Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Stand By Your Man, Redneck Woman: Towards A Historical View Of Country Music Gender Roles, Cenate Pruitt

Sociology Theses

Country music, considered a uniquely American musical genre, has been relatively under-researched compared to rock and rap music. This thesis proposes research into the topic of country music, specifically the ways which country music songs portray gender. The thesis uses Billboard chart data to determine commercially successful songs, and performs a content analysis on the lyrics of these songs. I will select songs from a fifty year period ranging from 1955 to 2005, so as to allow for a longitudinal study of potential changes in presentation. Attention will be focused on the lyrical descriptions of men and women and how …