A lot of Irish traditional music, and more modern Irish songs written in the traditional style, has a similar ethos. And there is a connection between Irish and Country, in the dim past. The distinction, however, is usually that a former working class life is being celebrated.
“Dublin in the rare auld times”:
“Ordinary Man” (Christy Moore):
This is my official Best Pop Song Ever Writte, with a superb tune, and very accomplished way of lulling you into humor before hitting you with working class anger, so I think its message would easily carry through into Country. The biggest challenge is that the protagonists meet at art college; that would have to become something more prosaic, but still require an incentive for her to be there. Just make damn sure you change words “smoke a fag”!
Amarillo Sky is a good example of a modern country sky not hiding the difficulties of everyday life.
I think part of the problem here is that most people think of these songs as “belonging” to the singer. Country music, unlike rock/rap, is for the most part written by song writers not the artist singing the song. It’s possible that the songwriter is one of those people and lives in a double-wide.
I don’t listen to the radio much at all so I have no idea how widespread its play was but I heard it fairly often on the alt-rock station I sometimes listen to on my commute to work. Incidentally, I did not reply just to nitpick since I acknowledge and agree with your point but the song came immediately to mind when I read the sentence and felt compelled to post it since it was such an obvious counterexample.
Also a beautiful song if you’ve not heard it. I like it better than the original and probably consider it my favorite mainstream song of the year.
Indeed. Appalachia and the South was heavily settled by Scots and Irish and once you become aware of the link, it seems pretty self-evident in a lot of older or more traditional sounding country songs. One of my favorites that it’s most obvious in is Copperhead Road by Steve Earle, which actually starts with bagpipes. Well my name’s John Lee Pettimore
Same as my daddy and his daddy before
You hardly ever saw Grandaddy down here
He only came to town about twice a year
Modern or mainstream country is just populist pop music with steel guitars and a nasal accent. I hate it.
Most people enjoy a sense of collective identity, and IME people who have little are more, not less, likely to take the attitude “this is who I am and I’m proud of it, and if you don’t like it, the hell with you.” At the point that you are judging what other people should be proud of, it seems like you’re not identifying condescension but engaging in it.
This thread’s been really enlightening. I used to listen to country music (10-15 years ago), growing up in Ohio. For a long time, I’ve been assuming that it’s condescending without giving it a second thought. I see the “working-class pride” angle a little differently now. There’s something wonderful about the lack of materialism and appreciation for the worth of human relationships and love.
However, it bothers me that sometimes, what passes for “pride” in our society is an unwillingness to learn from the previous generation’s mistakes and do things differently. If you’re proud of your family, why do you need to go to college/get out of the ghetto/move out of the trailer park? Why even try? To do so would be to implicitly show your family you’re not proud of them, right? I’ve seen this attitude back home, in rural Ohio. It’s sad.
Pride, when used as a way to defend a lifestyle that you’ve worked hard for but that is underrepresented in the media, is golden. Pride, when used as an excuse for laziness, is utterly degenerate, IMHO.
(Olivesmarch4th, thanks for the “classics”…looking back, I remember all of those! I really love “18 Wheels.” Now and then, I freak my husband out when we’re driving and flipping through the stations–and I know all the words to the country songs!)
A lot of the mainstream country I’ve heard barely qualifies as country. It takes its cue from 80s soft rock and then sticks a cowboy hat on it and maybe a banjo if you’re lucky. They’re legally obliged to mention how far they are away from the nearest Walmart too.
I don’t think country music is as condescending as blues music. There is always something jarring about hearing a successful, affluent performer wailing about how poor and downtrodden and miserable he is, regardless of genre. Heck, even in opera we have La Bohème, with well-fed (sometimes over-fed) people portraying starving artists.
jsgoddess, did I ever get around to acknowledging my error in denying you full Appalachian status in your part of Ohio? (Not that it’s left to me to bestow and withhold anyway.)
You fought my ignorance and won. I offer my apologies for being so stubborn.
jjimm, an excellent post to reflect or Irish connection. It’s in the dancing too, as I’m sure that you know. And there is something even more basic than that that I don’t know how to describe. I find it in people all over the South who have a Celtic ancestry. Part spirit, part mournful, part unnamable.
And I can remember when we did call cigarettes fags, though I agree that a change is called for.
