Probing into the Culture of American Country Music

Zhang Haiming

(School of Foreign Languages East China Normal University,Shanghai 200241)



Probing into the Culture of American Country Music

Zhang Haiming

(School of Foreign Languages East China Normal University,Shanghai 200241)

Born in the rural south of the United States,having boomed with the fusion of racial music in the last century and found its way into the big family of popular music,American country music,one of the well-accepted popular music genres,with its unique plain and narrative lyrics,realistic themes,special musical instruments and musicians,has deeply resonated with the listeners’ life experience and aroused their yearnings to go back to the tranquil life.Probing into the culture of American country music can,not only fill in the gap of the related cultural researches,but also help us reflect what Chinese popular music can learn from American country music to enrich its own connotation.

the culture of American country music;connotation;features

Ⅰ.The definition and connotation of country music

James Hugh Calum Laurie,the famous British actor and musician,once commented on popular music,“All the different kinds of music that you know,jazz,blues and rock’n’roll and pop and folk and country,all those categories,really,when you come down to it,are nonsense.They don’t mean anything.All they mean is an easier way of cataloging music if you happen to run a record shop,which I suspect you don’t.”〔1〕Sure enough,the purpose of categorizing popular music is mainly to define target customers and facilitate the sale of different records.However,with over 200 years’ development,since various kinds of popular music sub-genres have more or less solidified some exclusive traits,it can’t be arbitrarily concluded any more that the classification of popular music and the research on their definitions and connotations are meaningless.

Then,what kind of music can be called “country music”? Is its definition,just as the famous country singer Kenny Rogers says,“all the music that countrymen prefer to buy”?〔2〕In the author’s opinion,it makes sense to some extent,but its defining logic as “cataloging music according to its buyers” is not rigorous enough.Because,for one thing,there is no evidence showing that “countrymen” only buy country music,for another,although city dwellers seem to have nothing to do with country music,they love enjoying it instead.For example,in the “country music” entry of Microsoft Encarta encyclopedia,we may find the following data:“in 2009 country music was the most listened to rush hour radio genre during the evening commute,and second most popular in the morning commute in the United States.”〔3〕Obviously,the commute drivers must cover almost all social strata,including city dwellers.Therefore,to understand what country music is,a more scientific definition is needed.We may as well extract some common key words from the introductions of related books and electronic literature,and summarize a precise concept of country music based on it.The key words are as follows:

First,origin.Undoubtedly,country music takes its root mainly from southeastern American folk music.A careful study of its origin may show us that,although North America was discovered by Christopher Columbus,an Italian voyager working for Spain,the British was the first to colonize there.Therefore,more precisely speaking,apart from the slight influence of Native Americans,country music’s real origin is British ballads (one of the sound proofs is “Barbara Allen”,a British ballad which is still well-known in America).〔4〕As the later colonial history shows,the French took control of Mississippi basin and the Spanish mainly colonized the west coast of North America,along with the influx of black slaves in the south.Therefore,it’s easy to deduce that，spreading from southeast to mid-south and southwest,country music ’s sampling is mainly focused on British,French,Spanish and African folk music.For example,the country song “Jambalaya (On the Bayou)”,which is allegedly written by Hank Williams,the so-called “The Father of Contemporary Country Music”,is actually derived from a Cajun (French descendants living in Louisiana) song “Grand Texas”.〔5〕

Second,development.Country music’s developing history is not just confined in folk music area,but instead,is a continuous process of music fusion.Apart from the comparatively authentic country sub-genre “Bluegrass”,by absorbing other music elements,country music has developed various kinds of crossover categories,such as,“Western Swing”combining country and jazz,“Honky-tonk”incorporating electric instruments,and “Country Rock” fusing country and rock.Therefore,although born pure and simple,country music has long gone beyond countryside and become a mixture of different music genres.

Third,end-result.Generally speaking,world music can be divided into three categories:folk music of lower classes,classical music of higher classes and popular music appealing to most social strata.〔6〕Although evolving out of folk music tradition,country music is now far more related to commercial pop music than to folk.〔7〕As for the reasons,there are mainly two:firstly,when examining the cause of its birth,we may find that,country music is not the 100% copy of folk music,but the result of disc industry and radio stations’ competing for proliferating migrant worker audiences;〔8〕secondly,it’s developing process is getting increasingly commercialized.Take the country sub-genre “Nashville Sound” as an example.During the 1950’s and 1960’s,country music is strongly characterized by soft melody,exquisite and mass production,which is very much in line with the features of popular music.To have the perpetual knowledge of this,we only need to listen to some representative country singers’ music at that time,such as Jim Reeves and Patsy Cline’s songs.

