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Introduction The implied glass ceiling on minority groups is a common aspect of American musical culture. African Americans have experienced a glass ceiling in the country music sphere for years, even though they were instrumental in creating the genre (Glanton, 1998). A general consensus has been formed that states country music is composed of acoustic elements like guitar, banjo, fiddle, harmonica, and vocal twang (Glanton, 1998). However, some artists who use these elements in their music still face backlash for not being country enough because of their cultural or racial identities. Popular culture has further expanded the definition of country music to being representative of an idealized white, rural lifestyle and only artists who fit this ideal are considered country artists (Glanton, 1998). This ideal has been challenged by African American artists like Charlie Pride, Darius Rucker, Beyoncé, and most recently, Lil Nas X. This article will explore how African American artists are accepted and rejected by the country music sphere by analyzing the publicity surrounding the country debuts of Charlie Pride, Darius Rucker, Beyoncé and Lil Nas X. It will then investigate how race plays a role in country music by comparing the experiences of these African Americans with those of white country music stars like Kacey Musgraves, Florida Georgia Line, and Sam Hunt. This research will uncover a correlation between race and country music where only those fitting the white country prototype receive acceptance and positive reviews, effectively creating a glass ceiling for artists of other races. It also will expose the hypocritical nature of the genre itself, particularly when it comes to supporting crossover hits from idealized country artists but not minority artists. Picture: Top row is Charlie Pride (left) and Darius Rucker (right). Bottom row is Beyoncé (left) and Lil Nas X (right). Methodology, Media Review, and Theory My methodology for this research is to examine the language and arguments in news articles about some popular African American artists that I am aware of who have faced backlash. Charlie Pride’s impact was recognized by Billboardin 1971: “Charlie Pride pioneered in removing the color line in country music” (Shestack, 1971). In an anecdote from Pride about his rise, a fan swore Pride was a white man because of the sound of his voice on her home records. She was shocked when, in concert, she saw a black man on stage singing her favorite song (Cantwell, 2019). In another anecdote, a store window displayed a photograph of Dolly Parton, Loretta Lynn, Marty Robbins, and Pride. A customer asked, “‘who is the nigger in the window?’” and the server answered “‘That ain’t no nigger, that’s country music’s Charlie Pride’” (Shestack, 1971). The way people talked about Pride was with surprise or shock at his presence in the country music arena. Pride achieved twenty-nine #1 country hits during his prime, but many people don’t seem to remember him (countrymusichalloffame.org). Further proof of Pride’s success being minimized in country music is evident through the lack of recognition by white country artists. When accepting awards, white country artists tend to pick other white country artists as their inspirations. Darius Rucker’s 2008 debut single, “Don’t Think I Don’t Think About It”, was the first single by an African American to reach number one on country music charts since Charlie Pride in 1983 (Petrusich, 2017). He’s also just the third black artist invited to join the Grand Ole Opry (Petrusich, 2017). Rucker is still very much involved in the country music sphere today. However, there is evidence of African Americans being trapped beneath a glass ceiling in his art. His video for, “For the First Time”, depicts him strumming “a guitar on a front porch while a good looking blonde couple holds hands, falls into a pool, gets married, buys a big house, and has a baby” (Petrusich, 2017). Why is his video depicting a white couple? The glass ceiling here is preventing African American focused scenes from being shown in country music videos. TheWrap.com documented negative tweets sent to Beyoncé after she released a country song and performed at the Country Music Awards. One tweet read: “Beyonce performing at #CMAawards50 will make sense 2 me the day @GeorgeStrait is asked to open the #BETAwards w/Amarillo by Morning” (Ali, 2016) This tweet insinuates that Beyoncé doesn’t belong in country music because it is not part of her culture. Our research will later prove, however, that country music is in fact part of her culture. Other tweets read: “Omg what’s this crap about Beyonce performing at the CMA’s? Um no? Go away? Go back to your own genre? Thanks?” (Ali, 2016) “When did we run out of country singers!!!!!! So fed up with country artists being snubbed don’t want this crossover crap” (Ali, 2016) These two tweets show the hypocrisy of some artists being allowed to genre hop and others not. Country artists such as Sam Hunt, Jason Aldean, and Blake Shelton use “hip-hop inspired cadences” when delivering their lines (Geaghan-Breiner & Desiderio, 2019). This will also be discussed later in the paper. Billboard removed Lil Nas X from