Country Music and/as Popular Culture Dr. Christan Schmidt, Universität Bayreuth

Quotations For him, there are “three dimensions of popular culture: lived cultures, the social being of those who consumer popular cultures; the symbolic forms, or texts, that are “Authenticity offers country music an identity—this is what country music is. And it also consumed within the lived culture; and the economic institutions and technological offers generic distinction—this is what country music is not. The concept of ‘real’ processes which create the texts” (11). country music is crucial to defining and defending the boundaries of the genre. […] Generic markers work to define a particular form of music, as well as to maintain And the ‘meaning’ of pop music is not to be found (solely) in the text but in the boundaries against other forms. Country music has developed a number of what can be interaction between “text and audiences” (14). called authenticity markers, symbolic devices that define what is and is not ‘really country’” (7-8). Roy Shuker. Understanding Popular Music.

Importantly, these “markers certifying country music as real to fans are the same markers that seem corny and hillbilly to everyone else” (13, emphasis in original). “A great deal of the difficulty arises from the absent other which always haunts any definition we might use. It is never enough to speak of popular culture; we have always Joli Jensen, The Nashville Sound: Authenticity, Commercialization, and Country Music to acknowledge that with which it is being contrasted” (13).

Among these others are “mass culture, high culture, and folk culture” (13). “Despite its diverse iconography and uses, the definition of ‘country’ has been traditionally grounded in rusticity, a class-based concept rooted in unspoiled rural life As such, it is “an empty conceptual category” (1). and values, as well as humble class origins. When extended to musical culture, it John Storey. Cultural Theory and Popular Culture. connotes plain, unpretentious arrangements; old-time instruments such as the banjo and fiddle; and performers who not only inspire audience identification but themselves identify with the songs they sing.” “[P]opular music is popular not because it reflects something, or authentically Pamela Fox, Natural Acts: Gender, Race, and Rusticity in Country Music (4) articulates some sort of popular taste or experience, but because it creates our understanding of what popularity is.” (137).

“Country music’s working-class fans embrace what is ‘bad’ about the music’s—and their Simon Frith. “Towards an Aesthetic of Popular Music.” own—cultural identity and meaning, as a way of discovering and asserting what is valuable and good about their lives and their communities.” “‘In capitalist societies there is no so-called authentic folk culture against which to Aaron A. Fox, “White Trash Alchemies of the Abject Sublime” (52) measure the “inauthenticity” of mass culture, so bemoaning the loss of the authentic is a fruitless exercise in romantic nostalgia’” (John Fiske qtd. in Storey 8).

Any definition of popular music “must encompass both musical and socio-economic John Storey. Cultural Theory and Popular Culture. characteristics” (7).

He uses popular music as “shorthand for the diverse range of popular music genres “[Country music] is extremely popular, yet one of its main concerns is to differentiate produced in commodity form for a mass, predominantly youth, market, primarily Anglo- itself from what we call pop music” (471). American in origin (or imitative of its forms) since the early 1950s” (9). The “ability to suspend disbelief about the commercial nature of the genre is an important part of country music’s identity” (473).

1 Country Music and/as Popular Culture Dr. Christan Schmidt, Universität Bayreuth

The music “both is part of mainstream pop culture and stands in stark opposition to it” Rosen, Jody. “Jody Rosen on the Rise of Bro-Country.” Vulture.com. 11 Aug. 2013. Web. (471). 29 Sep. 2014.

Jocelyn Neal, Country Music: A Cultural and Stylistic History Schmidt, Christian. “All Kinds of (Queer) Rednecks: The Sexual Politics of Contemporary Country Music.” America and the Musical Unconscious. Ed. Julius Greve and Sascha Pöhlmann. Dresden: Atropos P, 2015. 72-101. Print. —. “Nashville—The Authentic Heart and Soul of Country Music?” Rural America. Ed. “If you’re not on country radio, you don’t exist.” Antje Kley and Heike Paul. Heidelberg: Winter, 2015. 327-345. Print. Gary Overton Sony Music Nashville Chairman and CEO —. “‘Famous in a Small Town’: The Authenticity of Unpopularity in Contemporary Country Music.” Unpopular Culture. Ed. Martin Lüthe and Sascha Pöhlmann. Amsterdam: U of Amsterdam P, 2015. Forthcoming. “If you want to make ratings in Country radio, take females out.” Shuker, Roy. Understanding Popular Music. Second Edition. London: Routledge, 2001. And he adds: “Trust me, I play great female records and we’ve got some right now; Storey, John. Cultural Theory and Popular Culture: An Introduction. 3rd Edition. Harlow: they’re just not the lettuce in our salad. The lettuce is Luke Bryan and Blake Shelton, Prentice Hall; Pearson Education, 2001. Print. Keith Urban and artists like that. The tomatoes of our salad are the females.” Swift, Taylor. “Op-ed. The Future of Music Is a Love Story.” The Wall Street Journal. 7 Jul Keith Hill, Country Aircheck May 26, 2015 2014. Web. 10 Jun 2015.

Music Videos

Works Cited Florida Georgia Line. “Cruise.” Music Video. 2012. Vevo.com. Web. 10 June 2015.

Fox, Aaron A. “White Trash Alchemies of the Abject Sublime: Country as ‘Bad’ Music.” —. “Cruise feat. Nelly.” Music Video. 2013. Vevo.com. Web. 10 June 2015. Bad Music: The Music We Love to Hate. Ed. Christopher J. Washburne and Lambert, Miranda. “Famous in a Small Town.” Music Video. Dir. Trey Fanjoy. 2007. Web. Maiken Derno. New York: Routledge, 2004. 39-61. Print. Vevo.com. Fox, Pamela. Natural Acts: Gender, Race, and Rusticity in Country Music. Ann Arbor, MI: U Maddie & Tae. “Girl in a Country Song.” Music Video. 2014. Vevo.com. Web. 3 Nov. 2014. of Michigan P, 2009. Print. Paisley, Brad. “This Is Country Music.” Music Video. Recorded at CMA awards 3 Nov. Frith, Simon. “Towards an Aesthetic of Popular Music.” Music and Society: The Politics of 2010. Nashville. Vevo.com. Web. 10 Nov. 2014. Composition, Performance, and Reception. Ed. Richard Leppert and Susan McClary. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1987. 133-49. Print. Rucker, Darius. “Wagon Wheel.” Music Video. 2013. CMT.com. Web. 10 Nov. 2014. Hubbs, Nadine. Rednecks, Queers, and Country Music. Berkeley, CA: U of California P, Swift, Taylor. “Mean.” Music Video. 2011. Vevo.com. Web. 10 June 2015. 2014. Print. —. “Tim McGraw.” Music Video. 2006. Vevo.com. Web. 10 June 2015. Jensen, Joli. The Nashville Sound: Authenticity, Commercialization, and Country Music. Nashville: The Country Music Foundation Press & Vanderbilt UP, 1998. Print. Neal, Jocelyn R. Country Music: A Cultural and Stylistic History. New York: Oxford UP, 2013.

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