Authenticity in Country Music: Continuity

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Authenticity in Country Music Continuity Change
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What is Country Music?

• Music of Rural White American people.

• Can still be heard in its original form in the
  rural southern states
• Influenced by Anglo/Celtic Gospel
• Vocal Music About Rural American Life

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Hank Williams(1923 - 1953)

• Father of Country Music.
• Im So Lonesome I Could Cry epitome of early
  Country Music
• (now playing)

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Introduction

• What is Authenticity?
• Why does authenticity matter?
• What are the challenges to authenticity?
• Is Country Music losing its authenticity?
• What are the likely outcomes in the future?

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What is Authenticity?
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Generic Markers

• A rural Pastoral image.
• Hay Bales, wagon wheels.
• Live performance.
• Openness of Character.

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Dolly Parton (1946 - )

• Rapport with the Audience.
• Draws Attention away from her Fame and Wealth.
• Just plain folks
• Jolene (now playing)

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Generic Markers

• Lyrics based on real life.
• Wallowing in Sadness!
• life cant have been that bad!
• Real life has changed!

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Generic Markers?

• These generic markers were professionally
  marketed
• Is Authenticity a Commercial Product in itself?
  

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Generic Markers?

• Does the Loss of these Generic Markers matter?
• Is Country Music Losing its soul?
• Or is it merely losing its fabricated façade?
• Should these markers be considered authentic any
  more?
• Has what is considered Authentic in Country Music
  Changed?

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Authenticity is Relative.

• Nashville Sound came to be regarded as a lost
  and valued tradition (Joli Jensen)
• We shouldnt judge the past by the ideals of the
  present,
• Is it realistic to base our perceptions of what
  is authentic today on the generic markers of the
  past?

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What are the Challenges to Authenticity? How is
Country Music Responding to these Challenges?
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Globalisation

• Fusion
• Caused partly by the globalisation of media.

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Nickel Creek

• Jazz Influence
• Why Should the Fire Die?
• Rock Influence
• Track 10 Best Of Luck (now playing)
• When In Rome

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Nickel Creek When In Rome
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Commercialisation

• Nashville Sound
• less twangy, softer, lusher
• Chet Atkins,
• Criticised as being bland,
• Increased air-play.
• The sound of money

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Commercialisation

• Nashville Sound
• Successful Artists not Authentic?
• Is something made for money automatically less
  authentic? (Joli Jensen)

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Commercialisation

• Something once done for other reasons is now
  being done for money.
• Is commercial music bland?
• The diversity in Country Music was strangled
  somewhat by the formulaic approach of the record
  producers like Chet Atkins.

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Modern Country Music

• Resurgence in the 90s
• Pop music sung by people with country accents
• Not about the music anymore
• production
• Beautiful girls in sexy outfits

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Shania Twain(1965 - )

• Is she Country or not?
• America - Country
• U.K. - Pop artist.
• Country roots still peep through

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Modern Country Music

• Is it still country?
• The music has changed
• Song subjects,
• Modulations,
• Chord Progressions,
• Even Instruments.

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• Ultimately Country music is changing.
• Country implies rural roots.
• Country music was never supposed to be slick and
  sophisticated.
• But does this matter?

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Why does Authenticity Matter?
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• Contested Subject.
• Defining Country Music.
• Not Just About the Music.
• Not a music in a vacuum.
• Deep meaning about American Life?

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• Is authenticity somehow tied into our perceptions
  of quality?
• One Authentic Style?
• Country Music is constantly changing and growing
  in complexity, just as the society in which it
  thrives also matures and evolves (Bill Malone)
• Authenticity in itself Un-Authentic

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Would country music still be around today if it
wasnt for globalisation and commercialisation?

• The Sources of Country Music Hart Benton

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Would country music still be around today if it
wasnt for globalisation and commercialisation?

• Did Commercialisation create an awareness?
• Globalisation does not always lead to homogeneity

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What are the likely outcomes for country music in
the future?
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• Would the music lose its identity, and its soul
  as it gained the world? (Malone)
• Or is this homogenisation leading it down the
  road to ultimate extinction?

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• Will a music that cannot define itself be the
  first to go?
• Country music is about life.
• While there is life there is country music?
• But what life is country music rooted in?
• Will it become like the slave songs?

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• if music was simply a commodity, then genres
  would blur and become indistinguishable without
  anyone caring
• But people do care.

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