Country Boys and Redneck Women: New Essays in Gender and Country Music
Country music boasts a long tradition of rich, contradictory gender dynamics, creating a world where Kitty Wells could play the demure housewife and the honky-tonk angel simultaneously, Dolly Parton could move from traditionalist "girl singer" to outspoken trans rights advocate, and current radio playlists can alternate between the reckless masculinity of bro-country and the adolescent girlishness of Taylor Swift.

In this follow-up volume to A Boy Named Sue, some of the leading authors in the field of country music studies reexamine the place of gender in country music, considering the ways country artists and listeners have negotiated gender and sexuality through their music and how gender has shaped the way that music is made and heard. In addition to shedding new light on such legends as Wells, Parton, Loretta Lynn, and Charley Pride, it traces more recent shifts in gender politics through the performances of such contemporary luminaries as Swift, Gretchen Wilson, and Blake Shelton. The book also explores the intersections of gender, race, class, and nationality in a host of less expected contexts, including the prisons of WWII-era Texas, where the members of the Goree All-Girl String Band became the unlikeliest of radio stars; the studios and offices of Plantation Records, where Jeannie C. Riley and Linda Martell challenged the social hierarchies of a changing South in the 1960s; and the burgeoning cities of present-day Brazil, where "college country" has become one way of negotiating masculinity in an age of economic and social instability.
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Country Boys and Redneck Women: New Essays in Gender and Country Music
Country music boasts a long tradition of rich, contradictory gender dynamics, creating a world where Kitty Wells could play the demure housewife and the honky-tonk angel simultaneously, Dolly Parton could move from traditionalist "girl singer" to outspoken trans rights advocate, and current radio playlists can alternate between the reckless masculinity of bro-country and the adolescent girlishness of Taylor Swift.

In this follow-up volume to A Boy Named Sue, some of the leading authors in the field of country music studies reexamine the place of gender in country music, considering the ways country artists and listeners have negotiated gender and sexuality through their music and how gender has shaped the way that music is made and heard. In addition to shedding new light on such legends as Wells, Parton, Loretta Lynn, and Charley Pride, it traces more recent shifts in gender politics through the performances of such contemporary luminaries as Swift, Gretchen Wilson, and Blake Shelton. The book also explores the intersections of gender, race, class, and nationality in a host of less expected contexts, including the prisons of WWII-era Texas, where the members of the Goree All-Girl String Band became the unlikeliest of radio stars; the studios and offices of Plantation Records, where Jeannie C. Riley and Linda Martell challenged the social hierarchies of a changing South in the 1960s; and the burgeoning cities of present-day Brazil, where "college country" has become one way of negotiating masculinity in an age of economic and social instability.
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Country Boys and Redneck Women: New Essays in Gender and Country Music

Country Boys and Redneck Women: New Essays in Gender and Country Music

Country Boys and Redneck Women: New Essays in Gender and Country Music

Country Boys and Redneck Women: New Essays in Gender and Country Music

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Overview

Country music boasts a long tradition of rich, contradictory gender dynamics, creating a world where Kitty Wells could play the demure housewife and the honky-tonk angel simultaneously, Dolly Parton could move from traditionalist "girl singer" to outspoken trans rights advocate, and current radio playlists can alternate between the reckless masculinity of bro-country and the adolescent girlishness of Taylor Swift.

In this follow-up volume to A Boy Named Sue, some of the leading authors in the field of country music studies reexamine the place of gender in country music, considering the ways country artists and listeners have negotiated gender and sexuality through their music and how gender has shaped the way that music is made and heard. In addition to shedding new light on such legends as Wells, Parton, Loretta Lynn, and Charley Pride, it traces more recent shifts in gender politics through the performances of such contemporary luminaries as Swift, Gretchen Wilson, and Blake Shelton. The book also explores the intersections of gender, race, class, and nationality in a host of less expected contexts, including the prisons of WWII-era Texas, where the members of the Goree All-Girl String Band became the unlikeliest of radio stars; the studios and offices of Plantation Records, where Jeannie C. Riley and Linda Martell challenged the social hierarchies of a changing South in the 1960s; and the burgeoning cities of present-day Brazil, where "college country" has become one way of negotiating masculinity in an age of economic and social instability.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781496804921
Publisher: University Press of Mississippi
Publication date: 02/08/2016
Series: American Made Music Series
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 304
File size: 2 MB

About the Author

Diane Pecknold is an associate professor of women’s and gender studies at the University of Louisville. Kristine M. McCusker is a professor of history at Middle Tennessee State University. Together they edited A Boy Named Sue: Gender and Country Music, published by University Press of Mississippi.
Kristine M. McCusker is a professor of history at Middle Tennessee State University.

Table of Contents

Introduction Diane Pecknold Kristine M. McCusker vii

Why "Ladies Love Country Boys": Gender, Class, and Economics in Contemporary Country Music Jocelyn R. Neal 3

"Hey! if I Should Grab Ya": "College Country" and the Realization of Urban Brazil Alexander S. Dent 26

Act Naturally: Charley Pride, Autobiography, and the "Accidental Career" Matthew D. Sutton 44

Holding On to Country: Musical Moorings for Desired Masculinities in Aboriginal Australia Åse Ottosson 64

Taylor Swift's "Pitch Problem" and the Place of Adolescent Girls in Country Music Travis Stimeling 84

Gender and the Nashville Songwriter: Three Songs by Victoria Banks Chris Wilson 102

As if They Were Going Places: Class and Gender Portrayals through Country Music in the Texas State Prison, 1938-1944 Caroline Gnagy 126

Negotiating Gender, Race, and Class in Post-Civil Rights Country Music: How Linda Martell and Jeannie C. Riley Stormed the Plantation Diane Pecknold 146

Remarkable Women and Ordinary Gals: Performance of Identity in Songs by Loretta Lynn and Dolly Parton Kate Heidemann 166

"Backwoods Barbie": Dolly Parton's Gender Performance Leigh H. Edwards 189

Kitty Wells, Queen of Denial Georgia Christgau 211

Gender Deviance and Class Rebellion in "Redneck Woman" Nadine Hubbs 231

Selected Bibliography 255

Notes on Contributors 267

Index 271

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