Someone had said that they
enjoyed all things “Southern” but found it weird that they didn't
listen to country music. To me it makes perfect sense, because
there's little “country” about the South. Country music is a
product of Nashville and Texas, and to a larger extent the Midwest
(Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas, etc., or certainly this is where most of
the listeners are from).
The United States is a vast place, and differs greatly from one location to another. To me the “South”
is Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, maybe South Carolina and
Northern Florida (for Southern Florida, especially Miami, is in its own universe). Texas is more Western than any other state, and is distinctly not Southern. Tennessee and
other middle states are quite the same, something a little different.
What is the music of the South? Southern
rock, of course! As well as rap, jazz, and the blues. The African
American influence on the world is incredible. The South, whether it be New Orleans or Atlanta, has
had a huge impact on several prominent forms of music. There would be
no Led Zeppelin without the 1940s and 50s blues musicians—there
would be no rock n roll!
There are some places which
supersede their surroundings. New York City is far different from New
England or the Northeast. Los Angeles and Hollywood seem alien
settings adrift in California's beautiful mountainous regions, forests, and deserts.
Nashville is nothing like anywhere else. New Orleans and Miami are no
more Southern than Fargo or Chicago are. Speaking of Chicago, it dwarfs
the rest of the Midwest, a strange artifact, an international
conglomerate in the middle of farmland for as far as one can drive in
a day. And yet not all great American cities can claim the same grandness. Boston seems to be
quintessential New England and Atlanta is the South.
Seattle is to the Northeast as apples are to pie.
And yet these cities are at least unique compared to one another, and it is in these “unique” cities where many of the groundbreaking musical evolutions have come from, and these
revolutions are both a product of their city's uniqueness and also
mother to that uniqueness. Rock stars in L. A., country music
superstars in Nashville, the blues and jazz in New Orleans.
So I do not see the South as
a place of country music. When I think of the South I think of black men
playing horns and pressing their strong fingers against some of the
first electric guitar strings. When I think of the South I think of
the precursor to “rock,” both in England and in the South itself
(whether it's The Rolling Stones or Lynyrd Skynyrd), not to mention the West coast. The South has a
sound, and that sound has a lot to do with the hardships of tilling
the land, not on green tractors, but with the hands that later free
men would put to use on instruments quite different from plows.
The South is all about
music. Or, rather, music is everything to the South. But what kind of
music is it?
It's the music of pain, of
being put down and kept down. It's no coincidence that the
downtrodden youth of the 1960s, be it in America or England, related
to the blues masters of the 1950s. There is a distinct trend of
oppression from society throughout both musical genres.
When I speak of oppression I
am not talking of slavery, but of being singled out for the way you
look, act, and feel. There are few people today who can relate or truly
understand what it was like to be a slave, but there are millions
who know what it's like to be oppressed. Oppression is as general a
human emotion as fear or joy. Kurt Cobain understood oppression, as
did Keith Moon.
This oppression, as far as I
can tell, has not existed in country music for decades—not since,
perhaps, Johnny Cash and Loretta Lynn. Otherwise country music is
about more wholesome topics. Losing or winning the girl, riding the
ranges, painting a sound to go with the picturesque ideals of Midwestern America.
In African American culture
there is still a heavy, lingering memory of oppression. It is visible in rap and hip hop.
Counterculture in the 1960s
ran headlong into oppression. The blues artists of the previous decade were
born from it. It is no more unique to the South than rocks are unique
to mountains. Yet the South harbored it, erupted it, and from there
its music spread across land and sea.
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Long live the south! :)
ReplyDeleteWhere I live, in the shadow of Kennesaw Mountain in GA, the memories of the Civil War are a very present reminder of that sad and tragic conflict. Country music, perhaps because of its themes of longing for times gone by, lost love, or family relationships, is extremely popular as well. The South was also oppressed cruelly after the Civil War and it wasn't until the 1960s that we were allowed to have interstates built and our airport in Atlanta wasn't made international until then either. Talk about fall-out! 100 years!
Great article, J.R., and loved how you stirred some memories for me.
Blessings!
Thank you, Martha. I really enjoyed living in Alabama. One of the most beautiful parts of our nation, imo, as well as is Georgia. And hey, I'm a Braves fan!
DeleteReconstruction was a travesty on top of the tragedy that was the civil war, and puts a lot of things into perspective for me historically. I don't think it's a stretch to attribute 100% of the racial tensions that exploded in the 60s onto what the North did to the South after the war, creating an environment that was too hostile to live in. The grandchildren of Southern veterans had to carry that painful burden. The war lasted far longer than 4 years.
An interesting post about the personality of citiesad regions. I haven't been to America yet, but this piece has given me an insight into what to expect!
ReplyDeleteI would not have visited the South mainly because I thought it was synonymous with the Country Western lifestyle. I would have headed to places like San Fran, New York, and L.A. but now I am curious about the region that is the soul of blues, rock and jazz.
In other words, you have convinced me that the South has a lot to offer!
Awesome to hear! Cities like Atlanta and New Orleans have so much soul and history that it would be well worth the visit if it's not out of your way. But each American city has so many things going on. In many ways they are all similar. Americans don't "change" that much from one town to the next, one state to the next, and yet there are unique qualities to all of them in their histories, cultures, and music--and cuisine :D
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