← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · Oklahomaman
Thread ID: 3259 | Posts: 18 | Started: 2002-10-28
2002-10-28 11:31 | User Profile
Wrong's What I Do Best: Hard Country Music and Contemporary Culture By Barbara Ching Ph.D. '90. Oxford University Press, 2001. 186 pages. $22.
If country music produces a weak return on the cultural-studies radar, its rebellious offspring, hard country, flies under the beam. Until now, that is, with Barbara Ching's lively critique of the personalities and canon of a gritty musical genre associated more with honky-tonks and truck stops than literature.
Ching opens the barroom door to the stale tobacco and cheap beer of hard country. This is not a place for social climbers. Hard country is not about country at all, but about losers and outcasts on the margin of a materialistic society defined by middle-class values and aspirations. With Wrong's What I Do Best (the title comes from a George Jones song), Ching files her claim as the premier interpreter of hard country.
Like mainstream country music, which traces its origin to such 1920s troubadours as Jimmie Rodgers, hard country also has a pedigree. In this case, most of its founders--Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, George Jones, Merle Haggard, and David Allan Coe, among others--are still alive.
Around 1970, these performer-songwriters strode onto the country music stage with "outlaw music," so called because it not only celebrated antisocial behavior--drug and alcohol abuse, even violence--but also because the genre's rowdiest practitioners came with real rap sheets. David Allan Coe, the most accomplished outlaw of the group, spent the first thirty years of his life in some kind of trouble, up to and including prison.
Hard country came from hard living and hard dying. Hovering over the genre is the shade of hard country's founding father, Hank Williams Sr., and the presence of the once and future pretender to the throne, Hank Williams Jr. Ching lavishes more attention on father and son than on other hard-country performers, and for good reason.
Williams Sr. died in the back seat of his Cadillac on January 1, 1953. He was twenty-nine years old, done in by drug and alcohol abuse. In Ching's words, Williams set a "high performance standard" for hard country. His short, troubled life (he had been excommunicated from the mother church of country music, Nashville's Grand Ol' Opry, five months before his death) propelled him into legend. For years afterward, many small Southern radio stations played nothing but Hank Williams records on New Year's Day.
Hank Williams perfected losing into musical art. The characters in his songs are low-class, poorly educated white males who come into this life knowing that the deck is stacked against them. Their anti-triumph comes in losing on the grandest scale possible; indeed, losing is the only career path open to them. They lose women, money, jobs, life itself. Theirs is a fiercely deterministic world with one outcome, failure.
Not coincidentally, it would be Hank Williams Jr. who rescued hard country from its early demise. "Bocephus," a nickname given young Williams by his father, attempted suicide at twenty-five. In 1975, he fell down a Montana mountainside, ripping up his face so badly he had to learn to talk again. Hank Jr. is clearly not among Ching's favorites, but she properly credits the reconstructed Williams with revitalizing hard country and its trademark disdain for middle-class values.
For Ching, an assistant professor of English at the University of Memphis, her topic is more than a genre; at its purest, she argues, it is a form of burlesque. And like the refined burlesque of literature, hard country strikes at the knees of a majority culture that it distrusts.
It may well be, as she suggests, that hard country was destined to become the one true country music when Nashville segued into its smooth "countrypolitan" sound in the 1960s. Eddy Arnold could look as sophisticated as Cary Grant in a tuxedo and warble with a pleasant blandness about a room full of roses, but it took rough-as-a-cob Waylon Jennings to declare defiantly that he was too dumb for New York and too ugly for Los Angeles. Hard country would not salute the crossover flag.
Hard country began, and remains, a province populated mainly by white males. Yet, the genre is not and never has been racist in its portrayal of the other side of the American success machine. Hard country is obsessed with class distinction and, to a lesser extent, gender, but wrong really is what it does best.Fortunately, hard country has in Barbara Ching an appreciative critic who gives the genre a distinction it would never seek, academic respectability and a well-earned niche in cultural studies. Ol' Hank, the hillbilly Shakespeare, would approve.
--Bob Wilson
The last paragraph is too much. It's leftists that are obsessed with class status to the point of absurdity. I'm willing to bet my life's savings that Mr. Wilson can't go an hour without waxing philosophic about class distinction. I really wish leftists would stop projecting their worthless concerns and anxieties on everyone else.