Based on the above analysis，now we can try defining country music in this way:the so-called “country music”,refers to a major genre of American music.Born out of the white southerners’ folk music,fusing other music genres’ elements with the folk ballads from Europe and Africa,country music has become more and more commercialized and been one member of popular music family.

Ⅱ.The traits and identification of country music

As for the typical features of country music,conventional focus is put on its music part,i.e.,simple melody with 2-4 repeated chords,slow and steady beat (mainly 4/4 ).However,in the author’s opinion,these are not the exclusive features of country music,because,for one thing,simple melody and steady rhythm can also be found in blues,for another,punk also has simple chords as few as 3.Country music’s signature features lie more in its following elements:

1.Narrative,straightforward lyrics

The reason why lyrics tops the list of country’s features comes from the emphasis on it in most related literature,just as Microsoft Encarta encyclopedia stresses “Country music is based predominantly on lyric content rather than musical content”.〔9〕In a nutshell,the features of country lyrics are the following two:

First,narrative.Country music is good at telling a story.Even if a country song talks about something abstract (like love),its lyrics tends to tell a story instead of simply expressing feelings.For example,in Carrie Underwood’s “Before He Cheats”,the theme of disappointed love is reflected by the story of a woman taking revenge on her potentially unfaithful boyfriend/husband.

Second,straightforward.Alan Jackson once wrote a country song “Remember When” in memory of the love between him and his wife.In the lyrics,we may find the line “you were the first,so was I,we made love and then you cried”,which,if translated into Chinese,not only will the moving effect brought by the plain words be gone,but also may the lyrics even be accused of its erotic taste.Another more extreme example is Jimmie Rodgers’“Blue Yodel #1”.〔10〕This early country song tells us how the protagonist is planning to take revenge on his girlfriend cheating on him by buying a gun to kill her and her adulterer.Judging from the Easterner’s moral standards,the mean or even violent lyrics may cause our aversion instead of appreciation.

The reflections on the above traits are,first,the reason why country songs can move its fans so deep,is not just because its lyrics voices countryman’s inmost thoughts,but also because it arouses ordinary people’s aspiration for tranquil life;Second,only if conveyed in plain and precise language as English,the straightforward and narrative lyrics of country music can achieve its moving effect,no wonder this music style can hardly be accepted by Eastern countries.

2.Realistic theme

In accordance with the plain and narrative lyrics,country songs’ themes are quite realistic as well.In the early stage of country music,its topics are basically centered around daily trifles happening to the songwriters.At that time,some people even joked that country songs are just about “I’m drunk,my dog died,my wife abandoned me,my car broke down or my barn was on fire”.〔11〕Although this is a bit exaggerated,it’s for sure that country music truly never simulates a dream world but only shows reality and true experiences of the song writers,such as family love (“Butterfly kisses”),love of the hometown (“Home on the Range”),God-praising (“a Living Prayer”),etc.

However,a trend should be noted that,as songwriters become better educated,there has been a expansion tendency for country music’s themes.For example,Alan Jackson’s “Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning)”expresses common people’s feeling about 911 terrorist attack,Dixie Chick’s “Not Ready to Make Nice” triggers the reflection on American freedom of speech,Kenny Rogers’“the Last Ten Years”reviews some big social events during the 1990’s.It must be pointed out,though,that although these country songs’ themes have gone beyond its original range of “bits and pieces of trifles”,its feature of reality has been well-preserved.

3.Exclusive musical instruments

Among the identification standards of country music,the most perceived one is some exclusive musical instruments,such as banjo,fiddle,mandolin,etc.Literally,the reason many songs can be labeled “country music” is just because they use some particular feature instruments.

First,the fact that the above instruments appeared far earlier than country music can prove that country music contributed nothing to the invention of them.For example,as most literature shows,banjo is an Africa-originated folk struck instrument which originally had nothing to do with white folk music.Their connection began from black slaves’ migration into North America,and got strengthened after the popularization of banjo in the Confederate Army of American Civil War.〔12〕

Second,even by now,some feature instruments still don’t totally belong to country music.Take fiddle as an example.Fiddle was born in the middle of 16th century when Italian Renaissance peaked and symphony was in its infancy,from which we may infer that,the invention of fiddle is not only for folk music accompanying but also to enlarge the symphony solo instrument family.〔13〕This can also be proved by the fact that we use two words to refer to the same thing on different occasions (“fiddle” for folk and “violin” for classical).

