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Driver's Seat
The voice of middle America?
By BOB DRIVER, columnist
Article published on Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2007 |
If you want to understand the soul of Middle America, tune into a country music station. That’s the advice given in a recent article in The Economist, a quality British magazine.
About 45 million Americans tune into country music stations each week. What they find there may vary from city to city, but not by much. Patriotism and love for the flag are two constants, according to The Economist, although the belligerence that appeared in song lyrics after 9/11 has become more subdued as the Iraq war has come to resemble Vietnam II.
Even so, any country songwriter or singer who criticizes George Bush too strongly will encounter a lot of hostile feedback, even today. The Dixie Chicks, at one time as popular a country group as any, were lambasted a while back when their lead singer said she was ashamed to be from Texas, because of Bush’s roots in that state. The Chicks are still paying (in cash and fan support) for that remark.
Country music fans tend to support the Mideast military effort because they send so many of their loved ones off to do the fighting. That’s in contrast to many sophisticated Americans who consider country music laughable, and whose sons and daughters go off to graduate school in much greater numbers than to war.
If you survey a thousand country music fans you’ll probably discover that a majority of them are white, nominally Christian, heterosexual, and not especially fond of gun control laws. Although they will defend their beliefs, most of these country fans are not looking for an argument. They want your respect, but – like the preponderance of humankind – they also want something more: simply to be let alone.
I offer no evidence for the above opinions, other than my having known country music people for most of my life. My earliest memories included listening to country station WCKY, Cincinnati, whose 50,000 watt signal could sometimes be heard halfway across the Atlantic. The Grand Ole Opry in Nashville has been one of the stabilizing forces in American culture for many years. Its colorful and admittedly cornball performers – some of them with superb voices and singing styles – are a much-needed antidote to hip-hop and other musical waste products.
The last 30 years or so, however, have brought a tendency for many country singers to sound alike. Vocalists with perfectly good tonsils will, for reasons unknown, adopt a whiny, nasal twang as soon as they send forth the first notes of a song. The result is an unfortunate sameness to many of the country records produced today. Or so it seems to me.
Johnny Cash is gone, and I’m not sure who can replace him. Garth Brooks, with his chubby cheeks and cowboy hat, would be a poor fill-in. Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings and Merle Haggard are among the few good old boys still around. When they’re gone, I may just transfer my enthusiasm to grand opera.
Some folks turn away from country music because much of it is so sad. But there are many exceptions to that characteristic. I think of sprightly classics like “Harper Valley PTA” and – my most recent nomination for favorite song title – “Tequila Makes Her Clothes Fall Off.” The world might be a better place if the Sunnis and Shiites could come up with a few musical diversions like that.
Send Bob Driver an e-mail at tralee71@comcast.net.
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Article published on Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2007
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