My country music rant

My friend Amy has a deep and abiding love for country music. And since she grew up in Southern Kansas (Liberal) right next to the Oklahoma panhandle (thus also not very far from west Texas) she feels she has country "street credentials".

She is fond of quoting that she was "country when country wasn't cool", and laments that there are many folks out there that have "gone country" when they should not be considered real country singers. And sometimes agree, although our tastes differ in several ways. I feel Faith Hill and Tim Mcgraw should be considered "in", but think Keith Urban should be banned from all country music stations. Amy seems to dislike the McGraw family's music for some reason. Maybe it is because Tim did that little ditty on Nelly's hit song "Over and Over Again". Anywhoo! Country music is the only station with videos when I work out, so I watch a lot of country music videos. And I have this running arguement about who is in and who is out as country musicians. Here are a few of my thoughts.

1. Country music has always been an ever evolving art form. It has always had this struggle with boundaries. Olivia Newton John was named country music artist of the year in 1974--30 years ago. The Austraillian woman who sang "Lets Get Physical" was considered a country musician at one point? Wow!

2. Country music and rock and roll have always shared similar roots. Hank Williams (Sr.) is considered the father of rock and roll in a lot of ways. Elvis recorded on a country label. As a matter of fact, in the 50's and 60's, much of the boundary issues were surrounded by racial issues. Why was Elvis controversial? Because he acted too "black" in his performances. And he blended styles of white soul (country) and black soul (blues, soul and R and B). Also it is very clear that much of country music had folk music routes, as did much of the protest music of the 60s. Of course the content of protest music did not fly that far in country music.

3. In the 60s and 70s a new group of country musicians developed called "outlaw country" with stars such as Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Merle Haggard and Johnny Cash and the like. These people were considered too progressive to be country musicians. As were people like Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton and George Jones. Nowadays these folks are considered the "old school" country musicians.

4. There is a sense in which country music was regional music. At one point it was called "Country and Western" because people lumped together the music of the South and the music of the rural west. So purists start saying that folks from rural Canada (Terri Clark and Shania Twain)and other country sounding stuff from more urban areas (Nickel Creek) should not belong in the country music family.

Recently I have also been thinking about how many folks view country music as racist in some way. In my preaching class, a black professor stated this explicitly, saying that many black folks, especially older black folks from the south, found country music oppressive. At the time I thought it was a blanket statement and a little overstated. As did some of the black folks in the class.

But recently I have been thinking about the history of music in America, and the word choices of clubs in the south and so on. Why are country music hangouts called "Honky Tonks" I wonder (note the first word). And weren't a lot of the black jazz clubs called "jiggers"? (note the first letter for jazz and the last letter for a racial epithet). Stangely enough, both music is music generally written by and for hard living people, often struggling to get by, and having their well being controlled by the more elite and wealthy. Country music is in many ways the music of white sharecroppers, while soul and the blues is the music of black sharecroppers. Historically though, there has been shared roots and crossover and such. For instance, most old school country musicians in the early part of the last century learned how to play banjo from African-americans that they knew of, and the banjo was originally an African instrument (dont quote me on that).

So then, who is in and who is out?

I am not sure. But Viacom is going to try and label anything country that sells in that market. Musical labels are all a marketing scheme. Perhaps looking at Contemporary Christian Music will shed light on this.

What makes contemporary Christian music Christian for instance? Profession of faith of the singer? Is R. Kelly Christian music then? What about Alice Cooper? I dont think so. Is Christian music music with solid Christian lyrical content? There is a lot of "Christian" music out there that has totally wack theology, or is devoid of an explicitly Christian message. And there is a lot of secular Christian music out there with explicitly Christian content (ever listened to U2 rattle and hum album or even Sheryl Crow's "Light in Your Eyes".?)So what makes Christian music defined Christian music? The label that puts it out. Thats it?

The same is true of country music. What makes country music defined as country music these days? A label. Which makes Amy's concern for musical purity all the more important in some ways, but irrelelvant in others. Because classic country is as much a marketing scheme as new country. And historically it has been for the last hundred years. And country music will never be "pure country". It never has been. But hopefully, because it is the folk music of many rural and disinfranchised people, it will continue as an art form without being completely corrupted by marketing experts in New York City.