4.Distinctive singers

Besides the above three traits,country music bears another special feature,which is the singers’ uniform voices and dressing code.As far as voice is concerned,unlike the diversified voices of singers of other music genres,most male country singers have a deep and nasal voice (such as Randy Travis),while female singers’ voices are,almost without exception,loud and clear (such as Alison Krauss).It’s hard for us to find the exact reason for this uniformity,but we may infer that this is the result of country singers’ in-heritage of folk singers’ “natural voice”.Comparatively,modern male country singers’ cowboy dressing style seems not that natural,because this did not begin from the early stage of country music,but took shape when country music was spread to the west,and became popular again in the 1980’s “New Country Movement”.〔14〕This dressing style does not necessarily show singers’ country origin,but is just a way of expressing their aversion to commercialized country music and their yearning to go back to the original state of country music.Moreover,after studying some singers’ family background,we may find that,although there are many singers of country origin (such as George Strait and Garth Brooks),there are also some who don’t have anything to do with country (like Brad Paisley).

Ⅲ.Conclusion

The reason why this paper tries probing into the culture of American country music are as follows:

First,to make up for the related research.As previously mentioned,in the big family of world music,popular music takes up at least 1/3 proportion,but the concerning research is far less then the ones on the other two genres.This paper holds the belief that,the popularity and commercialization of popular music does not necessarily derive the conclusion that popular music is superficial and not worth studying.With the discussion on the connotation and traits of country music,this paper intends to raise the awareness of textual research on popular music,and to fill in the gap of country music research as well.

Second,to uncover the reference value of country music to Chinese popular music.Thanks to American multi-ethnic and philharmonic ethnic characteristics,country music was born and kept booming.However,we can’t conclude that its success is impossible to clone in other countries,considering the fact that it is nowadays quite popular not only in the United States,but also in Canada,Australia,or even some countries in South America and Asia.〔15〕Music is an international language.Among all kinds of different music genres,the category which resonates with common people and soothes their souls with simple melody and lyrics,is indispensable worldwide.Unfortunately,in Chinese pop scene,there is so little music which can give us soothing feelings and arouse our resonance of peaceful life.Since we have been borrowing so many elements from some other music genres (mainly rock,rap and R & B) in Euro-American pop scene,why can’t we learn some lessons from country music (such as narrative lyrics,realistic themes distinctive musical instruments,etc) and create our own “country music” ? Based on this intention,this paper was written to open the related subject and wait for the further research on it.

〔1〕James Hugh Calum Laurie,Let Them Talk:A Celebration of New Orleans Blues,Warner Music UK Limited,2011.

〔2〕 You Jingbo,The Brief History of Western Popular Music,Beijing:the Press of China Federation of Literary and Art Circles,2004.

〔3〕〔9〕〔14〕Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia,Country Music,2009.

〔4〕Xie Weiqun,American Country Music,Hefei:Anhui Arts Press,2002.

〔5〕Jambalaya (On the Bayou),2016,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jambalaya_(On_the_Bayou).

〔6〕〔7〕Tao Xin,Popular Music Handbook,Shanghai:Shanghai Music Publishing House,2000.

〔8〕Zhang Yuexin,The Appreciation Guide on Western Popular Music,Yinchuan:Ningxia People’s Publishing House,2005

〔10〕Yuan Yue,American Folk Music:The Stories,Nanjing:Press of Nanjing University,2011.

〔11〕Zhang Ziyua,Country Music-a Cultural History,People’s Music,2001.

〔12〕Huang Ke,The Story of Banjo,Musical Instruments,2003.

〔13〕Lin Changzheng,The Review of Violin’s Development,Theatrical Family,2003.

〔15〕Country Music,2016,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Country_music.

About the author：Pan Kun(1980—),College of Marxism in Sichuan Agricultural University,Commmunist Party Secretary and Subdecanal,doctor of law,Associate Professor,tutor,main research in the basic principles of Marxism with China’s reality;Wang Dan(1987—),College of Marxism in Sichuan agricultural University,professional teacher,research in the basic principles of Marxism with China’s reality.