the country music charts and explained why in a statement to Rolling Stone. It was determined that ‘Old Town Road’ by Lil Nas X does not currently merit inclusion on Billboard‘s country charts. When determining genres, a few factors are examined, but first and foremost is musical composition. While ‘Old Town Road’ incorporates references to country and cowboy imagery, it does not embrace enough elements of today’s country music to chart in its current version (Leight, 2019). According to the musical definition discussed in the opening paragraph, “Old Town Road” has some instrumental elements of country music, like a banjo and vocal twang. “Old Town Road” also has a trap beat which makes it a crossover between hip-hop and country genres. Though trap beats originated in hip-hop, they have been increasingly used in country songs. This essay will later discuss how country music has a history of supporting crossovers, but by idealized white artists only. Billboard later released a second statement stating “Old Town Road” was removed from the charts because the record label Lil Nas X signed to did not promote it as a country song by coordinating with country radio stations (Levy, 2019). There was no mention of the fact that Lil Nas X had signed to the label after the initial wave of success of his release. His treatment by Billboard charts further shows how the glass ceiling limits African Americans’ ability to enter other genres. These articles show the glass ceiling that African American artists face. The powerful effects theory explains why this discrepancy exists between African American artists and white artists. This theory states the media has the direct effect of pushing the narrative that one image is better than another (Bryant, 2014). In country music’s case (and arguably society as a whole), the white aesthetic is presented as the best aesthetic. This is because the media we consume is largely composed of that viewpoint. Picture: Deford Bailey sits on the knee of fellow country artist Bashful Brother Oswald. Observations Historical Review African Americans were instrumental in creating country music but many are not aware of that fact. Slaves brought the first acoustic plucked instruments to America in the 17th century (Glanton, 1998). African Americans originally referred to their music as country music, but societal influence led to the change of calling black music “blues” and white music “country” (Petrusich, 2017). With the start of the modern recording industry in the 1920s, “Nascent labels figured it made sense to segregate product – sell ‘black music’ (blues, gospel, jazz) to black people and ‘white music’ (country, hillbilly) to white people” (Petrusich, 2017). African Americans realized if they wanted to succeed in music, they must play under the title of blues. At this same time, few people purchased music outside of their race, so few African American bands were recorded “and country music was reborn as a white genre” (Petrusich, 2017). Deford Bailey, an African American, also was the first artist to perform at the Grand Ole Opry (countrymusichalloffame.org) in 1927. Ironically, the next African American invited to the Grand Ole Opry didn’t come until 1993 – his name was Charlie Pride (opry.com). Country music is also heavily connected to the idea of the Wild West, which has been historically white-washed, erasing the contributions and involvement of African Americans, Latinx Americans, and Chinese Americans in westward development, the construction of the railroads, the settling of towns, and the establishment of the cattle and ranching industries. “As one descendant of a black cowboy explained, ’We didn't write the books. We didn't produce the movies. So, we were politely deleted’” (Wagner, 2018). When African Americans do appear in western films, it is usually in a secondary role to a white main character (Hardaway, 2001). Picture: Left is Beyoncé performing with the Dixie Chicks. Right is Lil Nas X performing with Billy Ray Cyrus and Keith Urban. Secondary Acts To receive formal recognition in established awards events, it seems that African American artists must be accompanied by white artists to be recognized. Lil Nas X was invited to perform at the 2019 CMAs after he released his remix with Billy Ray Cyrus. Beyoncé was invited to perform at the 2016 CMA’s with the Dixie Chicks, even though the group was not featured on her song. In contrast, white artists are allowed to stand alone with their work. Genre Crossing Hypocrisy Halsey released a country styled song that is charting on a Spotify curated country playlist, even though her album is marketed as pop. The definition of country music has been expanded from an origin of plucked instruments, harmonica, and vocal twang to include a rural background (Glanton, 1998). Halsey is from Brooklyn, whereas Beyoncé is from Houston. It would seem Beyoncé is more culturally country than Halsey, yet Beyoncé was not allowed the same respect for her song. Idealized country artists who meet certain characteristics—growing up poor, rural, and white are more likely to become country royalty and are allowed to genre-hop whereas African American artists are expected to limit themselves to rap and R&B genres. When they produce