Episode 119: How the Right Shaped Pop Country Music
Added 2020-09-23 14:44:41 +0000 UTCBy now, it's largely taken for granted that country music is a racialized signifier, interchangeable with right-wing politics. And it’s not such an unreasonable generalization: the political currents of twanged and drawled patriotic paeans like Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the USA," Toby Keith's "Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue (The Angry American)," and Brooks & Dunn's "Only In America" leave little to the imagination.
But how, exactly, did this come to be? After all, country music, a descendant of the blues, folk, Tejano, and other genres, with connections to labor organizations like the Industrial Workers of the World and social-justice movements, has historically attracted musicians spanning the political spectrum, and didn’t necessarily emerge from such a staunchly right-wing political tradition.
Rather, popular conceptions of country music have long been deliberately shaped by a series of broader ideological projects. Throughout the 20th and early 21st centuries, conservative politicians and other right-wing forces have exploited the genre to promote illiberalism, racism, revanchist politics, and runaway anti-intellectualism where not giving a shit about the world beyond one’s own cold beer, pickup truck, old lady is not only acceptable, but actively encouraged and flaunted.
On this episode, we examine how the genre of country music has been wielded as a tool of reactionary politicking in the US, from the machinations of Henry Ford in the 1920s to the Nixon administration’s Southern Strategy in the 1960s and ‘70s to the heady Shock and Y’all days of the Bush years, and how a once working-class tradition became a cultural cul de sac of worn-out tropes and middle-class, white grievance politics.
Our guest is writer, editor and artist Alexander Billet.
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Guest
Alexander Billet is a writer, artist and cultural critic living in Los Angeles. He is an editor at Locust Review and frequent contributor to Jacobin. You can follow him on Twitter @UbuPamplemousse and check out his writing at AlexanderBillet.com.
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Show Notes
Alexander Billet | November 25, 2019 | Jacobin
How Consumerism Devoured the Workin’ Man Blues
Amy McCarthy | July 20, 2018 | VICE
J. Lester Feder | February 16, 2007 | The American Prospect
America’s wholesome square dancing tradition is a tool of white supremacy
Robyn Pennacchia | December 12, 2017 | QZ
How square dancing became a weapon of white supremacy against an anti-Semitic jazz dance conspiracy
Jack Smith IV | December 15, 2017 | Mic
The Slave Roots of Square Dancing
Erin Blakemore | June 16, 2017 | JStor Daily
The State Folk Dance Conspiracy: Fabricating A National Folk Dance
Julianne Mangin | Spring 1995 | Old-Time Herald
Sing Me Back Home: Country Music and Radical Community Organizing in Uptown Chicago
Jesse Montgomery | June 1, 2020 | Journal of Popular Music Studies
Why Richard Nixon Declared October Country Music Month
Amira Nader | October 28, 2014 | WNYC
Nixon Plays Piano On Wife's Birthday At Grand Ole Opry
March 17, 1974 | The New York Times
Why ‘Okie From Muskogee’ Was Merle Haggard’s Contradictory Masterpiece
Charles Aaron | April 7, 2016 | Rolling Stone
Reagan Entertained By Singer He Once Pardoned
Aljean Harmetz | March 8, 1982 | The New York Times
Country-Western May Be ‘Ronald Reagan Music,’ but the Good Ole’ Poles Like It
John Daniszewski | September 13, 1987 | Associated Press
Cyrus Song Used By Bush Campaign
September 29, 2000 | Associated Press
Ted Cruz: ‘On 9/11, I Didn’t Like How Rock Music Responded’
Kory Grow | March 24, 2015 | Rolling Stone
'Country music has become apolitical': why have acts kept quiet on the election?
Jon Bernstein | November 3, 2016 | The Guardian
Mickey Guyton Asks Country Music Industry and Fans to Imagine Being ‘Black Like Me’
Chris Willman | June 30, 2020 | Variety
Country music's little white myth
Noah Berlatsky | June 13, 2013 | Chicago Reader
Toby Keith was a loud political voice in the Bush years. What about the Trump era?
Emily Yahr | March 23, 2017 | The Washington Post
Will Country Music Ever Fully Claim Woody Guthrie?
Jedd Beaudoin | August 30, 2019 | NPR/KMUW Witchita
Why 'Accidental Racist' Is Actually Just Racist
Ta-Nehisi Coates | April 9, 2013 | The Atlantic
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Transcript
For a full transcript of this episode, go here.
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Comments
So THAT’S why I had to take square dancing?! I hated that unit in PE most of all.
