Thank you, Tevai, for sharing your experience and insights. Much appreciated.
In my post above, I was stating what I had recently read about country music origins being racist, which I had never heard of before. It would have been better for me to have included a link.
Here’s the account of “the racist roots” of country music:
Title: “Country music reckons with racial stereotypes and its future” (June 26, 2020)
https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/country-music-black-artists-1.5628236Excerpts:
“The country music industry has long been hesitant to address its long and complicated history with race, but the death of George Floyd in police custody and the protests it sparked in the U.S. and around the world became a sound too loud for the genre to ignore.
“Over the past weeks, country artists, labels and country music organizations posted about Black Lives Matter on social media, participated in the industry wide Blackout Tuesday or denounced racism outright. On Thursday, Grammy-winning country group, The Dixie Chicks announced it would drop "dixie" from its name. The group said in a statement that it wanted to meet "this moment."
“But Black artists say the industry still needs to address the systematic racial barriers that have been entrenched in country music for decades.
“Stereotypes that country music is just for white audiences, written by white songwriters, and sung by mostly white males are reinforced daily on country radio, playlists, label rosters and tour lineups. In recent years, however, the conversations about country music have shifted to a broader acknowledgement that non-white artists have always been in the genre, even if they aren't always recognized.
“Artist/scholar Rhiannon Giddens received a MacArthur Foundation grant for her work to reclaim Black contributions to country and folk music. And artists like Darius Rucker, Kane Brown and Jimmie Allen have all had No. 1 country hits in recent years, while Mickey Guyton just released an unflinching song called Black Like Me. But that ingrained culture of exclusivity remains a struggle to change.
"You can look at the reviews of my first album. I was called coloured, like, 'I didn't know colored people like country music,"' said Palmer, who had three singles reach the Hot Country Songs Chart. "I used to get messages all the time on MySpace, saying, `I am so sick of you. Why are you trying to be white?' or `Why are you trying to take over country music?"'
“Historically country music was created by and played in both white and Black communities in the South, but the music became marketed along racial lines in the Jim Crow era, said Amanda Marie Martinez, a historian and writer who is studying country music and race. White country music was stigmatized early on as "hillbilly music" so the industry started pushing it toward the rising white middle class as a way to make the genre more respected and hugely profitable.
"In the process, they've also prioritized the white, middle income, relatively conservative listener as their demographic, kind of the opposite of youth culture," Martinez said.
“But there were periods of diversity, such as the post-Civil Rights era, when Black artists like Charley Pride, Linda Martell, O.B. McClinton and Stoney Edwards were having success, alongside Johnny Rodriguez and Freddy Fender, who were singing in English and Spanish.
“Black artists today are also reclaiming spaces that have been overwhelmingly white domains.”
I was going to retract the phrase “racist roots” (of country music) that I had used in my OP and replace it with the perhaps less stark phrase of “systemic* racial barriers” which is a direct quote from the article I had read (link posted above).
But after reading the article again, and several others, and again listening to the absolutely haunting signature song of Billie Holiday, “Strange Fruit”, I’m going to stick with “racist roots” to avoid minimizing the mountain black country artists have had to climb.
I'm not saying that Billie Holiday was a country artist (she was known as a jazz singer) but that this song of hers tells the story of the injustices and outrages that Blacks have faced and still do.
I believe it was TLC, (amazing) former poster, who first mentioned the song Strange Fruit, which remains absolutely haunting no matter how many times you hear it. (Warning: graphic, disturbing content. But. We should know.):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DGY9HvChXkIf we think that “racism” is too strong a charge to level at country music, how about (from the article):
“long and complicated history with race”
“systemic racial barriers”
“stereotypes”
“ingrained culture of exclusivity”
Etc.
*NB: The linked article above uses the phrase “systematic racial barriers” – I changed it to “systemic” as I believe that is the word they meant to use.
Here are excerpts from another article (about a related incident I’m not focusing on here):
“…the possibility of the famously White genre [country music] embracing a more inclusive version of country music. This possibility is driven by a multiracial coalition (and Black women in particular) of artists, writers and fans outside the confines of Nashville’s Music Row, who have organized to reclaim a genre people of color have always loved and move the music away from a business model where they have never been welcomed.
“The country genre was created as a marketing category in the 1920s, when record executives capitalized on the potential to record and sell music from the American South. But while Black and White Southerners often played and enjoyed similar music, thanks to Jim Crow segregation the executives created two music categories, one White and one Black: “hillbilly” and “old-time” music — now collectively referred to as country music — and “race music.”
"The industry’s resulting business strategy routinely ignored evidence of non-White artists and fans and instead branded its music as the sound of racial backlash politics in the 1960s and 1970s. Some of the period’s most well-known songs capitalized on feelings of White anxiety, which the industry pushed even when artists resisted such branding. After Merle Haggard released his No. 1 hit “Okie from Muskogee” in 1969, the singer hoped to follow with “Irma Jackson,” a song about interracial love. Recognizing the money to be made on the heels of “Okie,” however, Haggard’s producer, Ken Nelson, instead insisted he release the jingoistic anthem “The Fightin’ Side of Me,” which also became a number one hit.
“The industry worked to keep country White despite evidence that Black artists could be commercially successful within the genre. In 1962 Ray Charles’s transformative album “Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music” was certified gold and received a Grammy nomination. Although the album brought a new, middle-of-the-road audience to country music, the industry failed to support the album as one of its own.
