Country Music Essay
- Submitted by: autumnsimpson
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- Category: Arts
- Date Submitted: 04/29/2014 08:35 PM
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Autumn Simpson
AMST 202
Country Essay
Country music solidifies the working-class identity. Fox argues that, “‘Working-class’ experience is, after all, not merely a social scientific abstraction… it is an enveloping material environment… dominated by alienated, body-wrecking, and mind-numbing manual labor”. Fox demonstrates the link between everyday life and the fantasy through his assessment of Lockhart Texas culture, a white collar based community. He argues that country music plays a vital role in working-class culture, treating country music primarily as a form of “working-class art”. Country music is and has always been widely defined. Pop country all the way to yodel country. The one consistent factor is the audience, white working class and its representation of their values. Hard work, Christianity, rural lifestyle, American, a good time, and struggle for love. Through this social cultural context country music is deeply identified in the working class way of life and the lyrics of country music give a voice to their struggles and triumphs.
In chapter five it was very interesting to me when Fox talks about the concept of “feeling” and “relating” and when used in the write context with meaningful words it provokes emotions good and bad. Country music is a genre that is sung from the heart with words about real life experiences and that is why country music is so relatable to everyday hard working Americans. It was very interesting to me at the late night gathering with the singer Randy Meyer the man who was recovering a stroke that his friends at the bar tried really hard to prolong a moment with him and his music that they all know was very meaningful to him. This was particularly interesting to me because I find it to be so true that hearing a song brings back so many memories and emotions regardless if you are young, old or even ill. Music is so much more than just a melody with words, it is about the way a song can make you feel. I think...
AMST 202
Country Essay
Country music solidifies the working-class identity. Fox argues that, “‘Working-class’ experience is, after all, not merely a social scientific abstraction… it is an enveloping material environment… dominated by alienated, body-wrecking, and mind-numbing manual labor”. Fox demonstrates the link between everyday life and the fantasy through his assessment of Lockhart Texas culture, a white collar based community. He argues that country music plays a vital role in working-class culture, treating country music primarily as a form of “working-class art”. Country music is and has always been widely defined. Pop country all the way to yodel country. The one consistent factor is the audience, white working class and its representation of their values. Hard work, Christianity, rural lifestyle, American, a good time, and struggle for love. Through this social cultural context country music is deeply identified in the working class way of life and the lyrics of country music give a voice to their struggles and triumphs.
In chapter five it was very interesting to me when Fox talks about the concept of “feeling” and “relating” and when used in the write context with meaningful words it provokes emotions good and bad. Country music is a genre that is sung from the heart with words about real life experiences and that is why country music is so relatable to everyday hard working Americans. It was very interesting to me at the late night gathering with the singer Randy Meyer the man who was recovering a stroke that his friends at the bar tried really hard to prolong a moment with him and his music that they all know was very meaningful to him. This was particularly interesting to me because I find it to be so true that hearing a song brings back so many memories and emotions regardless if you are young, old or even ill. Music is so much more than just a melody with words, it is about the way a song can make you feel. I think...