Jeannette
2020-09-28 16:47:54 +0000 UTCThis is a wonderful episode. I spilled my drink giggling at the not knowing the difference between Iraq and Iran lyric...I forget that song exists and every time I hear it, the stupidity of it makes me laugh. Nima, as someone who went to school in NYS during the 90s, square dancing was still being taught there in elementary schools, not sure if it was/is in more recent decades. Thank you both for introducing me to the "Hallelujah, I'm a Bum" song, too.
No Borders Only Podcasts
2020-09-26 13:17:04 +0000 UTCGreat episode! I had no idea the history of square dancing in public schools was so dark. So many country songs talk about being working class and the difficult working conditions that go along with that. Some of them even have a “boss man can shove it” line in there, but they stop short of being critical of the system as a whole. The solution is never to fight for better conditions or unionize. Instead, the solution (in many of the songs) to their poor working conditions is always to get through the week and drink hard on the weekend. Obviously there’s nothing wrong with drinking alcohol to have fun and relax, but if it’s presented as the only way to get through your life, as a lot of these upbeat songs seem to suggest, the message is actually kind of dark. Eric Church’s “Drink in my Hand” is an example. “Early Monday morning, til Friday at five Man I work, work, work but I don't climb, climb, climb Boss man can shove that overtime up his can All I want to do is put a drink in my hand To fill it up, or throw it down I got a forty hour week worth of trouble to drown No need to complicate it, I'm a simple man All you got to do is put a drink in my hand” Drinking Class by Lee Brice is another that links survival of working class conditions with heavy drinking. It kind of reminds me of the “mommy needs wine” trope. Again, nothing wrong with drinking, but if it’s masking the real problem (no maternity leave, insanely expensive childcare, poor maternal and infant health), then it’s not so funny. Also, if you want to really torture yourself with a few more songs: “Keep the Change” by Hank Williams Jr., which he wrote after there was backlash to him saying about President Obama, "We've got a Muslim for a president who hates cowboys, hates cowgirls, hates fishing, hates farming, loves gays, and we hate him!" The lyrics include, “This country's sure as hell been going down the drain. We know what we need. We know who to blame-United Socialist States of America. How do you like that name? I'll keep the USA and y'all can keep the change.” And then, “Back When” by Tim McGraw. It’s a perfect example of “remember when things were simple, now they’re so gosh darn complicated and people are using that street slang!” “Bait a Hook” by Justin Moore is a lot of toxic masculinity on display. (Your new boyfriend drinks “girly” drinks, cares about the environment, eats food from another culture. The horror!) “I heard you had to drive him home after two umbrella drinks I heard he's got a Prius, 'cause he's into bein' green My buddies said he saw y'all, eatin' that sushi stuff Baby that don't sound like you, That don't sound like love, Sounds like it sucks”
2020-09-24 21:07:28 +0000 UTCThank you for this. I wrote a song for you to celebrate how great this episode was: I ain't no politician Got my bobber goin fishin' Wishin' things were back to how they used to be C'mon put on down that book and Find a woman who is cookin' Lookin' prettier than peaches on a tree Do a square dance, make her twirl Grab a shotgun, shoot a squirrel Chug a 30 rack of beer because we're free! I ain't got a single buck Man I'm down on my luck But I got my dog, my gun, my truck And my doggone truck
2020-09-24 19:49:37 +0000 UTCOn the one hand, thanks for introducing me to my new favorite song 'Hallelujah I'm a Bum', on the other hand, fuck you for everything else
Dylan Thompson
2020-09-24 17:29:06 +0000 UTCThis was really cool and reminds me a lot of an episode of Know Your Enemy (another neat leftist podcast) about the working-class roots of country and its appeal to leftists (listen here: https://know-your-enemy-1682b684.simplecast.com/episodes/kye-extra-the-sad-truth-w-shuja-haider). I think you guys do a better job of presenting the history of country and dissecting contemporary country in an almost academic way, but they have a nice dialogue about how country still belongs in a leftist space (albeit less pointedly and with many digressions). A collab might be cool, though I'm sure you guys have 100 million ideas about future episodes.
Alex
2020-09-23 20:12:56 +0000 UTCOmg I I have been waiting for a show like this. I love country but I hate the propaganda and corniness. I always thought a left wing country band would be a good propaganda tool though, if anyone is interested in starting that with me.
2020-09-23 19:30:49 +0000 UTCTogether at last!
Havo
2020-09-23 19:25:54 +0000 UTCCountry music AND leftist media criticism? This is my Nuts and Gum.
2020-09-23 19:08:13 +0000 UTCCitations Needed, go on Doughboys.
Havo
2020-09-23 18:39:37 +0000 UTC