2002-10-28 17:56 | User Profile
Oh boy. A country music critique by a lady named Barbara Ching. <_<
The songs of Hank Williams and others are pure Americana at its finest. Poetry of heartache, loss, death, life - American Robert Burns.
* Hear the lonesome whippoorwill He sounds too blue to fly The midnight train is whining low I'm so lonesome I could cry
I've never seen a night so long When time goes crawling by The moon just went behind a cloud To hide its face and cry
Did you ever see a robin weep When leaves begin to die That means he's lost his will to live And I'm so lonesome I could cry
The silence of a falling star Lights up a purple sky As I wonder where you could be tonight I'm so lonesome I could cry Oh I'm so lonesome I could cry*
2002-10-28 19:20 | User Profile
Originally posted by Oklahomaman@Oct 28 2002, 11:31 **Hard country began, and remains, a province populated mainly by white males. Yet, the genre is not and never has been racist in its portrayal of the other side of the American success machine. Hard country is obsessed with class distinction and, to a lesser extent, gender, but wrong really is what it does best.Fortunately, hard country has in Barbara Ching an appreciative critic who gives the genre a distinction it would never seek, academic respectability and a well-earned niche in cultural studies. Ol' Hank, the hillbilly Shakespeare, would approve.
--Bob Wilson
The last paragraph is too much. It's leftists that are obsessed with class status to the point of absurdity. I'm willing to bet my life's savings that Mr. Wilson can't go an hour without waxing philosophic about class distinction. I really wish leftists would stop projecting their worthless concerns and anxieties on everyone else. **
I'm sure country isn't "obsessed with class distinction", and class consciousness in the Marxist academic sense of the term, but in the broader sense, quoting Wilson...
The characters in his songs are low-class, poorly educated white males who come into this life knowing that the deck is stacked against them. Their anti-triumph comes in losing on the grandest scale possible; indeed, losing is the only career path open to them. They lose women, money, jobs, life itself. Theirs is a fiercely deterministic world with one outcome, failure.
it certainly is obsessed with what country folks would call "the gritty side of life", and a big part of this is the poverty, despair, and defeat of people in the rural areas of this country, especially the rural south.
In political terms, I would term this political ethic folk-populist. That is, while eschewing doctrinaire collectivist and anti-traditional action, it certainly is against bigness of the city - corporate and government.
That certainly is legacy of the rural south's and to only a slightly lessor extent, rural America in general's, defeat by the forces of industrialization and globalization, and rationalization (i.e. the managerial establishment) in this century.
I don't think the socialistic undercurrent picked up by zWilson is entirely wrong. Rural areas have in reality been searching after a socialism of their own for a long time. Overall the rural parts of this country are not leftist, but more conservative (the red/blue divide) not because they are not receptive to the implications of their depressed and defeated economic situation, but because they properly recognize the socialism/leftism that now exists as an alien/foreign/hostile/threatening entity to them.
Its a long way from the socialism Moeller van Bruck discussed when he wrote "every people has a right to its own socialism" in Das Dritte Reich or Oswald Spengler discussed in "The Prussians and Socialism".
It is the lack of the populist right's ability to come up with a real political agenda with a real effective agenda of social activism and regeneration, sensitive to the cultural ethos of middle America, that thinkers like Samuel Francis really find at the core of its limited popular appeal.
2002-10-28 21:23 | User Profile
Originally posted by Frederick William I@Oct 28 2002, 15:20 ** ...it certainly is obsessed with what country folks would call "the gritty side of life", and a big part of this is the poverty, despair, and defeat of people in the rural areas of this country, especially the rural south.
I don't think the socialistic undercurrent picked up by Wilson is entirely wrong. ÃÂ Rural areas have in reality been searching after a socialism of their own for a long time. **
[url=http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0375410627/qid=1035838084/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_2/002-3522718-5632034?v=glance]Ava's Man[/url] by Rick Bragg covers the realities of growing up poor in the South better than anything I've seen.
