If you don't mind sharing - Do you choose your own gifs/images to embed? I am cackling at "the No. 1 rule of the white fight club: Never admit you are white!"
I love this piece. I've been embarking on my own sort of reclamation of a genre I love by learning to play the banjo. Which only in the context of whiteness would be odd/different for a Black woman to do.
The erasure of Blackness from country music was foundational to its creation as a genre. Did you point out in the Dolly essay that record execs in the 1920s distinguished "race records" from "hillbilly music" to create separate markets for styles that may not have been seen as distinct before? Lesley Riddle, a Black musician who either wrote or collected a great number of the Carter Family's songs, played an immensely important role in the birth of the genre, but probably few Carter Family fans knew his name during the time the group was recording. Mike Seeger tracked Riddle down and persuaded him to return to performing in 1965. He died in 1979, just as Reagan was reasserting the Whiteness of country to make it the Republican soundtrack.
Insightful dissection of country music as a vehicle for whiteness as default. As a total aside, I met my bio father two years ago. I have 3rd/4th cousins who have a country band. I haven't met them yet but I have visited where we are from - Carriere, MS. The family church is Hart's Chapel, which is a couple towns over.
If you don't mind sharing - Do you choose your own gifs/images to embed? I am cackling at "the No. 1 rule of the white fight club: Never admit you are white!"
I love this piece. I've been embarking on my own sort of reclamation of a genre I love by learning to play the banjo. Which only in the context of whiteness would be odd/different for a Black woman to do.
Can't wait to check out your playlist!
The erasure of Blackness from country music was foundational to its creation as a genre. Did you point out in the Dolly essay that record execs in the 1920s distinguished "race records" from "hillbilly music" to create separate markets for styles that may not have been seen as distinct before? Lesley Riddle, a Black musician who either wrote or collected a great number of the Carter Family's songs, played an immensely important role in the birth of the genre, but probably few Carter Family fans knew his name during the time the group was recording. Mike Seeger tracked Riddle down and persuaded him to return to performing in 1965. He died in 1979, just as Reagan was reasserting the Whiteness of country to make it the Republican soundtrack.
Insightful dissection of country music as a vehicle for whiteness as default. As a total aside, I met my bio father two years ago. I have 3rd/4th cousins who have a country band. I haven't met them yet but I have visited where we are from - Carriere, MS. The family church is Hart's Chapel, which is a couple towns over.
Yall might enjoy this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_bMgoPAlTY