These albums are often about American music as much as they are about America.
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Articles on Country music
Displaying 1 - 20 of 28 articles
A musicologist explains how an oft-forgotten opera, pop and jazz singer from New York City launched the country music industry a century ago.
Beyoncé playfully mixes aural identifiers of both ‘blackness’ and ‘whiteness’ to create something new
A young white southern belle asks a woman not to cheat with her man while an older Black southern queen warns a woman against cheating with her husband.
Beyoncé’s country-inspired album has caused a stir because the country music scene has a history of racial segregation that has erased its Black roots and gatekept it from Black artists.
To truly appreciate the track, it’s important to go beyond the long shadow of the Beatles’ version.
Confinement was the essence of Linda Martell’s brief career as a country star in the 1970s – and it’s the exact sort of fate that Beyoncé has sought to avoid.
Her new album, ‘Cowboy Carter,’ arrives at a moment when country music’s reputation as overwhelmingly white is finally starting to crack.
Country singer Jason Aldean’s hit song triggered renewed attention on vigilante justice, racism and urban America.
Canadian R&B artists, including Drake, have built lifestyle brands that simultaneously reinforce and challenge dominant beliefs about R&B music as Black and American, and Canadian identity as white.
Although its content is essentially libertarian, the No. 1 song of the summer in the U.S. resonates with both some Democratic supporters and those on the Trumpist right.
From the pre-Roe years to today, country musicians have written about the realities of life with restrictions on reproductive rights.
Her music can be found on dad rock compilations and on the set lists at drag nights.
Willie Nelson is an icon who rose to the top of an industry by challenging it – showing that you can be a counterculture figure and activist while remaining as American as apple pie.
Doc Watson’s popularity and influence came from his virtuosic guitar playing, powerful voice, broad musical taste, folksy storytelling and lack of pretense.
Through songs such as ‘The Pill,’ Lynn addressed issues confronting all women. The country star died on Oct. 4 at age 90.
The video for Lil Nas X’s latest track is provocative and erotic. It also fits into a tradition of turning the tables on those seeking to oppress marginalized groups through religious dogma.
While the genre is now overwhelming white, its roots are in Black music.
With his wonderful voice, fondness for strings and whistling and sad, beautiful stories, this American singer-songwriter lifts the spirits.
While some stereotype Alberta as a “conservative” province, the bucking and swift horses that typify the Calgary Stampede speak to a more complex spirit of risk seen in local musicians.
Top contributors
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Adjunct Lecturer of American Studies, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
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Professor of American Studies and English, Middlebury
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Professor of Appalachian Studies and Bluegrass, Old-Time and Roots Music Studies, East Tennessee State University
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Course Director MA (Music Industries), University of Liverpool
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Director of the Center for Texas Music History, Texas State University
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Assistant Professor of Writing Studies, University of British Columbia
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Associate Professor of Music, University at Buffalo
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Professor of Literature and Director of Irish and Irish American Studies, College of Charleston
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Reader in the Department of Music, University of Liverpool
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Assistant Professor of Digital Humanities, School of Information Studies (Faculty of Arts), L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa
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Professeur en sociologie politique, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM)
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Associate Professor of English, Texas State University
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PhD Candidate/Teaching Fellow in Systematic Theology, Boston College
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Étudiant à la maîtrise en sociologie, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM)
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Assistant Professor in Irish Traditional Music, University of Limerick
