETTER A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY GRADUATE PROGRAM IN MUSIC YORK UNIVERSITY TORONTO, ONTARIO AUGUST2013 ©Vivia Kay Kieswetter, 2013 ABSTRACT Alan Lomax famously posited: "the chief function of song is to express the shared feelings and mold the joint activities of some human community. It is to be expected, therefore, that the content of the sung communication should be social rather than individual, normative rather than particular" (Lomax 1968: 3). The songs to be explored in this dissertation come under the large umbrella of what I am calling "White Commercial Gospel Music(s)," a term which, by my definition, encompasses Bluegrass Gospel, Gospel-tinged Country Music, Southern Gospel Quartet Singing, a large portion of Contemporary Christian Music, and a portion of the "Hillbilly" music of the early and middle twentieth century. It is the vernacular and popular sacred music that in large part originates from, and in its early history was consumed in, what has been called by sociologists the "Vernacular South," (Harvard Dialect Survey 2003, Cukor-Avila 2001) the region of the United States South from Kentucky and West Virginia, and West to Louisiana. As a group of genres, WCGMs are harmonically accessible, have repetitive natures that invite singing along, and for the most part adhere to Harlan Howard's famous description of what a country song should contain: "three chords and the truth." This dissertation presents findings from an extensive repertoire survey of WCGMs, fieldwork trips to the Vernacular South (particularly to the 2011 and 11 2012 National Quartet Conventions), and discourse analysis of the repertoire surveyed. It seeks to draw connections between archetypes contained within WCGM lyrics and music and identities within the highly politicized section of modem Christian Southern Evangelicalism called "Christian Nationalism" (Goldberg 2006). Through the theoretical lenses of Carl Jung (1902, 1912, 1934), Judith Butler (1990 1996), and Marvin Carlson (2003), the dissertation draws connections between the performative elements of this music and modem Christian Nationalist identity. 111 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation work flourished under the guidance and mentorship of my committee including Professor Danielle Robinson, Professor Louise Wrazen, and supervising Professor Rob Bowman. I also wish to acknowledge the departmental support ofTere Tilban-Rios, and colleagues who are too numerous to name. This dissertation is dedicated to Tammy Lynn Hossele, who could have been but never was. lV TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter 1 The History of WCGMs and Christian Nationalism 1 1.1 Introduction 1 1.2 Literature Review 6 1.3 The Myth(?) of Southern Culture 9 1.4 The Bedrock of WCGMs 14 1.5 Groundwork of Christian Nationalism 17 1.5.1 "The City on a Hill" 17 1.5.2 The "Great Awakening" 20 1.5.2 The Cane Ridge Revival 21 1.5.3 Gospel Revivals 24 1.6 The Rise of Gospel Publishing Houses 25 1.7 The Undergrounding of Evangelism 26 1.8 Second Wave Christian Nationalism 28 1.9 The "Moral Majority" 30 1.10 Religious Cultures Explored 32 1.10.1 The Pentecostals 33 1.10.2 The Fundamentalists 34 v 1.10.3 The Evangelicals 35 1.11 Chdstian Nationalism 36 1.12 The Definition of Archetype 37 1.13 Aims and Methods 41 1.14 Theories 44 1.15 The Archetypes of the Music of Christian Nationalism 49 1.15.1 "0ld Time Religion" 50 1.15.2 "Judgment Day" 51 1.15.3 "Momma" 52 1.15.4 "Soldier" 53 1.15.5 "Stand Our Ground" 54 1.16 Conclusion 55 Chapter 2 "You Gotta Have Old Time Religion:" Hypersentimentality as Identity Constructor and Enforcer in Christian Nationalism. 58 2.1 Overview 58 2.2 Introduction 58 2.3 Liminality in the Southern Consciousness 60 2.4 The Transformation of Rural Whites into Christian Nationalists 62 Vl 2.5 Old Time Religion songs 64 2.5.1 Rustic Settings and Simple Chapels 65 2.5.2 Old Time Religion Tropes 68 2.5.3 Self Reference and Self Reverence 71 2.5.4 Persecution and Reward 76 2.6 Old Time Religion in Modern Christian Nationalism 86 Chapter 3 "Meet Me in the Middle of the Air:" Death-Defying Acts at Judgment Day in White Commercial Gospel Musics 89 3.1 Overview 89 3.2 The Specific Power of Judgment Day Songs 90 3.2.1 The Relation of the Church with the Book ofRevelation 91 3.2.2 Rednecks at the Margins 96 3.2.3 Holy Rollers: Marginalized Religious Practices 98 3.3 The Judgment Day Archetype Songs 101 3.3.1 Superpowers 102 3.3.2 Bodily Resurrection 114 