country music, the music and their artistry become somehow suspect. Kacey Musgraves’ Grammy winning Golden Hour album borrows heavily from pop music. Sam Hunt’s music has noticeably used trap beats, as well as Florida Georgia Line’s most successful single, “Meant to Be”. Picture: Kacey Musgraves and Ruston Kelley on their wedding day. Similarities Staunch country fans argue that country is a category of its own, however, there are similarities present between country and other genres (Geaghan-Breiner & Desiderio, 2019). Culturally, there is an idea that rap music is bad because it talks about immoral topics such as drugs and sex. Many country songs also talk about immoral behavior like violence, drug abuse and sexualizing women. A study conducted by Edward Armstrong from the Social Science Department of the University of Wisconsin-Stout found that violence was present in each genre, though it was characterized in different ways. For example, the randomness of gang warfare in rap music is similar to the randomness of barfights in country music (Armstrong, 1993). Both groups are stories about violence against strangers, but the scenes are different. Rap lyrics commonly refer to substance abuse like using drugs or consuming alcohol. Country music also has its vices in beer and an increased openness about marijuana. For example, Kacey Musgraves references marijuana use in her songs “Follow Your Arrow” and “High Time”, during live performances, and on social media. She even instagrammed two photos from her wedding that showed her and her husband smoking joints. The photos were accompanied by the caption, “lovestoned.” Musgraves won Album of the Year and Female Artist of the Year in 2019, which means she has some amount of support from country fans. She is not just a random person performing these activities, but a public and respected figure. There’s no saying rap music is a perfect genre or that African American artists that mention drugs haven’t won Grammys, but the glass ceiling of the country music industry sometimes seems to be keeping African Americans out because of this implied association with drugs, even though drugs are already a part of country music. Other similarities between the genres include talk about sex. Below are examples of country songs metaphorically talking about sex: Sam Hunt: “On the highway to heaven / headed south of her smile / get there when we get there / every inch is a mile”. Florida Georgia Line: “Stir it up as we turn on some Marley / If you want you can pet on my Harley / I sit you up on a kitchen sink / And stick the pink umbrella in your drink.” Jason Aldean: “I can take you for a ride on my big green tractor / We can go slow or make it go faster … Climb up in my lap and drive if you want to / Girl, you know you got me to hold on to.” The University of California Irvine conducted a study analyzing the perception by participants of lyrics when they are presented as rap versus country (Dunbar et. al, 2016). The lyrics were identical but the genre label changed. The study found that lyrics attached to the rap genre were perceived as being “more literal, offensive, and in greater need of regulation” by participants of the study (Dunbar et. al, 2016). A similar study found that lyrics presented as rap were perceived as being more offensive and dangerous than when they were presented as country (Fried, 1996). Fried performed another study where participants were presented a violent lyrical passage and then told either the genre of the song or the race of the singer. This study found that if a violent lyrical passage is labeled as a rap song or associated with a black singer, the participants found it more negative than if it was a country song or associated with a white singer (Fried, 1996). These similarities are also important because they debunk the arguments that are used against artists like Lil Nas X. Billboard argued that his music was too different from country music, but the fact is, it is not. Race Plays A Role An artist’s acceptance into a genre, flexibility in moving between genres, and ultimately standing among fellow artists seems colored by race. There is evidence pointing to the limitations placed on African American artists having more to do with systemic and cultural racism than actual artist achievement or talent. This unconscious and conscious bias toward black musical artists creates artificial and inaccurate limitations. As the powerful effects theory shows, media contributes to these cultural attitudes by praising white artists and critiquing African American artists. Recommendation We are groomed by euro-centric media to normalize and privilege a white aesthetic. This rejects significant artistic contributions of other groups and aids in the limitations of the glass ceiling. Country music was built by multiple cultures and that multicultural legacy should be honored without blind spots. Additionally, we need to stop the unequal treatment of locking African American artists into only two musical genres. It’s inaccurate and race based. Instead, various musical genres and artists should move forward together and expand their musical horizons by embracing one another. Sources:
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