How Does Johnny Cash Represent The Common Man

One artists that used music as an expression was Johnny Cash, who brought country music back to the people after loosing popularity to rock and roll. Despite having his own style, Cash often recorded with rock and roll artists like Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Carl Perkins, who formed the Million Dollar Quartet. Johnny Cash is credited for “bridging the world of country music, rock'n'roll and the folk revival with the epic narratives” (A History of Popular Music before Rock Music). Cash’s music had a “raw, lean rhyme” with lyrics focused on the dirt-poor roots of country music and the “common man fallen from grace” (Lost Highway: The Story of Country Music). He too represented this common man and was the image of an adored bad boy who often got in trouble

Often Johnny Cash would preform in prisons for inmates and poke fun at the prison guards, which only increased his bad boy reputation. During one of these prison performances, Merle Haggard was in the audience as an inmate. He was inspired by Cash’s ability to make a living off music by singing for the common man and was determined to become a country singer. Haggard used his experiences in prison to provide an authentic representation of the common man. He also represented the voice of the patriotic majority when it came to the Vietnam War and even wrote a song, “Okie from Muskogee”, teasing the liberal antiwar hippies in California. Although country music often held the political views of the traditional south, the civil rights movement of the north influenced country music by introducing Charley Pride, an African American country artist, who sang the “white man’s blues” at the Grand Ole Opry. Despite facing prejudice, Pride was and continues to be the most successful African American country singer since people loved his classic country sound. This started a movement of country singers that broke the redneck