E-Book Overview
Discovering Country Music chronicles the incredible evolution of country music in America - from the fiddle to the pop charts - and provides an insightful account of the reasons and motives that have determined its various transformations and offshoots over the years. In order to understand what country music is, and why, it is essential to understand how it makes its money — the basic revenue streams, the major companies involved, and how country artists are booked and marketed. Author Don Cusic helps readers do that, and goes even further, covering not only the business and the technology that have shaped the industry, but also tackling the question of country's relationship to the other major genres of the American recording industry, including pop, blues, and rock music.Discovering Country Music is broken down into ten sections which include: key musical trends; ancillary business trends such as recording technology, radio, and the recording industry; and prominent artists, including as a small sample Stephen Foster, The Carter Family, Elvis, Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson, Garth Brooks, The Dixie Chicks, Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, and Kenny Chesney. This work should appeal to fans, scholars, educators, libraries and the general reader alike.
E-Book Content
Discovering Country Music Don Cusic
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Cusic, Don. Discovering country music / Don Cusic. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978–0-313–35245–4 (alk. paper) 1. Country music—History and criticism. I. Title ML3524.C87 2008 781.642—dc22 2008013668 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data is available. Copyright 2008 by Don Cusic All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, by any process or technique, without the express written consent of the publisher. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2008013668 ISBN: 978–0–313–35245–4 First published in 2008 Praeger Publishers, 88 Post Road West, Westport, CT 06881 An imprint of Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc. www.praeger.com Printed in the United States of America
The paper used in this book complies with the Permanent Paper Standard issued by the National Information Standards Organization (Z39.48–1984). 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents Acknowledgments
vii
Chapter 1
Country Music: What Is It?
1
Chapter 2
Early Country Music
7
Chapter 3
On Radio and in the Movies
25
Chapter 4
Country Music in the 1940s
49
Chapter 5
Country Music in the 1950s
71
Chapter 6
Politics and Country Music
87
Chapter 7
Country Music and the National Media
103
Chapter 8
Country Music in the 1960s and 1970s
111
Chapter 9
The 1980s and 1990s
125
Chapter 10 Country Radio
141
Chapter 11 Country Music Internationally
149
Chapter 12 Politics and Religion
159
Chapter 13 The Twenty-First Century
173
Chapter 14 The Road Ahead
187
Notes
195
Bibliography
199
Index
207
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Acknowledgments This book is a culmination of writing, researching, and teaching country music for over 35 years. In 1973 I joined the Country Music Association as a staff writer; the following year I became country editor of Record World, a trade magazine. I joined Monument Records in 1977 as head of artist development and publicity and then started a management firm with Dan Beck; among the artists we managed were Dickey Lee and Riders In The Sky. After that I served as country and gospel editor of CashBox, another trade. Along the wa