Country folks may or may not call their supposed despair and defeat "gritty". Most I've known including my own relatives would just call it living, however hard it is. The biggest smiles I've seen on the faces of my elderly aunts pop up when they tell stories about their early childhood, and they don't describe it as "gritty" or anything remotely like it. They say the best soap is the lye they made, the tastiest meals were the squirrel my grandfather shot that morning, the cleanest floors were the boards they scrubbed with salt. This "gritty side" may well be gritty to those viewing it from the outside, but to these folks they were just getting by and enjoying it as they did. Not that they were ignorant, though most city folk and Northerners will vilify any Southerner mentioning the abject corruption of Reconstruction-he's "still fighting the "Civil War"". But the fact is that the war, Reconstruction, and much of what happened during the Depression were due to anti-Southern and anti-rural bias, and these people are well aware of it. Poverty romanticized as "gritty"is mostly a creation of Hollywooditzim, as is the assumption that those affected are all defeated and despairing. These "defeated" and "despairing" folk took great pride in overcoming the adversity imposed by mercantilists and those who would bring light to the world; they wouldn't have given one turd for any outsiders view of their life as some proletariat drama. Wilson and Chink are just spouting the typical lefty spin that any white not living the multiculturalist dream of sixteen lane highways and high rise housing must be a beaten down savage with zero prospects.
As to the socialistic undercurrent- well, one man's socialism is another white man's community.
2002-10-28 21:37 | User Profile
Originally posted by Frederick William I@Oct 28 2002, 14:20 It is the lack of the populist right's ability to come up with a real political agenda with a real effective agenda of social activism and regeneration, sensitive to the cultural ethos of middle America, that thinkers like Samuel Francis really find at the core of its limited popular appeal.
Well, we had Huey but he got shot. :angry:
You expounded into the political realm, FWI and that is a topic that would be interesting to discuss, but staying within the cultural expression of the musical genre or artform, I see it as really nothing more than a uniquely American expression of the common-man's plight or pathos. Really no different than any prose or poetry found in classic Western literature dealing with suffering and loss. I believe the Irish are famous for this. After all, what is art if not expression of emotion?
Most "hard" country is done tongue-in-cheek anyway, no matter how much it really reflects the everyday life of your average lower class white working man. I see nothing unhealthy in this and this book strikes me as trying to label same as some kind of mental disorder.
2002-10-29 08:11 | User Profile
Well, we had a black woman write a book on white nationalism, so why not a book on 'hard' country by a Asian?
The funny thing about such books is always the authors. They're never satisfied to be egghead sociologists studying a topic that fascinates them...they have to project themselves into the milieu or they're not happy. Yet it never dawns on them that by projecting instead of dispassionately observing, they're tainting the work, which ultimately has as much to do with the writer's own beliefs and delusions as the ostensible subject matter.
I'm no country music maven, "hard" or otherwise - I like Bob Wills, Johnny Cash & Delbert McClinton and that's about it - but it's obvious by the "beautiful loser" message being hammered throughout this piece that this is most likely the work of a campus commie disguised as a populist; and the book itself, slick-magazine journalism disguised as scholarly work. If I want to study the roots of hard country, I'll watch THE GRAPES OF WRATH instead.
2002-10-29 08:29 | User Profile
Originally posted by il ragno@Oct 29 2002, 03:11 If I want to study the roots of hard country, I'll watch THE GRAPES OF WRATH instead.
Or Bobby Duvall in *Tender Mercies*. Great film with an actor who knows what he's doing. Or even Eastwood in *Honkytonk Man*.
2002-10-30 08:19 | User Profile
Originally posted by Texas Dissident@Oct 28 2002, 21:37 > Originally posted by Frederick William I@Oct 28 2002, 14:20 It is the lack of the populist right's ability to come up with a real political agenda with a real effective agenda of social activism and regeneration, sensitive to the cultural ethos of middle America, that thinkers like Samuel Francis really find at the core of its limited popular appeal.**
Well, we had Huey but he got shot. :angry:
You expounded into the political realm, FWI and that is a topic that would be interesting to discuss,**
Oh common, this whole thread was about political speculation. Albeit it was slightly excessive and forced, as were my counter-speculations. I admit there is something called artistic license. I still enjoy Woody Guthrie's songs, even if he was a Commie.
There is a tradition actually of music expression having political undertones. You have the tradition of the Welsh bards, who were banned by Kings because of the subversive nature of their songs. So I think there is a message of subversion in country-message too, in a way. The question is where do we hear it?
