Country Comes to Town: The Music Industry and the Transformation of Nashville

by Jeremy Hill

Overview

Country music evokes a simple, agrarian past, with images of open land and pickup trucks. While some might think of the genre as a repository of nostalgia, popular because it preserves and reveres traditional values, Jeremy Hill argues that country music has found such expansive success because its songs and its people have forcefully addressed social and cultural issues as well as geographic change. Hill demonstrates how the genre and its fans developed a flexible idea of "country," beyond their rural roots, and how this flexibility allowed fans and music to "come to town," to move into and within urban spaces, while retaining a country "character."

To understand how the genre has become the far-reaching commercial phenomenon that it is today, Hill explores how various players within the country music fold have grappled with the notion of place. He shows both how the industry has transformed the city of Nashville and how country music—through song lyrics, imagery associated with the music, and branding—has reshaped ideas about the American landscape and character. As the genre underwent significant change in the last decades of the twentieth century, those who sought to explain its new styles and new locations relied on a traditional theme: "You can take the boy out of the country, but you can't take the country out of the boy." Hill demonstrates how this idea—that you can still be "country" while no longer living in a rural place—has been used to expand country's commercial appeal and establish a permanent home in the urban space of Nashville.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781625341723
Publisher:	University of Massachusetts Press
Publication date:	12/18/2015
Series:	American Popular Music
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.70(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Jeremy Hill, who earned a PhD in American studies from George Washington University, is an independent scholar who lives in Chicago.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments vii

Introduction 1

1 "Nothing but Realism": Early Hillbilly Music's Blend of Rural and Urban 11

2 "Country Comes to Town": A New Urban Identity for Country Music in the 1960s 31

3 "You Sound Like Us but You Look Like Them": The Racial Politics of Country Music in the City of Nashville 56

4 "Country Music Is Wherever the Soul of a Country Music Fan Is": Opryland U.S.A. and the Importance of "Home" in Country Music 77

5 "They're Not as Backward as They Used to Be": Country Music's Commercial Success in the 1990s and the Transformation of Downtown Nashville 103

Conclusion 125

Notes 131

Index 169

What People are Saying About This

Rachel Rubin

In his sophisticated focus on the importance of a constructed and affective 'home' in both creating and defining a fan base, Hill breaks new ground in the scholarship of country music — and popular music studies more generally. This is one of those books that has the ability to make readers — including students — sit up and realize that meaning is created in a myriad of places, in a myriad of ways, all in noisy conversation with each other.

Diane Pecknold

In a clear writing style, Hill links country's construction of an 'ordinary folks' American identity to the racial politics and urban policy of the late twentieth century in a compelling way.

Editorial Reviews

"In a clear writing style, Hill links country's construction of an 'ordinary folks' American identity to the racial politics and urban policy of the late twentieth century in a compelling way."—Diane Pecknold, author of The Selling Sound: The Rise of the Country Music Industry

"In his sophisticated focus on the importance of a constructed and affective 'home' in both creating and defining a fan base, Hill breaks new ground in the scholarship of country music—and popular music studies more generally. This is one of those books that has the ability to make readers—including students—sit up and realize that meaning is created in a myriad of places, in a myriad of ways, all in noisy conversation with each other."—Rachel Rubin, author of Well Met: Renaissance Faires and the American Counterculture

"Hill's tone and knack for cultural and historical context help create a narrative that is illuminating and rich in detail. . . . Hill tells this story in masterfully paced chapters that are well-researched and thought-provoking."—Popmatters

"Jeremy Hill provides interesting insights into the culture that gave rise to and continues to support country music. . . . Hill's copious endnotes are particularly valuable for their detailed annotations. Highly recommended."—Choice

"Hill's book is a cautionary tale for community leaders in deindustrialized towns throughout the Appalachian coalfields and the U.S. Midwest who might find themselves stuck in outmoded ways of thinking about their local economies and who might prefer to lament the loss of mining and manufacturing jobs than to welcome a new creative economy."—Notes, Quarterly Journal of the Music Library Association

From the Publisher

Hill's book is a cautionary tale for community leaders in deindustrialized towns throughout the Appalachian coalfields and the U.S. Midwest who might find themselves stuck in outmoded ways of thinking about their local economies and who might prefer to lament the loss of mining and manufacturing jobs than to welcome a new creative economy.

Quarterly Journal of the Music Library Association Notes

Jeremy Hill provides interesting insights into the culture that gave rise to and continues to support country music.... Hill's copious endnotes are particularly valuable for their detailed annotations. Highly recommended.

Choice

Hill's tone and knack for cultural and historical context help create a narrative that is illuminating and rich in detail.... Hill tells this story in masterfully paced chapters that are well-researched and thought-provoking.

Popmatters