In truth, as the two of us learned while exploring the music and its history, they were always intertwined. The names echoed a prejudice that each genre (and its artists and its fans) was somehow beneath consideration from society’s upper rungs - and that each one was unrelated to the other. The earliest country recordings were known as “hillbilly” music, just as African American recordings were categorized as “race” music. That mix, that “rub,” which occurred principally in the South, set off a chain reaction that has reverberated in our music ever since. It all began when the fiddle, which came from Europe, met the banjo, which came from Africa - bringing together ballads and hymns from the British Isles with the syncopations and sensibilities of enslaved blacks. They knew firsthand that what has made American music so uniquely American has been its constant mixing of styles and influences.
Such narrow views would astonish the two foundational acts of the genre - Jimmie Rodgers and the Carter Family - who contributed to country music’s early commercial success in the 1920s. They overlook its diverse roots, its porous boundaries and the central role that women and people of color have played in its history. This spring the rapper Lil Nas X, who is black, released “Old Town Road,” a twang-inflected song that rocketed to the top of the country music charts - even though Billboard temporarily removed it from the list, saying it wasn’t sufficiently “country.”Ī few months later, when the Country Music Association announced that three women - Dolly Parton, Reba McEntire and Carrie Underwood - would host its annual awards show, some people criticized the choice as political correctness, as if “real” country music was restricted to good old boys.īoth controversies reflect the stereotypes that chronically surround country music.
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