I was reading through some different articles and an article from a March 29, 2008 edition of St. Petersburg Times title Southern Comfort for Hard Times by Sean Daly struck my attention. I think it was because of the research I had done about the history of country music for my last blog.
Within this article, John Rumble, a senior historian at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville was quoted for saying “In times of stress, country music has always provided a refuge. It’s a narrative genre that tells stories in realistic terms that people can understand. Country tends to put the lyric up front. That doesn’t always happen in rock.” This was further backed up in the article because of the current war in Iraq. The article leads readers to believe that country music presents a real-world comfort that gives support to people in times of struggle when a nation is at war and facing recession at home.
This made me think because in my research from my last blog, I learned that country music had some major progressions during wars (or right after wars) and during the Great Depression. As I continued to read this article, it went on to talk about the Carter Family and the boom of the country radio coming about during the Great Depression. The article names the songs, Keep on the Sunny Side, I Ain’t Gonna Work Tomorrow, and That’s Why I’m Blue to support its argument. Furthermore, the article points out that seventy years later the same thing is happening with songs like Shiftwork, All-American Girl, Gunpowder and Lead, Home, Country Man, Things A Mama Don’t Know, Trying to Stop You Leaving, and Small Town Southern Man. “Country artists have a tendency to not forget where they came from. They give off a less pretentious vibe than other artists. They’re real people singing about real things” states Veronica Young who is a popular night time jock on WQYK’s radio station. When a question was proposed to the listeners of this radio station about why country fans are so loyal, some of the answers were “It’s about the real world”, “A friendly place”, “comfort food”, “from the heart”, “Tradition, family”, and “Today’s world is so confusing, but sometimes all I have to do is listen to country music.”
I am really glad I found this article because I think it is very interesting and I would have never made that connection by myself. I like how you can see the connection with country music and the current war, as well as wars from the past and the Great Depression. Furthermore, it is very interesting how country music has stayed with the connection to home, work, and hard times for so many years; it has never lost the patriotism aspect of this genre. I would like to find out more and further research what connections country music in Australia has with events that are currently or have already happened in the world. Are there any connections? Were there connections in the past that no longer exist? I plan to try to find more information out about this, but if any one else wants to as well that would be great!
-Natalie Boyce
Personally i think with in australia country music has been a form of comfort mainly regarding issues with in australia itself. You only need to look at alot of Australia’s issues with the “great brown land” to look at issues of drought and its effect of the entire country. In my research on this topic i came across “Politics in country music” By Kim Honan
fromt he ABC which looks at how much country singers speak out about issues effecting rual Australia. “The war, environment, aboriginal rights and reconciliation are the more popular political issues addressed in Australian country music.”
I think music can be an expression of emotions in any genre, but country music looks at the community aspect of it and can touch the hearts of so many people becuase it can give a sense of not being alone and going through tough times as a group!
Sophie Adams
I took a look at that article you found by Kim Honan. It was a very good article. I do believe that country music in Australia does have the same connections as they do in the United States; however, I am not sure it is to the same extent. From this article and a little other research, it seems to me that the United States has a stronger connection to the war and current events portrayed in their country music. There is no doubt that it does have a connection, but “Australia’s political songwriting seems to have faded.”
Personally, this makes sense to me. Just comparing the two countries, even though I have only been over here for a few months, Australia is much more laid back than the United States. Also, I believe that the Unites States has a more direct connection with the current war in Iraq, which has caused many new songs to develop in country music. It is interesting to compare and contrast a genre of music in two different countries. I like seeing the differences and similarities!!
I love the quote you found that says “In times of stress, country music has always provided a refuge. It’s a narrative genre that tells stories in realistic terms that people can understand. Country tends to put the lyric up front. That doesn’t always happen in rock.” I think that is so very true. Country songs have a great story and i have never heard quite that depth of story telling in any other genre, and I think that is part of country music’s appeal. It has a ‘real’ quality that a lot of mainstream songs lack. It tells real stories of real people. I think that helps to give country music such impact and community appeal. It sort of belongs to the people of the country because it tells stories dear to them.