Ifølge Merriam-Webster online-ordbog er country:
”Music derived from or imitating the folk style
of the Southern U.S. or of the Western cowboy
especially : popular vocal music characterized
by simple harmonies, accompaniment by stringed instruments (such as guitar,
fiddle, banjo, and pedal steel), repeated choruses, and often narrative lyrics
— called also country, country and western
First Known Use of country music: 1942”
På Dictionary.com lyder definitionen:
“a style and genre of
largely string-accompanied American popular music having roots in the folk
music of the Southeast and cowboy music of the West, usually vocalized,
generally simple in form and harmony, and typified by romantic or melancholy
ballads accompanied by acoustic or electric guitar, banjo, violin, and
harmonica.”
På netop citerede side, kan man dog klikke sig videre til
beskrivelser med mere kød på:
What comes to mind
when we say country music? Pickup trucks and cowboy hats? Garth Brooks and
Patsy Cline? How about West African string instruments and Atlanta-based
hip-hop? Past and present, country music—and what gets to be called country
music—is far more complex than many realize.
What is country music?
Country music is
defined as “a style and genre of largely string-accompanied American popular
music having roots in the folk music of the Southeast and cowboy music of the
West, usually vocalized, generally simple in form and harmony, and typified by
romantic or melancholy ballads accompanied by acoustic or electric guitar,
banjo, violin, and harmonica.”
The regional
influences of the genre are likely how it came to be known as country music in
the first place. The word country itself is old, however, recorded in English
in the 1200s. By the early 1500s, country was being used to denote rural areas
and things in distinction to urban ones. There’s even evidence of the phrase
country music in the late 1500s, though the name for the modern music genre,
alongside country and western and country-western, isn’t recorded until the
1940s.
What about the actual
music the phrase describes? Most people think country music began with the
cowboys who sang campfire songs out on cattle drives, but its true origins are
far older and more diverse that.
For instance, the
banjo—an instrument prominently featured in country and bluegrass music and, as
a result, associated with white people—is based on instruments black slaves brought
from West Africa. As Pamela Foster, author of My Country: The African
Diaspora’s Country Music Heritage (1998), explained in the Chicago Tribune: “In
the antebellum South, banjos, fiddles and harmonicas were the dominant
instruments played in black culture. Unfortunately, history has distorted these
facts to make people believe jazz, blues and spirituals were the staples of
black culture at that time when, in fact, it was country.”
After slavery was
abolished, segregation and Jim Crow laws meant that music was often separated
into genres by race. White folk music became country music while music by black
artists, including blues, gospel, and rhythm and blues, was labelled “race”
music. But, black and white artists worked together in music studios more often
than is thought. Patrick Huber, a professor of history and political science at
Missouri University of Science and Technology, notably identified around 50
black artists who played on white “hillbilly” records, as they have been
called, before 1932.
Nevertheless, the
erasure of black artists has long been a problem in what we popularly
understand as country music. Many people know Johnny Cash, for example, but
they don’t know DeFord Bailey, a black musician, best known for his harmonica
playing, who was an early superstar of the Grand Ole Opry in the 1920s. Such
erasure continues today, as we see with Atlanta rapper Lil Nas X (Montero Lamar
Hill), who can’t seem to get his own hit country song recognized by the music
industry.”
Læs videre herunder
Ovenstående er efterhånden blevet
en lang og forudsigelig smøre, så jeg undlader at citere Den Store Danske Lexs definition
af countrymusik. I virkeligheden handler dette opslag også bare om, at man på
torsdag, d. 15. oktober, skal stille ind på Mod Strømmen. Her vil Jan Damage
Petersen, Thomas Løppenthin, Lars Krogh og undertegnede, divertere med nedslag i countrymusikkens lange historie. Stil ind, kl. 18.00, på enten FM 98.9 eller via et af
disse link: den direkte stream / TuneIn. Tak for opmærksomheden.