“In 1965, the industry did make an exception to its Whites-only rule, when Charley Pride became the first non-White artist signed to a country record label. In the years following, Pride would become one of the best-selling country artists of all-time.
“Following his success, new potential emerged for country to broaden its focus. Black artists like O.B. McClinton, Stoney Edwards and Linda Martell earned a string of small hits. And Mexican American singers Johnny Rodriguez and Freddy Fender achieved superstardom as well.
“But rather than market to a multiracial audience, the country music industry instead doubled-down on its Whites-only approach — even embracing Richard Nixon, who saw the country audience as part of his “Silent Majority,” during the throes of Watergate.
"The industry marketed its music as the product of White nostalgia, featuring many popular songs celebrating the “redneck” figure, such as Vernon Oxford’s “Redneck! (The Redneck national anthem).
“By the 1980s, country hits like Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA” emerged as the soundtrack of Reagan-era conservatism. Like Nixon, Ronald Reagan identified country listeners as his voters, making multiple visits to the Grand Ole Opry, and rhapsodizing that “Country music represents the story of out nation … It tells of our way of life and the men and women who built this nation and made it the greatest land on earth.” At a time when moral panic surrounded popular music and the Parents’ Music Resource Center sought to censor what children listened to, country was again presented as the genre of choice for White conservatives and members of the PMRC.
“Though the music has always been sold as a White genre, it has maintained widespread appeal, with fans across not only race but class, region, age and gender and sexuality lines. Over the past year especially, country artists, writers and fans of color who have not traditionally found acceptance within the country music business because of racism have worked diligently to reimagine a more inclusive country music community.
“Yet a paradox rests at the heart of this country climate. Though the music has always been sold as a White genre, it has maintained widespread appeal, with fans across not only race but class, region, age and gender and sexuality lines. Over the past year especially, country artists, writers and fans of color who have not traditionally found acceptance within the country music business because of racism have worked diligently to reimagine a more inclusive country music community.
“Writer Andrea Williams, meanwhile, has worked tirelessly to expose the racism rampant throughout the country music business. And singer Mickey Guyton has led the effort to support fellow Black country artists.
“But while Guyton’s song, “Black Like Me” received a Grammy nomination, she still receives little airplay on country radio, which continues to be the most powerful platform in promoting country artists.
“…two possible routes for country’s future: continue on its traditional path, catering to a marketplace built on Whiteness and reactionary right-wing politics. Or foster a new audience that takes advantage of country’s potential to be an inclusive musical community.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2021/02/17/crossroads-facing-country-music-after-morgan-wallens-use-racist-slur/NB: The 2nd article linked above includes some political comments, which I have tried to bypass in the excerpts above. That is not an aspect of this discussion that I wish to become the focus, as it is against board rules to discuss politics (as surely we all know by now). Some aspects of the discussion do include a historical political reality, however.
There are plenty of articles discussing this aspect of country music, if one cares to take the time to do a deeper dive. I read a lot so I am greatly surprised that I have never come across this fact about country music until this recently. I am distressed to discover this malignant reality about a genre of music I have always greatly enjoyed. I think many of us are still largely struggling with the relatively recent onslaught of negative facts about human society that are beyond question now. Does a negative past doom the future or is there redemption? If so, in what form and how to achieve it?
I can’t help but reflect on the current Canadian nightmare of the past racism-based residential schooling (compulsory) for children of Indigenous families. As we speak, ever more burial sites of their children are being located around the country, several here in B.C. to date, with certainly more to come. First Nations Peoples are now calling what happened “genocide”. A startling word to hear. A horrific word. A heartbreaking word. And yet. First Nations representatives have long been in negotiations with the Government of Canada to try and achieve “truth and reconciliation”. One Indigenous leader stated recently (not for the first time) that first comes truth - there can be no reconciliation without truth. Such a heartrending and powerful reality. First we have to know what happened, all of what there is to be sorry for, and that we are indeed sorry. Then, the Peoples most grievously, and irreparably, harmed are willing to be conciliatory, in the sense of peace-making. How much heart must that take? What a great hope to hold out. What a great gift from those who have been irretrievably wronged to be willing to hold out to (representatives of) the wrongdoers.
We must know and understand the past. And then work to find the way forward. Sometimes it feels overwhelming to learn of the many deep and appalling wrongs of history. I’m currently studying the history of Ireland. Finding out how exactly how warmongering my British ancestors were (English and Irish in this instance). So much learning and culture, the Enlightenment, the achievements, and yet swords into ploughshares wasn’t a concept they were ready to embrace, at the cost of untold numbers of lives, in the most brutal ways imaginable.
I’m disturbed to learn of the racist history of country music. My first impulse was I can’t listen to it any more, as some kind of silent protest against what occurred in the past. And yet, that’s the general course of history. We can’t change it. But we can make any necessary changes in our lives and attitudes to be better. And we can pay tribute by increasing our knowledge about past injustices, and within our own spheres trying to make amends somehow. If only by being informed and staying aware and trying to be a positive force.
So yeah. I’m sticking by my original conclusion in my previous post. Not only are the roots of country music racist, so has been the culture and practice of it. To my sorrow.
All I can do is be informed. Move forward. And be better.
(Post lightly edited for spacing and punctuation).
Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 07/14/2021 02:41PM by Nightingale.