|
View the H-Southern-Music Discussion Logs by month
View the Prior Message in H-Southern-Music's July 2006 logs by: [date] [author] [thread] View the Next Message in H-Southern-Music's July 2006 logs by: [date] [author] [thread] Visit the H-Southern-Music home page.
To the list:
Below is our first commissioned book review for H-Southern Music. I am
very grateful to Ms. Carr for her great patience in finally getting this
onto the list, and I again encourage anyone who wishes to review books for
our list to contact me at gcampbel@mail.doshisha.ac.jp . Enjoy the review!
REVIEW:
H-NET BOOK REVIEW
Published by H-Southern-Music@h-net.mus.edu (July 2006)
Kristine M. McCusker and Diane Pecknold, eds. _A Boy Named Sue: Gender and
Country Music_. Foreword by David Sanjek. American Made Music Series.
Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2004. xxiv + 232 pp.
Bibliography, illustrations, notes, index. $50.00 (cloth), ISBN
1-57806-677-8; $20.00 (paper), ISBN 1-57806-678-6.
Reviewed for H-Southern-Music by Vanessa R. Carr, Sarah Lawrence College
Gender Matters
I have been waiting for a collection like this, something varied and
insightful that _really_ looks at gender in country music. That is exactly
what the contributors to _A Boy Named Sue: Gender and Country Music_ do.
As editors Kristine M. McCusker and Diane Pecknold point out, in country
music scholarship the term "gender" has been most commonly applied to
signify women or, alternately, to describe aspects of country music as
songs, artists, fans, and industry without digging for deeper meaning. This
is most certainly not the case within the pages of _A Boy Named Sue_. The
writers discuss men and women, as well as gender presentation and
performance. There is little confusion between the rather intangible
multi-meaning concept of gender and the relatively more concrete issue of
sex. And, as many of the offerings make clear, even in country music it is
growing increasingly impossible to separate out gender from other categories
of identification and association.
_A Boy Named Sue_ is organized in chronological fashion, which helps the
reader track developments of gender issues in country music. A foreword by
David Sanjek describes the search for authenticity that has long been a
crucial part of country music, while it simultaneously exposes the very
constructed and performative nature of authenticity. Instead of searching
for purity, Sanjek insists that we "continue to recognize and document how
country music, and all American music for that matter, is a muddy and
turbulent mix" (pp. xiii, xv). He sees the application of gender in this
collection of essays as a useful tool in "the dissolution of the purported
transparency of country music" (p. xiv). A postlude by the late Charles
Wolfe praises the contributors to _A Boy Named Sue_ for going beyond songs,
singers, and the existing mass of factual data to tackle the ways that
gender and other factors impact, are shaped by, and complicate country
music. He saw a new direction in country music history, a new generation of
scholars that come not only from the usual disciplines of history, folklore,
and literature, but also from the areas of gender studies, media studies,
industrial sociology, musicology, cultural geography, genre integrity, and
cultural consumption (p. 198). In addition to the foreword, an editors'
introduction, essays, and a postlude, _A Boy Named Sue_ recommends a list of
related books and articles for further reading. Moreover, the contributors'
extensive notes are a rich bibliographical source for future research.
Gender has previously shown up as the subject of country music scholarship.
Particularly over the last decade or so, there has been an increase in
writing about women in country music, most often focusing on performers,
songwriters, industry professionals, and fans. Frequently cited is what I
consider to be my "bible" of women in country music, Mary A. Bufwack and
Robert K. Oermann's _Finding Her Voice: The Saga of Women in Country Music,
1800-2000_ (2003).[1] It is an impressive tome that, like similar
scholarship, takes on the enormous task of writing women back into the
history of country music. Though they do offer some analysis of gender in
terms of songs, performers' images, and fan makeup, such texts have had
different goals from that of _A Boy Named Sue_. In their introduction,
editors McCusker and Pecknold assert that applying gender to country music
scholarship accomplishes several feats: it challenges the familiar
narrative of country music, questions traditional understandings of
country's important commercial moments and changes, shows that women have
played a vital role in country's evolution as commercial entertainment,
calls attention to reliance on specific meanings and expressions of gender
for appeal, complements existing scholarly work on class in country music,
and develops our understanding of country music audiences to include a
diverse national listenership (pp. xx-xxi).
These objectives are addressed through a range of intriguing essays. About
half of the contributors use the careers and images of individual artists to
investigate representations and meanings of gender. Kristine M. McCusker
uses the constructed persona of Linda Parker to view definitions of
tradition. Emily C. Neely looks at stardom and obscurity in the career of
Charline Arthur. Michael Bertrand delves into Elvis Presley's performances
of Southern masculinity. Joli Jensen explores fame, reputation, and
feminine identity in Patsy Cline's crossover success. Barbara Ching uses
the publication _No Depression_ (1998) and its focus on artist Robbie Fulks
as a way to examine gender and ownership in the undefined world of
alternative country. The remaining contributors look at gender and related
issues in the context of specific physical, geographical, historical, or
thematic settings. Peter La Chapelle views women's domesticity through
country music journalism in Cold War Los Angeles. Diane Pecknold writes of
a distinctly domestic version of masculinity that emerged during the
Nashville Sound era. Jocelyn R. Neal shares her findings regarding how
gender is played out in country dance halls. Beverly Keel follows recent
developments in the tradition of pro-feminist sentiments in women's country
music lyrics.
