Religion and Country Music
Country music as a commercial genre began in a society where religion exerted considerable cultural influence - the U.S. South of the 1920s. Musicians of the white working-class recorded songs for national record companies, who codified their oeuvres into a form they called "hillbilly" mus...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
2010
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| In: |
Religion compass
Year: 2010, Volume: 4, Issue: 4, Pages: 245-252 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | Country music as a commercial genre began in a society where religion exerted considerable cultural influence - the U.S. South of the 1920s. Musicians of the white working-class recorded songs for national record companies, who codified their oeuvres into a form they called "hillbilly" music, or what we know as the first country music. Hillbilly music bore the clear imprint of working-class religion, a folk form of Protestantism that took shape in the late nineteenth century. Over the music’s subsequent history, folk Protestantism receded as an influence as the white working-class went through drastic economic change and dislocation. Country music after the mid-1950s sang less of longings defined by religion and more of secular working-class life. In the 1970s, a newer, national Protestant movement - evangelicalism - made some inroads, primarily in the personal lives of country musicians. More recently, the quasi-religion of U.S. nationalism has informed popular country music songs, even as a distinct regional or working-class character has faded from the music, in fan base, image, or personal background of musicians. |
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| ISSN: | 1749-8171 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Religion compass
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1111/j.1749-8171.2009.00209.x |