I'm a country girl at heart. I've been lucky enough to have had two lives growing up: one in
the city, and the other spending my weekends running around barns and haylofts. So
when I got to choose what chapter to read, I jumped at the chance to read about Blues
and Country Music: Mass Media and the Construction of Race. I have to be honest, it's not
quite what I had in mind nor what I was looking for, but it was interesting nonetheless. It
was very surprising and fulfilling to learn about the history and roots of country and blues
music. It still blows my mind how far segregation went. I know what segregation is, I read a
lot about the segregation experience, but for some unknown, silly reason, I didn't think
about segregation in music. As I'm reading, I'm thinking to myself, "Duh Kristina! It's
segregation and it influences everything in life, even music".
Record labels assigned artist to two different labels depending on just their race. They also
used this separation of race as a separation of the style of music they performed. African
American artists music was considered Race music, while Caucasian artists music was
considered Hillbilly music. Even though the music industry was run heavily by the
influences of segregation, there were plenty of people that saw past the lines of
discrimination and noticed people for their attributes and who they are. The artists were
aware of the "influence they had on each other's work" (36 Garofalo). Their influence on
each other was so intense that "artists were sometimes listed in the wrong racial category
in record company catalogues" (38 Garofalo). What a funny web we weave when people
try to separate things. Especially when trying to separate something is like trying to
separate two different types of sand. By this I mean the influences of the oh so many
different cultures on music. The fiddle from Europe, the banjo from Africa, yodeling from
Switzerland and Germany, the mandolin from Italy, and string bands from Hawaii. The
influences that we all have on each other is hard to deny or hide.
The other thing that struck me was that some things never change. There is an image of
how women and men are SUPPOSE to act. Even in blues music, at its very roots, that
double standard existed. Male Blues singers were "sparsely accompanied" (39 Garofalo)
by others on stage as if to say 'I'm a tough guy, and I don't need anyone'. While Blues
women were "usually accompanied by a red hot jazz band or a scintillating master of the
key board" (39 Garofalo) because a poor little woman would be lost without a man in her
presence to help her. Even now in Hip-Hop, you can't portray yourself as being soft
because that is associated with feminity or being a pussy, while acting hard or in a manly
manner makes you a hard core, "real" man (Authenticity Within Hip-Hop and Other
Cultures Threatened with Assimilation, Kembrrew McLeod). Will these stereotypes and
discrimination ever cease to exist?
This class had definitely been any eye-opener for me. It seems so obvious yet the
influence that music really has on our lives (past, present and future) are so hidden and
aloof.
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