Why Isn’t Country Music More Revolutionary And Socially Conscious?
Country Music is the most popular music in the United States and yet it does nothing but talk about booze, women and hanging out. It’s supposed to appeal to the working class yet it hardly gets polical (except when a war is on) or talks about the social class war going on in America?
What ever happened to the Bob Dylans, Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard and good ol’ fashioned protest music? Why has country music turned into pop love stuff. It should be more revolutionary since its appeal is mainly with the working class.
November 2nd, 2009 at 8:24 pm
I’m not sure if you can only point the finger at country music. There are some genres of music I don’t listen to much, but I haven’t heard any real political, socially conscious, revolutionary, protest songs lately, country music and otherwise.
I actually think the current generation of young people is sort of to blame, and I say that while I myself am 20 years old and a part of it. Young people used to stage protests and sit-ins (and write brilliant music!!) that were able to stop wars and social problems. No one my age tries to make changes anymore, at least not to the extent that it occurred back in the 60s and such.
(Also, to throw in my two cents as a country fan, it’s definitely not all about booze and women and hanging out! It’s about family and friends and break-ups and true love and church and kids and work and real life!)
November 3rd, 2009 at 3:20 am
My friend has a country music website, and she said a good portion of the visitors are girls between the age of 12 to 15. They like Taylor Swift.
November 3rd, 2009 at 7:48 am
There are three main reasons I can think of right off hand.
First, you think that because you haven’t listened to old country music with songs like “The Frozen Girl” by the Delmore Brothers, which dealt with class distinction (rich versus poor). There were also women’s rights songs long before there were “women’s rights.” Look at “The Pill” by Loretta Lynn, which was banned by many stations because of its subject matter, or even Kitty Wells’ “It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels,” which took the universally-accepted (in country music, anyway) notion of “cheating husbands” being solely the fault of the woman and threw it back at the men: “Too many times married men think they’re still single.”
Second, they don’t sing about social consciousness, they just DO SOMETHING. Henry Glover was an African-American songwriter and record company executive in the 1940s who worked with primarily white country singers at King Records. One of the greatest songs in history, not just country music but ANY genre of music, was co-written by Glover and three white southern men (Alton and Rabon Delmore and Wayne Raney). No one had a problem with the color of Glover’s skin, they just made great music together. Roy Acuff and Uncle Dave Macon toured with DeFord Bailey in the 1920s and 1930s and frequently protected him against being discriminated against because he was black. Acuff also toured with a woman in his band (Rachel Veech), which was unheard of in the 1930s — “good girls” didn’t go out on tour in a music act.
Thirdly, it could be because a lot of country singers remember that they are entertainers and not politicians. George Strait doesn’t want to tell you how to vote, he wants to sing to you. That’s his job, and he does it quite well.