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Going Back To The Old Mainstream: No Depression, Robbie Fulks, And Alt. Country's Muddied Waters, Barbara Ching
Going Back To The Old Mainstream: No Depression, Robbie Fulks, And Alt. Country's Muddied Waters, Barbara Ching
Barbara Ching
In 1972, when Doctor Hook and the Medicine Show sang "The Cover of the Rolling Stone," they cast rock critics as arbiters of stardom. By the time Cameron Crowe used th is song in his 2000 film Almost Famous, it held little irony. Sex and drugs were good but they just couldn't compare to joining the magazine's anointed. Currently, some alternative country aspirant could sing the same tune about No Depression. The magazine, now in its eighth year, invariably uses its cover to showcase an alt.country artist. It has sponsored alt.country package tours (in which the editors indulge the fan's …
Acting Naturally: Cultural Distinction And Critiques Of Pure Country, Barbara Ching
Acting Naturally: Cultural Distinction And Critiques Of Pure Country, Barbara Ching
Barbara Ching
Country music has the fastest-growing audience in America but it is still rather scandalous for an intellectual to admit to liking it. Contemporary cultural theory—which is to say cultural studies—has thus had practically nothing to say about it. At first glance, it may seem that everything has already been said. I know well enough that many people find country music to be dumb, reactionary, sentimental, maudlin, primitive, etc. Still others, perhaps influenced one way or another by the Frankfurt school, sneer at what they feel is the contrived, hokey, convention-bound nature of the music: they hear a commodification and cheapening …