Country of Country- prologue, parts 2+3

So I guess it's time to play a little catch-up as far as the blogging is concerned.

Prologue-
It made me laugh how biased Dawidoff is about Country music. The first thought I had about the book is that it's not very journalistic or scholarly because of his overpowering opinions. It's not necessarily a bad thing, just not what I'm used to reading for classes. Favorite sentence: "Brooks is a pop star masquerading as a country singer, a yuppie with a lariat."(pg 15) I laughed. I think he was a little extreme. He seemed to be saying that his kind of country is the only music that is played with emotion, but if you ask me, all good music is emotion. And sure, some country music is written to be sold, but theres some of that in all music genres. In fact, of the other genres, he probably only knows about the commercialized music, so it would seem to him that all other music if feelingless. He sees the emotion in country because it's what he knows the most about.

Part 2-
(Talking about the Carter Family) "It was straightforward music filled with honest feeling; a template for what would be called country." (pg 59) This bothered me. I'm sure it was an ancestor to country, but for a different reason. Like I said, theres lots of straightforward music with honest feeling. He was also contradictory--he had quotes about how Janette Carter wasn't wrapped up in music (probably not real emotional in her singing then) and how Kitty Wells sang about things that had nothing to do with her life. It's pretty hard to be as emotional as he talks about and not really understand what she's singing about.


Part 3-
I liked reading about the Bluegrass Music. We all kinda know what it sounds like, but it was neat to actually hear why it sounds like that. The fact that they have improvisional solos made me respect it a lot. It's also cool that it hasn't changed much since its beginnings.

The End