** but staying within the cultural expression of the musical genre or artform, I see it as really nothing more than a uniquely American expression of the common-man's plight or pathos. Really no different than any prose or poetry found in classic Western literature dealing with suffering and loss. I believe the Irish are famous for this. After all, what is art if not expression of emotion? **
You say it is uniquely American but commonly western. Actually this dualism expresses a lot of the sense of the South. Folk music in general has often had a lamentary sort of character. The nature of the lament is very specific to the culture and situation. There's the cheerful drinking songs of the Irish, which though in a way were songs to express their continuing spirit in face of foreign repression. In comparison, you have the fados of Portugal, which express pure hopelessness almost. (typical of Portugal in general) and similar Spanish tunes. In eastern europe you often had the same situation.
And of course, going back to America, you have the direct example of the blacks and their "blues" music, some of which tradition goes all the way back to the songs slaves used to sing in the fields, outwardly happy (to keep their massa's happy) but with a hidden under current. Oppressed people frequently if not universally find ways to put their laments, complaints, and rumblings to song.
Most "hard" country is done tongue-in-cheek anyway, no matter how much it really reflects the everyday life of your average lower class white working man. I see nothing unhealthy in this and this book strikes me as trying to label same as some kind of mental disorder.
It is tongue in cheek. I think the concept is that of the person who wishes to joke about his problems by exagerating them. Like all jokes however, they work cause there's an undercurrent of truth.
The laments of folk music arouses our sympathy of course only if we empathize with the people suffering. We don't generally like blues music because we don't have a huge excess of sympathy for the blacks who we view largely a victim of their own faults, flaws, and weaknesses. Similarly , these reviewers don't have a great deal of sympathy for the rural people of the south, because they view the regions sufferings as due to their own fault. Southerners, of course, would fault the "damn Yanks". Similarly for urban/rural animosities.
I think the same factors are at work in this review. The reviewers I think are accurate in identifying country music as arising and reflecting the life situation of those in country regions in this country. In a certain sense, as the guy says it may be true
hard country has in Barbara Ching an appreciative critic who gives the genre a distinction it would never seek, academic respectability and a well-earned niche in cultural studies.
It is certainly true that country music never seeks this position. However I doubt
that > **Ol' Hank, the hillbilly Shakespeare, would approve. **
I suspect Hank would detect the continuing condensation, and thumb his nose subtly at the critics academic pretensions. (Although I'm not sure about the exact character here they're talking about)
You may laugh a little at academics though, but I think this review is indicative in a sense of academia's realization that it may have neglected and under- estimated the significance of this genre somewhat, and try in its own way to address such shortcomings, albeit with its own prejudices still foremost in mind.
2002-10-30 19:00 | User Profile
Originally posted by Frederick William I@Oct 30 2002, 03:19 You may laugh a little at academics though, but I think this review is indicative in a sense of academia's realization that it may have neglected and under- estimated the significance of this genre somewhat, and try in its own way to address such shortcomings, albeit with its own prejudices still foremost in mind.
Ah, yes. Deconstruction - the last frontier. I have no doubt that Hank, Waylon or David Allen Coe would be real quick to tell these academics where they could go.
But in truth, no one artist has probably dealt with these issues in more depth and consistency than Hank Williams, Jr. His collective work is a virtual gold mine of exploring the conflict between society's elite vs. the common man. I know for me that nothing gets my inner populist more roused up than cranking up his "Johnny Reb," "American Way" or "Country Boy Can Survive." Heck, nowadays a Hank, Jr. concert is about the only place one can display the ol' Battle Flag without fear of the NAACP or La Raza holding a candlelight vigil in protest.
2002-10-30 19:22 | User Profile
Originally posted by Frederick William I@Oct 30 2002, 04:19 ** I suspect Hank would detect the continuing condensation, and thumb his nose subtly at the critics academic pretensions. (Although I'm not sure about the exact character here they're talking about)
You may laugh a little at academics though, but I think this review is indicative in a sense of academia's realization that it may have neglected and under- estimated the significance of this genre somewhat, and try in its own way to address such shortcomings, albeit with its own prejudices still foremost in mind.**
Hank would most likely have appreciated any product of condensation
he could detect, since he had a powerful respect for the craft involved in making 'shine (along with a powerful thirst as it turned out). I seriously doubt he would have responded at all to academic pretension, although anyone calling Hank a hillbilly Shakespeare while in any location in the southern Appalachians should probably be thrashed just on principle alone.
