Thanks for your first posts. For Thursday I would like to hear what you've found the most interesting/surprising about country music so far. You can talk about the Jensen or Peterson readings or the photo exhibit. Remember to read everyone else's posts...
5 comments:
I feel the most interesting aspect of country music that i have learned so far in the Image and Authenticity in this class is the relationship that country has with other music styles. Before learning the basic facts and history of country i always felt it was a catagory within itself, much less opinionated and heartfelt as other types of music. Country is similar to punk and hip-hop because of the sometimes outspoken and rowdy crowds during live performances and "partying" artists like waylynn jennings or hank williams.
To me, the most interesting point about country music we've studied so far would be its development throughout the years, and the state of mind of all the different artists that have been performing and their audiences. Although there were many musiciens who played these songs, it was Hank Williams who became their "emblem", and whose image up to today is the difference, the border perhaps between traditional country music, and what people produice nowadays.
Maybe one of the reasons that led to this is that no matter what people said it just wasn't strong enough to make things change. These great artists who not only played for themselves, but also for everyone out therem and who have enhanced their lives throughout the years could be refered to as Revolutionaries. And in that case it would take a "Country Revolution" perhaps to change things. It wouldn't just take one singer or one band but a whole new movement to cause a radical change, and yet it would have to be strong enough ...
I agree with Andrew in that I was surprised at how it took 30 years for the various judges and arbiters Peterson writes of to "fabricate" (to use his word) the idea of "authentic country." But I was even more impressed by Peterson's definitions of "authenticity" in the beginning of Chapter 13 and his identification of the conflicting ideas contained in this one word.
I'm with Jonah on that one-- I also think it's funny how much Senator McCarthy influenced the genre by giving the name "folk" a communist connotation, leading the industry to settle on "country."
For me the most interesting things about country music are the different sects. The divisions between honky tonk and the Nashville sound, downhome and uptown, and hillbilly and cowboy are much more defined and easy to recognize after studying them. Before this I had a conception of country being one continuous genre without much variance, but it turns out that the opposite is true.
These are great. Thanks for your posts.
Post a Comment