Perhaps the most exciting aspect of _A Boy Named Sue_ is the fact that the
contributors grapple with the intertwining of gender with other categories
of individual and collective identity. Integration of these categories,
including but not limited to race, class, tradition, generation, history,
region, and politics, are especially evident in contributions by Kristine M.
McCusker, Michael Bertrand, and Barbara Ching. McCusker's piece, "'Bury Me
Beneath the Willow': Linda Parker and Definitions of Tradition on the
_National Barn Dance_, 1932-1935," contests "country music historians' most
cherished assumption: that Southern, commercial music was (and is) solely
the language of working-class men and women" (p. 4). The character of Linda
Parker from radio programs of the early 1930s performed the role of the
sentimental mother. In this figure could be found ideals of purity and
tradition, a soothing balm for the homesickness of migrants, and a
middle-class gender ideology of separate spheres. Bertrand's "I Don't Think
Hank Done It That Way: Elvis, Country Music, and the Reconstruction of
Southern Masculinity" brings consideration of Elvis Presley's image and
music beyond racial appropriation and commercial exploitation of
African-American music and culture. Bertrand discusses the biracial quality
of Southern culture, and stresses the significance of rockabilly's emergence
during a historical period full of anxiety about racial desegregation in the
South. Both Presley's music and his image borrowed heavily from black
Rhythm and Blues musicians, and the form of masculinity he adopted
"demonstrate[d] his manhood within a society in which his dignity and
self-respect as a gendered being had traditionally been under constant
assault" (p. 75). In "Going Back to Old Mainstream: _No Depression_,
Robbie Fulks, and Alt.Country's Muddied Waters," Ching reveals that the
discourse of alternative country and its "antimodernist politics" can be
decidedly less progressive than it makes itself out to be (p. 179). Placing
itself in opposition to the "hot new country" of Nashville, which the
editors of alt.country periodical _No Depression_ and alt.country artist
Robbie Fulks characterize as feminized, the alternative brand of sexism and
elitism alt.country produces rivals any ever witnessed on Music Row. Ching
asserts that while alt.country bills itself as innovative but traditional,
sophisticated but rootsy, "it also conveys nostalgia for the good alt days
when red-blooded he-men sang as they pleased" (p. 190).
As Charles Wolfe wrote in his postlude, _A Boy Named Sue_ is "one of [the]
first chapters" of "the full story of the complex dynamic that is the
country music experience" (p. 198). Hopefully this collection is just one
of many to come that will further develop and question our understandings of
country music. I would also like to think that it signals the coming of
future inquiries into the relatively untouched matters of queer sexuality
and same-sex desire in country's music, images, and performances.[2] Not
only is _A Boy Named Sue: Gender and Country Music_ a useful compilation
for conceptualizing gender in the world of country, it is also, quite
simply, an incredibly enjoyable read.
Notes
[1]. Other useful texts that address the importance of women in country
music history include Jim Brown, _Country Women in Music: Man, I Feel Like
a Woman_ (Kingston: Quarry Press, Inc., 2000); James L. Dickerson, _Go,
Girl, Go!: The Women's Revolution in Music_ (New York: Schirmer Trade
Books, 2005); and Charles K. Wolfe and James E. Akenson, eds., _The Women
of Country Music: A Reader_ (Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky,
2003).
[2]. Two of the essays do mention homosexuality briefly. In "Dancing
Together: The Rhythms of Gender in the Country Dance Hall," Jocelyn R. Neal
brings up the profusion of gay country dance bars. Beverly Keel brings up
the out lesbianism of k.d. lang in "Between Riot Grrrl and Quiet Girl: The
New Women's Movement in Country Music." Additionally, the bibliography
lists Teresa Ortega's article about ties between Johnny Cash's image and
symbolic representation among lesbians, Teresa Ortega, "'My name is Sue!
How do you do?': Johnny Cash as Lesbian Icon," _South Atlantic Quarterly_
94 (Winter 1995): pp. 259-272.
Copyright (c) 2006 by H-Net, all rights reserved. H-Net permits
the redistribution and reprinting of this work for nonprofit,
educational purposes, with full and accurate attribution to the
author, web location, date of publication, originating list, and
H-Net: Humanities & Social Sciences Online. For other uses
contact the Reviews editorial staff: hbooks@mail.h-net.msu.edu.
Gavin James Campbell
Associate Professor
Graduate School of American Studies
Doshisha University
Kyoto, 602-8580
JAPAN
http://www.ameken-doshisha.info/english/index.htm
 Humanities & Social Sciences Online 
|