I think Chink's book and Wilson's review are just more in the long line of attempts by the left to coopt a troublesome (meaning white) cultural expression and reshape it into more acceptable formats. A quick look at MTV or the recent O Brother Where Art Thou is instructive...
2002-10-30 19:46 | User Profile
O Brother, Where Art Thou would be a great case study since the film was written and directed by the Jewish Coen brothers. Lots to explore there with its representation of race, the Klan and general persona of Mississippi folks.
2002-10-30 22:52 | User Profile
Originally posted by Texas Dissident@Oct 30 2002, 15:46 O Brother, Where Art Thou would be a great case study since the film was written and directed by the Jewish Coen brothers. Lots to explore there with its representation of race, the Klan and general persona of Mississippi folks.
Agreed. The dewy-eyed adulation of the critics is interesting;
Ralph Stanley has been around for a little while. All it took was the right vehicle; old story, but look at the packaging, context and "creative force" behind the breakout. It seems that Real CountryFolkGrass is the new counterweight to Britney Spears for those inclined towards the Gritty Side of life. Got it all covered, they do.
Additionally, the production of the traditional music was sweetened up quite a bit. I guess uber-Christian T-Bone Burnett knows who holds the purse strings in Hollywood.
2002-10-31 06:38 | User Profile
Originally posted by weisbrot@Oct 30 2002, 22:52 > Originally posted by Texas Dissident@Oct 30 2002, 15:46 O Brother, Where Art Thou would be a great case study since the film was written and directed by the Jewish Coen brothers. Lots to explore there with its representation of race, the Klan and general persona of Mississippi folks.**
Agreed. The dewy-eyed adulation of the critics is interesting; Ralph Stanley has been around for a little while. All it took was the right vehicle; old story, but look at the packaging, context and "creative force" behind the breakout. It seems that Real CountryFolkGrass is the new counterweight to Britney Spears for those inclined towards the Gritty Side of life. Got it all covered, they do.
Additionally, the production of the traditional music was sweetened up quite a bit. I guess uber-Christian T-Bone Burnett knows who holds the purse strings in Hollywood.**
Not really sure exactly what you're talking about here. You've followed the "Oh Brother Where Art Though" saga more closely than I. I do get the same old odd feeling whenever Hollywood puts out another film on the old South full of the old burlesque carcicatures. But somehow, I think America is so starved for good movies, we enjoy them through the typical propaganda.
Its sort of like in the way Russian Christians were so hungry for religious literature they used to collect atheist pamphlets just so they could cut out the scriptures.
2002-10-31 13:41 | User Profile
Originally posted by Frederick William I@Oct 31 2002, 02:38 ** Not really sure exactly what you're talking about here. You've followed the "Oh Brother Where Art Though" saga more closely than I. I do get the same old odd feeling whenever Hollywood puts out another film on the old South full of the old burlesque carcicatures. But somehow, I think America is so starved for good movies, we enjoy them through the typical propaganda.
Its sort of like in the way Russian Christians were so hungry for religious literature they used to collect atheist pamphlets just so they could cut out the scriptures.**
Like all the Coen films it was technically well done. Like most of the cultural output of the Cohenim et al (and by extension most of Hollywood) there is a thread of superority laced with anti-Christian bias. This movie and the soundtrack was, to me, an example of over-produced pond-skipping. They gave the "urban hipsters" mentioned below just enough of that gots-to-be authentic grittiness of the good ol' Bad Old South- along with some scattered references to the classics in the case of the movie- to impart a sense of in-crowd involvement mixed with smug superiority. Sort of like wallowing in the trough before heading for the tikkun shower, culturally speaking.
O brother, what lively old-time music
By Elysa Gardner, USA TODAY [url=http://www.usatoday.com/life/music/2001-06-18-o-brother-concert.htm]http://www.usatoday.com/life/music/2001-06...her-concert.htm[/url]
Touchstone O Brother, Where Art Thou? became a platinum-plus CD and the basis for a series of live concerts.
