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What is defined as country music? Who is permitted to perform it? When a Black musician releases a country song, there is a barrage of criticism, remarks, and viewpoints. “That doesn’t qualify as true country!” “That’s appropriating someone else’s culture.” “She should stick to her own genre.” Or, as John Schneider, the actor from Dukes of Hazzard, crudely put it in a recent discussion: “You know, every dog has to mark every tree, right?”
All of the remarks, spanning from uninformed to overtly sexist, assume that commercial country music – a genre of guitars, banjos, and fiddles; featuring pick-up trucks, heartbreak, and a homespun lonely tone – is a heritage exclusive to white, rural southerners. This assumption is inaccurate.
The true history is complex and chaotic. To uncover the truth, we must go back hundreds of years before Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash, to the music originated by those who were enslaved and a recording industry that was segregated. Enslaved individuals of African descent originated the banjo in the Caribbean around the 1600s. This is a fact from history. They also played other types of stringed instruments, such as the violin. Whether they were enslaved or free, Black string bands became the main source of entertainment and dance music in European communities, from Barbados to Monticello to Rhode Island. They performed at events ranging from formal balls to political rallies, and were joined by impoverished individuals of various races and ethnicities who added their own musical customs to create a uniquely American folk music.
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During the 1800s, this traditional music was adopted for blackface minstrel shows, which were the most popular and racialized form of entertainment in America. This style of performance heavily influenced all subsequent forms of popular music. Throughout the years, Black people were at the center of this genre, playing instruments such as the fiddle, banjo, guitar, and harmonica. They used their creativity to blend and incorporate elements from their local traditions while also adapting to popular demands within a larger professional musical context.
Following this, the establishment of the recording business in the 1920s brought significant changes.
We have been taught to believe that musical genre is an unchangeable and unavoidable category, but we must not mistake genre for tradition. Tradition is molded by the unique customs of specific societies through extensive processes of creative involvement, as evidenced by the practices of Gaelic-speaking bagpipers from the Highlands, ngoni-playing djelis from Mali, fiddling ballad singers in the Ozarks, and numerous other musical traditions from across the globe. Tradition serves a cultural purpose for the people within a community. It encompasses storytelling songs, dance songs, spiritual songs, work songs, and is performed and sung in diverse ways according to the community’s interpretation.
However, the concept of genre can be attributed to capitalism and those in positions of power who dictate and sustain it in order to make art a commodity. During the 1920s, executives in the recording industry recognized the need to promote and sell records effectively. To achieve this, they established categories that simplified the diverse American musical landscape into catchy terms. Due to the cultural influences in the US, race was often used as a means to classify music, leading to the widespread segregation of American music.
In the decades leading up to the 1920s, the American music scene was characterized by its diversity and reliance on regional styles rather than racial influences. However, with the rise of a highly profitable industry, the landscape shifted. Musicians began to fuse different styles together, leading to the segregation of genres. The 1960s saw the emergence of country and R&B, eventually paving the way for the creation of rock and hip-hop records in the 1980s and beyond. This trend continued, leading to an oversaturation of similar sounding music.
Currently, after a century of being ignored, incorrect stories, and racism embedded in the country music scene, it is crucial to highlight the Black contribution to the creation of country music – and creation is the appropriate term, not just influence. Black artists, alongside their white peers from working-class backgrounds, actively took part in and influenced the genre, rather than being mere vessels with a knack for rhythm. The genre we know as country would not exist without the influence of black string band musicians, who played a significant role in the development of American music for over a century before the advent of recording technology.
No individual can claim ownership of a specific type of art. It is permissible for anyone to appreciate and create country music, particularly if it is done with consideration, comprehension, and honesty. However, let’s not deceive ourselves that the controversy surrounding this most recent single arises from anything other than individuals attempting to preserve their sentimental attachment to a solely white ethnic tradition that never truly existed. The reality is that we have all been misled; individuals from various backgrounds, regardless of their socioeconomic status, united to produce the music that the music industry labeled as country, and it is one of the greatest facets of American culture.
Source: theguardian.com
