In the 1920s there was a growing interest in country music, and bluegrass was one of the genres in hillbilly music that caught the attention all over the country. Known for the unique guitar sound, religious and gentle ballads, and mountain singing practices, the Carter Family is considered to be one of the great representatives of the bluegrass music in the Appalachian region. Loved by the audience all over the country, they established a “standard” sound that people would expect from bluegrass music. Taking a deeper look into the genre, almost all of the bluegrass groups are formed by solely white people. Why there were no traces of other races in the region being involved in the music? As the listener could imagine on the good old days and pretty scenery depicted in the bluegrass ballads, very little details on the lives of the people living in the present were heard from the songs. Bluegrass music is not a genre that provides listeners a genuine image of the musical and social landscape of the Appalachian region, but the commercialized music genre that is created by the white Appalachian residents for the whites in the whole United State America using newly-developed broadcast and commercial recording technology.
In the 1930s, the United States was recovering from the Great Depression, and the urban audience needed products that would bring comfort and get-away opportunities. At the same time, radio broadcasting became more common in the country, bringing affordable entertainment to the public. In one account, ordinary southerners would listen to the radio on Saturday night as “there wasn’t nothing else doing.” Producers travelled in the South, including the Appalachian region, to record the rich, local, and traditional mus...
... middle of paper ...
...ed to Be Good People’: Responsibility, Crazy Water Crystals, and Hillbilly Music on Air, 1933-1935.” The Journal of American History 81, no. 4 (March, 1995): 1591-1620.
Hayes, John. “Religion and Country Music.” Religion Compass 4/4 (2010): 245-252.
Kahn, Ed. “The Carter Family on Border Radio.” American Music 14, no. 2 (Summer 1996): 206-217.
Mills, Susan W. “Bringing the Family Tradition in Bluegrass Music to the Music Classroom.” General Music Today 22, no. 2 (January 2009): 12-18.
Roy, William G. “Aesthetic Identity, Race, and American Folk Music.” Qualitative sociology 25, no. 3 (Fall 2002): 459-469.
Sweet, Stephen. “Bluegrass Music and Its Misguided Representation of Appalachia.” Popular Music and Society, no.3 (1996): 37-51.
Thompson, Deborah J. “Searching for Silenced Voices in Appalachian Music.” GeoJournal 65, no. ½, Geography & Music (2006): 67-78.
Country music originated in the Appalachian mountains of the Southern United States and has traditional folk roots that date from the early 20th century. The commercial history of country music began in the Southern United States in the 1920’s, during a ‘period of intense modernization’ (Ellison, 1995). It wasn’t until this time that country was considered a viable music genre. It was first identified as ‘hillbilly’ music in 1925 and later became known officially as ‘country’ by its designation on the Billboard Music charts (Shmoop, 2014). Widely considered the ‘Mother Church’ of country, the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville became the home of many emerging and already established artists (Tichi, 1994:21). Coupled with the rise of radio and barn dance programs, country’s popularity increased greatly. Ellison (1995) describes country’s evolution from ‘rustic radio programs’ to a genre with an ‘extensive national network of fans unparalled in other forms of popular music’. During the 1930’s, the Great Depression assisted in the spread of country music throughout the US, with many poor unemployed Southerners migrating north, t...
Roy, W. (2010). Reds, whites, and blues social movements, folk music, and race in the United States. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Connie’s choice of music, rock music, adamantly exemplifies the misconception of the minority which is then taken advantage of due to the lack of maturity and experience in the American culture. When Connie returned back home after a feud with her mother, she turns on the radio and listen to a record of Bobby King where she calmly relaxes and bathes in the music. Joyce Carol Oates writes, “She sat on the edge of her bed, barefoot, and listened for an hour and a half to a program called XYZ Sunday Jamboree, record after record of hard, fast, shrieking songs, she sang along with, interspersed by exclamations from “Bobby King”….And Connie paid close attention herself, bathed in a glow of slow-pulsed joy that seemed to rise mysteriously out of the music itself and lay languidly about the airless little room, breathed in and breathed out with each gentle rise and fall out of her chest” (p.2-para.5). Thi...
...gers of the old folk music are referred to as “authentic”. The author uses the biographies and the personal experiences of true Appalachian folk musicians to portray what life in the Appalachians was like. The strong family values, the music, the legends.
A sample overview of the history of bluegrass music follows. It should be brief but comprehensive, as it may also be the introduction of the music to teachers as a study guide before or after an in school presentation or they may include this information in a history of social studies discussion if a program presentation is not possible.
Hanning, Barbara Russano, and Donald Jay Grout. Concise History Of Western Music. 4th. New York: W W Norton & Co Inc, 2010. print.
The region Of Appalachia is generally considered to be an area full of people with little intellect and who are incapable of functioning as normal members of society. Since the early history of American Appalachia has been believed to be an area where there is not science or philosophy. It is believed to be an area full of people who are extremely gullible and superstitious. Many people have come out of Appalachia to challenge these stereotypes.
After reading the play “Songcatcher”, by Darby Fitzgerald, as well as looking at an interview done with Evie Mark, their stories revealed the same key concepts; the dilemmas they face while trying to revive Native American Music. Both of these men felt as if they needed to prove who they were to everyone around them. Making the journey to find the music from inside them a very personal one. The prime focuses in each are the struggles they face to revive the music passed down through their cultures history. They also show the persistence they have to “rekindle the fire” or the love music, within today’s younger Native generation. Both stories are inspirational to the identity crisis within these nations.
It was once called “the people’s music”, and “the delight of children (Koenig).” America’s development of ragtime is no doubt a representation of the blending of different cultures and influences. Germanic instrument’s influence on ragtime was a result of the development of new instruments overtime, the availability of new musical instruments to African Americans, and America’s significant blending of diverse cultural sounds.
By the late 1920’s, radio shows had rapidly increased in number with content spanning across multiple genres to accommodate specific consumer tastes. Westerns, murder mysteries, children’s shows, romances, soap operas, and comedies grew more sophisticated with carefully orchestrated plots, evocative soundtracks, and dynamic dialog. Syndicated radio shows, such as Amos ‘n’ Andy, entertained the nation. The nationwide popularity and mass consumption of programs like Amos ‘n’ Andy cultivated a consumer connection, obfuscating the “regional differences in dialect, language, music, and even consumer taste”
Both the American and Irish folk music revivals came at interesting, tense times in both countries, and have many similarities; the often political sentiments expressed through the music influenced many socio-political movements at the time, and the revivals had far-reaching and widespread effects on the music and culture then and now. While the American folk music revival is better well-known (at least in the United States), it is interesting to learn about how folk music has been revived elsewhere and how the movements reviving the music share many
Tick, Judith, and Paul E. Beaudoin. Music in the USA: a Documentary Companion. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2008. Print.
Cahoon, B. (2004, January 1). Rhythm and Blues Music: Overview. . Retrieved May 28, 2014, from http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/arts-culture/rhythm-and-blues-music-overview.
Powell, A. (2007). The Music of African Americans and its Impact on the American Culture in the 1960’s and the 1970’s. Miller African Centered Academy, 1. Retrieved from http://www.chatham.edu/pti/curriculum/units/2007/Powell.pdf
Burkeholder, Peter J. et al, A History of Western Music, New York, W.W. Norton & Company Ltd, 2010. 626 -632