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In his song “It’s America,” country singer Rodney Atkins delivers the following description of the U.S.: “It’s cities and farms, it’s open arms, one nation under God.” This is a typical description, made by country artists about their homeland: an emphasis on the rural character of the country, positive American values and a degree of religious humility. These characteristics have made country music enormously popular amongst a working-class audience, and boosted record sales and concert attendances immensely.
In this course, we will take a look at the cultural phenomenon that is country music. From its roots in the Appalachian mountains, to becoming the trigger of Elvis Presley’s successful career, all the way to dominating the American music scene in our day, we will chronicle the genre’s history and investigate how it became the “music of a nation.” Furthermore, we will discuss some of its most important artists and find out how they contributed to country music’s current status.
The focus of this course will be on how America is represented in country music, especially contemporary country music, with artists such as Garth Brooks, Toby Keith or Taylor Swift, offering a wide array of different topics and dealing with almost every aspect of American life and culture. You will be presented with these aspects, i.e. the American South and rural America, the struggles of the working class, politics, or the U.S. as a God-fearing nation, and we will analyze how country music deals with and represents these aspects in its lyrics and music videos.
Furthermore, there will be a collaboration of some sorts (details are still being discussed) with students from Tennessee Tech University in Cookeville, TN. The opportunity will be given to interact and work with them, as well as with Prof. James Akenson, who teaches courses in country music at Tennessee Tech. |