As I said, you’d have to make some Brit-to-Yank alterations for a country version. Looking over the lyrics, you could make the girl some trustafarian college student who’s going slumming in some blue collar/redneck bar. I know there are a number of towns in the U.S. that have a large mix of both college students and working class “townies.” And “smoke a fag” can be changed to “drink a Pabst” without hurting things too much.
While I definitely see your point, I do want to mention that not all people who listen to country music (or live a country lifestyle) are dirt poor and suffering. Yeah, some are impoverished, and some live in trailers and make an honest living leading happy family lives. But I know a few cowboys too, who work incredibly hard and are actually more wealthy than I will ever be. But they still have giant bonfires and drink and party all weekend and eat BBQ chicken. So I guess my point is, the lifetstyle issue doesn’t necessarily have to be a class issue.
It sounds like a celebration of tribe to me. Being around your people through your life, and that being what in the end mattered most to you. Yes it was written by a millionaire, but that’s beside the point.
I think we are almost ethically required to be dissatisfied with our lot in life unless we are a celebrity, rich or cure cancer. Perhaps that song provides a respite for a weary soul struggling with life? Having them say, “Yeah, everything is ok.”
There’s a rumor that most (moreso than any other region of the US) American songs referencing states mention the South. Georgia On My Mind, Devil Went Down to Georgia, The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia, Slow Train to Georgia -heehee, I’m from Georgia, if y’all didn’t notice.
Anyway, there was a list I saw years ago giving a rough estimate of which states are mentioned the most frequently in songs but a cursory Google search didn’t bring up anything. Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee and Texas were definitely high on the list. Obviously, with the vast number of songs written and even recorded over time, I am not sure any sort of definitive list is available.
Now, regarding the OP, I think country music can be summed up nicely by a song performed by Trace Adkins, Songs About Me.
I think a lot of country singers actually still come from a background that may not be as impoverished as someone like Loretta Lynn but a background where their families lived a “good ol’ boy” life, their parents are those hard-working people you hear them sing about. Clay Walker is from Beaumont, Texas. Faith Hill is from Mississippi. Of course, Tim McGraw’s father was a famous baseball player but most country singers seem to have “normal” childhoods, unless their parents were also country singers. Yes, they are singing to their target audience, but in most cases it feels to me like they are actually singing about their friends’ and families’ lives. I have never felt the music was condescending.
I have not tried to edit, to pick the most poignant lines, I have just left the first line or two. If you would prefer quoting another line that better makes your point, or if I have deleted material that you know for a fact is past copyright, let me know by email and I will try to fix things. However, neither I nor the other moderators have the time or inclination to check for you. Basically, quote a line or two from a song and then provide a link to a site that does have copyright permission.
Well, it’s not like a genre of music can’t have good and bad songs.
At its best, country music is about the universal human condition (for adults anyway) of facing a pain or problem that simply can’t be solved, no matter how much we want to. We all face heartbreak, deaths of loved ones, lack of power in our job or society, feelings that perhaps we haven’t met our potential, or even just watching beloved things change not always for the better (I bet Tolkien would have appreciated a lot of country music). While lack of power (and to some degree feelings of failure or inferiority) is more a working-class concern, as far as I know, nobody gets to pass on the problem of death in this world.
At its worst, country music becomes empty sentiment (kitsch in Kundera’s sense), jingoistic and tribalistic, smugly anti-intellectual, encouraging a fatalistic approach to solvable problems, and, yes, condescending.
Of course, far more of country music, particularly mass-marketed mainstream radio country, is closer to its worst than its best. But Sturgeon’s law applies to any genre. I mean, if you’re judging all of country music by what you hear on a top-40 country station, you’d have to judge all of rock and roll based on Brittany Spears, Journey and Bananarama.
When Lyle Lovett wrote a throwaway lyric about traveling around the world and hanging out with Wim Wenders, I was impressed with how un-condescending the song was. Didn’t particularly like it, though. “Condescending” isn’t the make-or-break for any song.
With that said, it is not the same type of song, does not have the same intent, and (imo) is condescending as hell.
Where they are glorifying the average Joe’s life in country music; Working Class Hero, OTOH, is belittling people for living their everyday lives. I don’t believe the guys from Green Day are smart enough to understand, and probably thought it was a good anti-war song.
Just wanted to point out that while Tim McGraw was Tug’s son, he didn’t know it until he was 11 and Tug denied it until Tim was 18. Cite. He didn’t grow up rich or privileged, unless waitresses in Louisiana make a lot more than they do in the rest of the country.
