Country Blues

Name
Tutor
Course
Date
Country Music
1. RESPONSE 1
There is nothing I hate more than being in a position of powerlessness. I can put up with nostalgia, but that is as far as it goes, lamenting about my defenseless situations is totally impermissible. This is the exact situation country blues put me into. This genre was born in hardship and if there is any thematic transformation that has happened to it, only a little and therefore it continues propagating the same messages even when other subjects are introduced. Boring! Occasionally, the sound of four beats per bar and 12 bar guitar in a movie sounds great but even in that moment of appreciation I cannot fail to picture bended backs of an African-American sharecroppers toiling to meet their yearly rent (Malone 13). What I see is the failure of the fourteenth amendment, and the subsequent watering down of the gains of the Emancipation Proclamation. I can blame this on my vast knowledge of history and the origin of the genre, or it might be I have refused to grow, for I have discovered that most people who like this genre are usually older. The stigma to the music exists, but would you consider the original themes of the genre as cultural prejudices or actual societal injustices? Personally, I consider my dislike to the music to be based on actual facts.
2. RESPONSE 2
I suppose in a world so full of fast danceable music, the slow country blues are the last thing I would play. This, however, does not mean I treat with stigma those friends who consider the music great.

I do consider country music an interesting type when performing music analysis, so easy and simple. The structure is predictable, the instrumentation is unsophisticated and all the musical elements are easy to analyze. The question then, would be, with so much predictability, is it, therefore, suitable for entertainment, for study, or just to pass across specific messages? Would it be prudent in trying to explain the implied prejudices we look at the demographics it attracts or the commonality of the people it attracts? I have seen both white and black Americans enjoy the music and that is why I find myself questioning the comment associating the dislike for country music with racism.
Works Cited
Malone, Bill C. Singing cowboys and musical mountaineers: Southern culture and the roots of country music. Vol. 34. University of Georgia Press, 2003.