3.3.3 The Holy Ghost Price 120 3.3.4 Mockeries of Wrongdoers 121 Vll 3.3.5 Battle Lines 129 3.3.6 Robes and Crowns 133 3.4 Conclusion: Modern Connections 136 Chapter 4 "What A Friend We Have In Mother:" Sainted Mommas, the Feminine Sacred, and the Performativity of Motherhood 138 4.1 Overview 138 4.2 Definitions of Motherhood 141 4.2.1 The Sacred Mother 144 4.3 The Momma Archetype 147 4.3.1 Caretaker and Confidante 148 4.3.2 Spiritual Powerhouse 154 4.3.3 Ghost Mommas 157 4.4 The Performativity of Motherhood 161 4.4.1 "Mother" Maybelle Carter 161 4.4.2 Sandi Patty's Fall from Grace 173 4.5 The Rigidity of the Momma archetype 177 Chapter 5 "Make Him a Soldier:" Embodying Southern Manhood 179 5.1 Overview 179 5.2 Muscular Christianity and Military Culture 181 5.2.1 Soldierhood in Antebellum Gospel Hymns 184 5.2.2 The Construction ofMasculinity Today 185 vm 5.3 The Music of the Soldier Archetype 187 5.3.1 Militaristic Tropes 187 5.3.2 Witnessing as Soldierhood 191 5.3.3 Biblical Heroes to Emulate 199 5.4 The Body of a Soldier 207 5.5 Modern SGM Quartets: Performative Masculinity in Practice 212 5.5.1 "1+3" SGM Quartets 213 5.5.2 "2+4" SGM Quartets 216 5.6 Soldierhood in Modern Christian Nationalism 220 Chapter 6 "We Will Stand Our Ground:" Modern Performative Christian Nationalism 222 6.1 Overview 222 6.2 Nationalism(s) and Christian Nationalism 223 6.2.1 9111 and Muslim as the new Other 226 6.2.2 Drawing Battle Lines 227 6.2.3 Archetypal Images 229 6.3 "The Cross is My Statue of Liberty" 230 6.3.1 The Scale of the NQC 234 6.3.2 "There's a lot ofSparkle in Southern Gospel" 240 6.3.3 Production Values and Flag Waving 242 6.3.4 The Real America 243 6.3.5 Community Through Crisis: September 11 245 6.3.6 Embodying Nationalism: Mass Bodily Practices 248 6.4 What is Sacred? 249 lX Chapter 7 "It is My Way of Life:" Enforcement and Embodiment 252 7.1 Overview 252 7 .2 Participatory Performativity 254 7.2.1 Clothing and Consumerism 257 7 .2.2 Iteration and Re-iteration 257 7.3 "One Road:" The Archetypes and Absence of Choices 258 7.4 Christian Nationalism as a Way of Life 261 7 .5 The Past as Future in the Minds of Christian Nationalists 262 7 .6 Implications for Further Study 264 7. 7 Conclusion 266 References 268 DiscographyNideography 280 Appendix A: Discography by Archetype 292 a. Old Time Religion 293 b. Judgment Day 296 c. Momma 299 d Soldier 304 e. Stand Our Ground 307 x Chapter 1 The History of W CGMs and Christian Nationalism 1. 1 Introduction Alan Lomax famously posited: "the chief function of song is to express the shared feelings and mold the joint activities of some human community. It is to be expected, therefore, that the content of the sung communication should be social rather than individual, normative rather than particular" (Lomax 1968: 3). The songs to be explored in this dissertation come under the large umbrella of what I am calling "White Commercial Gospel Music(s)" (WCGM(s)), sometimes marketed by the music industry as "Southern Gospel Music"(SGM). The term WCGM, by my definition, encompasses Bluegrass Gospel, Gospel-tinged Country Music, Southern Gospel Quartet Singing, a large portion of Contemporary Christian Music, and a portion of the "Hillbilly" music of the early and middle twentieth century. It is the vernacular and popular sacred music that in large part originates from, and in its early history was consumed in, what has been 1 called by sociologists the "Vernacular South, " the region of the United States 1 In the South of the United States, with the exception of the coastal regions of South Carolina (Gullah dialect) and the Gulf coast of Louisiana (Cajun dialect), "ya'll" is a unifying element of AAVE (African American Vernacular English) and SWVE (Southern White Vernacular English). (Bailey 1993, Cukor-Avila 2001, Harvard Dialect Survey 2003). 1 , South from Kentucky and West Virginia, and West to Louisiana. As a group of genres, WCGMs are harmonically accessible, have repetitive natures that invite singing along, and for the most part adhere to Harlan Howard's famous description of what a country song should contain: "three chords and the truth." Map ofthe U.S.A., with regions ofthe "Vernacular South "(where "ya 'll" is used) shaded. Detail of the map, with individual states labeled. 2 Although only minimal attention has been given to WCGMs in academic literature (Goff 2002, Cusic 2002, Graves/Fillingim 2004, Harrison 2008) these musics have nevertheless emerged as a cultural force in the modem American South.