The jukebox of history: narratives of loss and desire in the discourse of country music

Abstract

Is country music for real? This question haunts country's detractors, critics, fans and analysts, as it haunts all students of popular culture. Country music is only an extreme example of the instability, contradiction and ironic reflexivity characteristic of popular cultural forms in general in postmodern, capitalist society. It seems impossible to locate an ‘authentic’ country music text, performance or context, one which represents the ‘real’ life of a ‘real’ community without alienated nostalgia, false consciousness or kitschy commodification. On the other hand, country remains more overtly loyal to the experience, desires and language of a particular class and culture than almost any other major popular musical genre. A unique, if elusive core of ‘authenticity’ tantalises country's supporters and infuriates its critics, but attempts to separate the true from the false in country music, whether at the level of text, context or performance, are bound to fail. Country resists all such attempts; it incorporates and combines the true and the false into a poetic which is explicitly deconstructive of the ideology which these categories encode.

Narrative Paradigms, Musical Signifiers, and Form as Function in Country Music

“…Similar descriptions are found inFox 2004. The tradition of including children in family bands dates to the earliest country recording artists, including the Stonemans, and continues to the present day.…”

“…Along with its grounding in a particular theological perspective, country music and the culture in which it thrives embrace a multigenerational community, which is then re-3 Significant contributions to this area of study include Fillingim 2003, Ellison 1995, Rogers 1989, Ching 2001, Rogers and Williams 2000, Fox 1992, and Fox 2004 "I Dream of a Hillbilly Heaven," also called "I Dreamed of a Hillbilly Heaven," by Hal Southern and Eddie Dean, has been recorded by several prominent artists since 1954, including Tex Ritter, Marty Stuart, Dolly Parton, and Bill Anderson. The roll call of country stars who reside in this imagined paradise changes from version to version.…”

Authenticity as a form of worth

“…More specifically, discovery and introduction, agency with new music, attending small and obscure gigs, exercising selective "refusal" and "do-it-yourself" in a variety of ways, and the easy communication and embodiment of cultural capital are all documented from inside the indie scene as the typical range of action characterizing a fan (Fonarow, 2006;Kruse, 2003). On the other hand, "enacting" and "re-textualizing" the music in memory or immediate setting, acting out sociable subjectivity and despondence through it, reflexivity and self-deprecation about taste but still ascribing value to what is "bad," and singing and speaking with a vocal timbre that is stigmatized but does not apologize for itself -all of these are practices that structure the ethos of the country scene (Fox, 1992(Fox, , 2004Malone, 2002).…”

“…Authentic country music "speaks for" traumatic and difficult experiences, but it also serves as tool for realizing desirable activities and experiences. This is often framed by lyrics that transition between the narrative poles of "loss and desire" (Fox, 1992), which is evident in fan associations between "down and out," on the one hand, and "sweet and hopeful," on the other.…”

A Distinctive Country Voice: The Nashville Sound and Country's Genre Crisis in the 1950s

“…Similarly, for Aaron Fox (1992), the discourse of authenticity betrayed a "nostalgic preference" (p. 68) for cultural and musical forms that have been…”