Smile When You Call Me a Hillbilly: Country Music's Struggle for Respectability, 1939-1954

by Lange, Jeffrey J.

• ISBN13: 9780820326238
• ISBN10: 0820326232
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-08-01
• Publisher: Univ of Georgia Pr

Summary

Today, country music enjoys a national fan base that transcends both economic and social boundaries. Sixty years ago, however, it was primarily the music of rural, working-class whites living in the South and was perceived by many Americans as "hillbilly music." InSmile When You Call Me a Hillbilly, Jeffrey J. Lange examines the 1940s and early 1950s as the most crucial period in country music's transformation from a rural, southern folk art form to a national phenomenon.In his meticulous analysis of changing performance styles and alterations in the lifestyles of listeners, Lange illuminates the acculturation of country music and its audience into the American mainstream. Dividing country music into six subgenres (progressive country, western swing, postwar traditional, honky-tonk, country pop, and country blues), Lange discusses the music's expanding appeal. As he analyzes the recordings and comments of each of the subgenre's most significant artists, including Roy Acuff, Bob Wills, Bill Monroe, Hank Williams, and Red Foley, he traces the many paths the musical form took on its road to respectability.Lange shows how along the way the music and its audience became more sophisticated, how the subgenres blended with one another and with American popular music, and how Nashville emerged as the country music hub. By 1954, the transformation from "hillbilly" music to country music was complete, precipitated by the modernizing forces of World War II and realized by the efforts of promoters, producers, and performers.

Author Biography

Jeffrey J. Lange currently teaches history at the University of St. Francis in Joliet, Illinois.

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
Introduction	1	(18)
Part 1: The Nationalization of Country Music
1 Radio Barn Dances, Schoolhouse Shows, and "Hillbilly" Domestication
Progressive Country Music in the Prewar Era	19	(48)
2 The Great Breakthrough
World War II and the National Acceptance of Country Music	67	(22)
3 The Southwestern Component
Texas Swing, Western Swing, and Urban Country Music	89	(40)
Part 2: The Modernization of Country Music
4 Alternative String Bands and Old-time Revivalists
The Postwar Traditionalists	129	(30)
5 Country Music at the Dawn of the Sunbelt Era
Honky-tonk and the Promotional Blitz	159	(39)
6 The Sophistication of Country Music
The Rise of Country Pop in the Postwar Decade	198	(23)
7 Across the Great Divide
Country Blues Renaissance and the Centralization of Country Music	221	(34)
Conclusion	255	(4)
Appendix	259	(6)
Notes	265	(42)
Index	307