Country Music and American Culture (Music 237)

Course Description

Learn about the historical roots and origins of country music styles that emerged throughout the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Consider the role of individual musicians as well as broadcast media and recording industry in nationalizing the market for country music, shaping the identifiable sounds, and crafting the iconic cultural images. Analyze the intersectional cultural meanings of country music in America, especially the constructions of class, gender, race, geography, and religion.

Learning Outcomes

  • Define and use music terminology to describe sonic features of country music and its historical precursors.
  • Apply close listening strategies relevant to the description of country music and its historical precursors.
  • Define and recognize sub styles of country music and associate them with historical periods of American popular entertainment.
  • Identify individual musicians who popularized various country substyles and discuss their contributions regionally and nationally.
  • Identify and describe the impact of institutions and broadcast media on country music.
  • Explain tensions between tradition and modernization, rusticity and urbanization.
  • Recognize and interpret the contributions of women and contradictions of feminism in country music.
  • Recognize and interpret the influence of African American music and musicians despite the dominance of European Americans in the industry and audience.

 Schedule of Course Study Topics 

Unit I. Introduction to Music as Sound and Culture
Defining Country as Sound and Culture
Elements of Musical Sound and Strategies of Close Listening
Cultural lenses of interpretation

Unit II. Historical Origins of Country Music
Appalachian Ballads and Fiddle Tunes
Cowboy Songs of the American West
Southern Gospel, Revivalist Hymns, Shape Note Singing
Blackface Minstrelsy
The Blues

Unit III. Broadcasting and Commercializing Regional and Folk Musics
Live Radio: National Barn Dance, Grand Ole Opry
Record Scouts on the Road for Authenticity
Professionalization of Folk Music Performances
The Carter Family and Jimmy Rodgers
Hollywood Cowboys: Country Music and Film Industry

Unit IV. Popular Country Styles and Intersections
Western Swing
Bluegrass
Honky Tonk and its Intersections
Rockabilly
The Nashville Sound

Unit V. Musical-Cultural Constructions of Authenticity and Alternative
Bakersfield Sound as Backlash Against the Nashville Sound
A Coal Miners Daughter
Dolly Parton’s Feminism
Alt Country and Country Rock of the 1990s
Roots Revivals and Neo-traditionalism of the Early 2000s
Conservative Politics, Corporate Influence, and the Case of the (Dixie) Chicks
Institutionalized Genre, Racism, and the Case of Lil Nas X