There is a Charlie Daniels CD in my car, I can't imagine why. But I put it in and was irritated at the culture it celebrated - not merely southern and redneck, but the most stereotypical versions of that. There was a reference to Dale Earnhardt Sr being carried to heaven by angels. I am not making that up.
I listened to the rest of it, looking for bad examples, thinking "This would be so easy to make fun of." But in my listening, I noticed that they never made fun of anyone. Country music in general doesn't do much making fun of others. That would be my culture - urbane, ironic, convinced of its own sophistication - that makes its way in the world by putting others down. And I was humbled.
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Those of the urbane, sophisticated, ironic crowd do not like it when someone makes fun of THEM. However, they make an inviting target as it is rather easy to make fun of smug, self-righteous people- which can also describe the urbane sophisticated, ironic crowd.
If anyone wants to make fun of a fine country musician like Bob Wills, the King of Western Swing, I will simply shake my head.
In relating my enthusiam for Bob Wills’s music to others, I found out some interesting connections with Al Striklin, one of Bob’s “piano pounders.” A local Kinko’s manager went to high school in Cleburne with one of Al’s sons. An elderly acquaintance who has played in dance bands told me that back in the day, one of the fill-in people for a band he played in was a pianist who used to work for Bob Wills. Further investigation showed the fill-in pianist was Al Striklin.
There are country songs which have the leading lady being a little sassy towards another woman.
(Miranda Lambert, "Only Prettier".)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Pp66FNd54M&ob
But I don't know if I'm properly interpreting the undercurrent of female-to-female communication in that song.
(And when I hear it on the radio, it feels like she could be talking to an uppity city-slicker. The music video makes it look more like two different kinds of country-girl. But I can't really tell.)
And then, there's a country music man's opinions of masculinity.
It contains a couple of light-hearted references to metro-sexual-hood. Is that making fun of someone, or not?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXqqynfqE_0
Yeah, you're right, there is that theme of "we're not (ugh) that kind of people" in country music.
Hit publish too soon. It's nonspecific, but clear what they mean.
Let me tell you that today, this very afternoon, I heard Dolly Parton singing
"Stairway To Heaven". Rather liked it. Not so the wife...
Ya know, you're absolutely right. Kind of puts things into perspective.
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