NEW YORK ââ¬â It's not often that a performance at Carnegie Hall is interrupted by an audience member ecstatically shouting, "Yeeeee-haw!" But then, little was typical about the show that took place at the Manhattan landmark Wednesday night, in which singers and musicians dressed like extras from The Grapes of Wrath served up old-time American roots music ââ¬â gospel, blues, folk, bluegrass ââ¬â to fans who screamed and applauded like teenage girls at an 'N Sync concert.
What gives? Ask filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen, who apparently had the foresight to realize that such pre-rock material could appeal to a wide cross section of music fans ââ¬â wide enough to make the soundtrack for the Coen brothers' Depression-era movie O Brother, Where Art Thou? a platinum-plus CD and now the basis for a series of live concerts. The Carnegie Hall performance, which featured the revered artists who appear on the O Brother soundtrack ââ¬â none of them, with the possible exception of Emmylou Harris, household names ââ¬â was the second such event. A previous performance filmed in Nashville last month was captured in the film documentary Down From the Mountain, which opened Friday in Nashville and New York and will be released in other cities in the near future.
Tuesday's show boasted an unlikely but engaging master of ceremonies: Elvis Costello, who announced, "The music lovers among you can rest easy ââ¬â I'm not here to sing tonight."
Costello kept his promise, and also managed to oversee the proceedings with a deft mix of wit and reverence. About halfway into the 2 1/2-hour program ââ¬â which included graceful acoustic sets by the likes of veteran minstrel Norman Blake, traditional gospel group the Fairfield Four, New Orleans bluesman Chris Thomas King and celebrated bluegrass outfit Alison Krauss and Union Station ââ¬â the host quipped, "This must be one of the few shows where the audience is louder than what's going on onstage."
I was both amused and a bit irritated by the unrelenting effusiveness of the crowd. Watching the casual arts patrons, rock critics and other self-styled urban hipsters nodding worshipfully and clapping maniacally, I couldn't help but suspect they were enjoying their own virtuousness as much as the music. In rightfully earning the stature of national treasures, artists such as Blake and the Fairfield Four, Ralph Stanley and the Cox Family have also ââ¬â through no fault of their own ââ¬â become heroes to the kinds of snobs and purists who sniff at more glamorous or mainstream virtuosos.
I found some of the sets here more admirable than entertaining. Blake sang the bittersweet Big Rock Candy Mountain with gorgeous clarity, but droned on too long with You Are My Sunshine. And by the time critical darling Gillian Welch finished an overly understated two-song set, I was thinking wistfully of the last shallow pop concert I had attended, where the flashy costumes and choreography had at least kept me from nodding off.
Still, the O Brother concert offered many shining moments ââ¬â most including Union Station, whose members served as a core band. Krauss' achingly pure, sublimely tangy singing and fiddling continue to be among the marvels of modern music, as do the similarly sumptuous tones offered by guitarist Dan Tyminski ââ¬â her duet partner on the feisty Wild Bill Jones ââ¬â and Dobro player Jerry Douglas.
Harris was at her best on the elegiac Your Long Journey, dedicated to songwriter and scholar John Hartford, a key member of the O Brother soundtrack team who succumbed to cancer this month and was remembered poignantly throughout the show.
Tim Blake Nelson, one of the movie's stars, injected some welcome comic relief by yodeling through In the Jailhouse Now. The pint-sized, pre-adolescent vocal trio the Peasall Sisters added more levity while posing demurely during the string of thunderous standing ovations at the end. Luckily, none of the hysterical fans tried to rush onstage and pinch their cheeks.
2002-10-31 13:42 | User Profile
I think old Tom T. Hall captured what all good country music is about in his simple song, 'Country Is'
Country is, sittin' on the back porch, listen to the whippoorwills, late in the day Country is, mindin' your business, helpin' a stranger, if he comes your way Country is, livin' in the city, [u]knowin' your people, knowin' your kind[/u] Country is, what you make it, country is, all in your mind
Country is, workin' for a living, thinkin' your own thoughts, lovin' your town Country is, teachin' your children, find out what's right, and stand your ground Country is, a havin' the good times, listen to the music, singing your part Country is, walkin' in the moonlight, country is, all in your heart
Country music does not lead trends, rather it follows and reflects them. In country music there has always been a theme of accepting your circumstances, whatever they might be. Country does not have the anger of other music. But I've certainly noticed the change in the songs of country. Around the 70s country changed a bit. You begin to hear songs about divorce and ruined families. You also hear more songs about guys who just cant make it without some woman. Prior to that time women were either noble, or rotten in songs. But now they are almost always angelic. And men are lowly beasts trying to reach up to level of these creatures. I do think that in this transition you can see the appearance in society of female domination of men. Most songs about men and women features a man that is forlorn over an insatiable woman. Neither gender is very happy or satisfied.
