“Blue-Collar Blues & the Rise of Country Music” music has been in the world for thousands of years and with each generation our taste of harmony and rhythm has changed and evolved. In the 1970’s The United States of America was still a country that was trying to build it self and its culture. Because of the civil rights movements and the recession that was happing in that time period. African-Americans, Hispanic-American, white woman, and other diverse groups were trying to shift their audiology to focus more on their culture that would give them their own symbols. In this paper I am mainly going to focus on the authors main arguments that she/he gives us in the article that I’m going to read, the large picture of American Culture and history
In this extremely controversial work, Glenn C. Altschuler takes aim on the government’s accusations, the prejudice from the police, and the affect that rock ’n’ roll made in America through the late forties and fifties. Glenn makes many accusations of his own through the way he shifts the momentum of the story from time to time. Through the years back then and now, music has caused many racial and gender controversies. In this book, Glenn explains all these problems and what rock did to start or get of them.
Altschuler discusses media commentator Jeff Greenfield’s opinion about the influences of Rock and Roll on American youth. Greenfield states, “Nothing we see in the counterculture [of the 1960’s], not the clothes, the hair, the sexuality, the drugs, the rejection of the reason, the resort to symbols and magic – none of it is separable from the coming to power in the 1950s of rock and roll music.” He continues with “Brewed in the hidden corners of black American cities, its [Rock-n-Roll] rhythms infected white Americans, seducing them out of the kind of temperate bobby-sox passions out of which Andy Hardy films are spun. Rock and Roll was elemental, savage, dripping with sex; it was just as our parents feared.” (Altschuler, 8) Rock and Roll stood as a powerful alternative to the conformist ideals Americans had valued.
Musical Journey Till The Kent State Massacre Music serves as a platform for commentary on important social issues. Social events are an inspiration for creativity, and often, this creativity gathers momentum to tackle these societal concerns. The mutual relationship between music and social issues is seen evidently throughout the history. The Vietnam War serves as a great example to showcase the interdependency between the society and music.
When investigating the origins of country music, there are multiple different country music stars that could be recognized for their recording success, and innovation, which contributed to the progress of country music as one of the most popular genres in the 20th century. The pioneers for country music consisted of both men, women, and multiple different ensembles providing to country music’s success. Without the help of the founders of country music, this genre might not be as successful as it is today. One of the first country music stars is a man by the name of Jimmie Rodgers. In the later half of his career Jimmie was incredibly successful, with recording over 100 different pieces of music, he was labeled by many as “The father of Country
“Here at noon, jazz blared from jukeboxes and dark holes issued forth the cool odors of beer, wine and flesh into the sunlight” (Griffin 48). When Griffin makes his way south and documents his journeys, jazz is steadily rising in popularity. The music is blared throughout these clubs- separating the blacks and whites, as blacks played a majority of these tunes for people of all races. The invention of jazz by early African Americans, when they were suffering from racism and its effects, is deeply rooted in the sounds of the artists’ music. The majority of listeners nationwide could sense a uniqueness about jazz, no matter the color of one’s skin.
In the 1970’s, Willie Nelson created the Outlaw movement and that opened up yet again another division of country music. What made the outlaw subgenre different was the usage of local flavor being combined with rock and roll and their roots. Kris Kristoffrson, Johnny Cash, and Hank Williams Jr., fit into the outlaw category with their music they recorded during this decade. In the 1980s, New country, or “countrypolitan,” was created, mixing western swing and bluegrass together. In 1982, The Bluebird Cafe opened and it became the spot for new talent to be seen and discovered.
In a time of great upheaval, country music provided a much-needed sense of stability and familiarity.” (Kerlinger). Country music was able to help and connect people during a complicated and new time where people were figuring out what they were going to do in life, and still has a similar impact
obsessively revered and imitated African-American blues and rock musicians. This type of musical inspiration isn’t inherently bad—it’s practically unavoidable (Zimmerman 2014).” Are African American’s appropriating African Culture? During, the British colonization of American they were met with a number of conflicts.
“A Black Fan of Country Music Finally Tells All”, by Lena Williams in which she confesses her love for country music after being embarrassed of showing it due to criticism, reminds me of how similar my experiences were to her essay. Although I don’t like country music nor was my music taste a hidden secret, I did however find myself in a position that Williams was in- defensive mode. When I discovered rock music one afternoon after watching countless cat videos on YouTube, I thought to myself “where has this song been all my life”. Like pop and hip-hop music, I imagined that liking rock music would only be a phase. Now after seven years I can say with certainty that my love for the music genre isn’t going anywhere.
This new genre of music came from a combination between African American Blues and Gospel. As many African Americans migrated around America, during the Great Migration, the rhythm of their music attracted the young teens, but due to segregation, these songs never got much air time and many middle class White Americans thought the music was tasteless. Due to the lack of air time, many White Americans remade the songs but that caused many people to stop tuning in and listening to that particular station because it just didn’t sound like the same song they enjoyed. Many people set out to find a White American that could capture that African American tune. A memphis producer named Sam Phillips finally found the answer to those problems through Elvis Presley.
It is said that Country music wasn’t even thought of until the Carter family whom eventually developed a technique called "Carter picking," which was the early country music for decades.” (Fabian) But by the early 1920s, a new generations of Country music began in Atlanta where they started launching the country’s earliest recording music artists. At that time those artists played a big role in how Country music which was beginning to branch off in a more modern style to the music. Those artists would go on and make history with their style of music, and would turn it into a main stream phenomenon.
The genre of blues exploded into the blues craze during the 1920’s. During this time, white record producers saw the untapped goldmine that was blues music performed by people of color. Ma Rainey was one of them, and to some, one of the first, giving her the title, ‘The Mother of Blues’. The 1920’s was not only an era of continuing homophobia from the past (although that would change, briefly, into a mild form of acceptance until the more conservative 1930’s), but also of harsh racism. And yet, one singer, Ma Rainey’s, broke these restrictions.
Hillbilly music was the main genre of music for rural white American’s during the 1920’s. During our class discussion of hillbilly music, I immediately related the genre as the birth of country music today. Hillbilly music was an artistic expression by the people of the rural south. This concept is very similar to the country music that is produced today by musicians from the south who write their music based on what it is like to live in the country. During the time period of the 1920’s, Hillbilly music was only produced and sang by white Americans.
All over the world, people express their culture and their way of life in the form of music. In the early nineteen-hundreds America was beginning to form their own genre of music, which would come to be known as country music. When we think of country music, we often think of hillbillies, cowboys, a pair of boots and blue jeans, but it's much more than that. Country music is more than just songs; it's become a way of life in America. Country music was formed out of the genre of Appalachian folk music in the southern United States.
In these chapters of Flowers in the Dustbin, James Miller emphasizes the origins of multiple styles of rock and roll, and highlights musicians that aided in bringing about this earth shattering new sound. Artists other than Elvis Presley, like Little Richard, ‘Fats’ Domino, Pat Boone, and a disc jockey by the name of Alan Freed all contributed to what we know and love as rock and roll. Rock and roll broke racial barriers, bringing a predominantly black style of music to the white youth culture of the time. Black artist Little Richard spoke to a younger audience through his music, because he himself was one of the youngest emerging rock and roll artists of the time. During the 1950s, the origins of rock and roll are rooted in black music of the time, it broke social and racial