Arts and Humanities Commons^™

From Countrypolitan To Neotraditional: Gender, Race, Class, And Region In Female Country Music, 1980-1989, Dana C. Wiggins

History Dissertations

During the 1980s, women in country music enjoyed unprecedented success in record sales, television, film, and on pop and country charts. For female performers, many of their achievements were due to their abilities to mold their images to mirror American norms and values, namely increasing political conservatism, the backlashes against feminism and the civil rights movement, celebrations of working and middle class life, and the rise of the South. This dissertation divides the 1980s into three distinct periods and then discusses the changing uses of gender, race, class, and region in female country music and links each to larger historical …