I think 'hard country' is a bit of a reaction to this change in society. It is about men being manly. But our definition of manly has changed quite a bit. It has less to do with family and more to do with being independant of everything. This independance is demonstrated in a rebellion against society and its standards. This only makes sense as our society is a horrible one for men. The American family is a dying institution. Women have been conviced that their natural role is bad and they should be like men, only in female bodies. Such a perversion of nature is sure to make no one happy and this is reflected in country music.
2002-11-01 16:50 | User Profile
You also hear more songs about guys who just cant make it without some woman. Prior to that time women were either noble, or rotten in songs. But now they are almost always angelic. And men are lowly beasts trying to reach up to level of these creatures. I do think that in this transition you can see the appearance in society of female domination of men.
This is why 90% of the "today's country" crap I hear on the radio and see on CMT makes me want to spew: one generic pretty boy after another in the standard-issue uniform of cowboy hat, tight jeans & sleeveless t-shirt puling about what a low-down dirty dog he is, beggin' for forgiveness and just one more chance to satisfy The Light of His Life. All carefully jew-calibrated to appeal to the vanity and egos of women. Then for a change of pace, there's the mindless "patriotic" songs from "good ol' boy" suckers like the no-talent Toby Keith. Yeah, boy, we gonna put a boot up their asses for messin' with Uncle Sam! Hoo ah!
Screw 'em.
Why the real artists don't pool their enormous wealth to form their own record label and promotion & distribution systems is beyond me. It's the only way to de-Hymanize - and therfore save - their art.
2002-11-01 17:59 | User Profile
Originally posted by N.B. Forrest@Nov 1 2002, 10:50 Why the real artists don't pool their enormous wealth to form their own record label and promotion & distribution systems is beyond me. It's the only way to de-Hymanize - and therfore save - their art.
I don't know, N.B.. Right now you just gotta go look for it. Artists like Dale Watson, Wayne Hancock, Kelly Willis and yes, Hank Williams III are keeping the tradition alive IN SPITE of Trashville, but to find 'em you have to go to some of their web sites and check out the links, labels, etc. A good bit is centered around Austin.
I'm more than with you on Toby Keith, too. That guy just sounds like a goat bleating when he sings. I can't take it.
2002-11-01 23:29 | User Profile
I was both amused and a bit irritated by the unrelenting effusiveness of the crowd. Watching the casual arts patrons, rock critics and other self-styled urban hipsters nodding worshipfully and clapping maniacally, I couldn't help but suspect they were enjoying their own virtuousness as much as the music. In rightfully earning the stature of national treasures, artists such as Blake and the Fairfield Four, Ralph Stanley and the Cox Family have also ââ¬â through no fault of their own ââ¬â become heroes to the kinds of snobs and purists who sniff at more glamorous or mainstream virtuosos
Man, you can't win. The above excoriation of 'purist snobs' was offered up by a purist snob who then goes on to gush like an egghead who just got french-kissed for the first time in her life over 'achingly pure' this and 'sublimely tangy' that. I frankly hate that kind of crap - only the Critic may wax lyrically over the show! - and I guarantee you that every performer on that stage was grateful if not overjoyed for the show of appreciation they got, regardless whether or not the enthusiasm was coming from Urban Hipsters or Just Plain Folks.
As for Hank Williams, he was an artist and an entertainer. Such people live to connect with their audience through their work. An overexposed & undertalented multi-millionaire superstar may grow jaded and disgusted by nonstop adulation, but 99% of everybody else in show business LIVES for positive feedback from their fans. I doubt very much he'd have thumbed his nose at anybody who sincerely told him how much his work meant to them personally. Hey, even the Jaded Types secretly love hearing it. It's why they do it in the first place!