#ken burns country music

[cantsayidont]

It's no great stretch to say that virtually all popular music of the past 150 years is either fundamentally Black music (e.g., blues) or exists as the result of white artists and promoters appropriating Black music and distilling it for white consumption.

The first episode of the irritating 2019 Ken Burns documentary COUNTRY MUSIC, for instance, describes how country star A.P. Carter (uncle of June Carter Cash) would drive around the countryside getting Black blues musicians to share songs with him that he would then copyright in his own name (something the documentary presents as a perfectly normal thing to do, somehow). In A POCKET FULL OF DREAMS, the first part of his biography of Bing Crosby, jazz critic Gary Giddins makes a strong argument that Crosby — by far one of the most successful and influential pop vocalists of the 20th century — developed his vocal style by appropriating Louis Armstrong, of whom Crosby was a fan, and then adapting it to suit the audio parameters of the electronic microphone. Frank Sinatra, another of the 20th century's most influential pop vocalists, was strongly influenced by Billie Holiday, whom he admired greatly. (Sinatra's former valet, George Jacobs, told a touching if probably apocryphal story about Sinatra visiting Holiday in the hospital shortly before her death and trying, without any success, to help her score some smack.) And then of course there is Elvis Presley, whose appropriation of Black music is well-documented and much discussed.

Lines between musical genres are largely fictive and often exist in large part to enforce racial lines — the early episodes of COUNTRY MUSIC describe at some length (albeit with a frustrating lack of critical thought) the arbitrary nature of the distinction between "race music" (a.k.a. R&B) and "hillbilly music" (a.k.a. country) in the pre-WW2 radio and recording industries, and if you still think there's a quantifiable genre difference other than race, please listen to Ray Charles' 1962 opus MODERN SOUNDS IN COUNTRY AND WESTERN MUSIC and try again. White artists have been trying to colonize rap and hip-hop at least since Blondie's "Rapture," but listeners (or radio stations) that make a big deal out of eschewing rap and country don't usually seem to think Blondie or the Red Hot Chili Peppers or even the Beastie Boys and Eminem really count; why do you suppose that is? (Use both sides of paper if necessary.)

So, when people whine that they don't like rap music, or that rap isn't really music, it's really just saying, "Oh, I can still hear the Blackness — I don't like that, can you take that out?" Which, given the above, is absurd as well as offensive.

[desertsquiet]

“Country Music” by Ken Burns, intro to ep. 7: “Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way?”

[grott-y]

some recent screenshots

[astronicht]

Sometimes one must look to history to find the memes one truly needs

[synderesis08]

Country Music: An Illustrated History

A gorgeously illustrated and hugely entertaining story of America's most popular music and the singers and songwriters who captivated, entertained, and consoled listeners throughout the twentieth century—based on the eight-part film series. This fascinating history begins where country music itself emerged: the American South, where people sang to themselves and to their families at home and in church, and where they danced to fiddle tunes on Saturday nights. With the birth of radio in the 1920s, the songs moved from small towns, mountain hollers, and the wide-open West to become the music of an entire nation--a diverse range of sounds and styles from honky tonk to gospel to bluegrass to rockabilly, leading up through the decades to the music's massive commercial success today. But above all, Country Music is the story of the musicians. Here is Hank Williams's tragic honky-tonk life, Dolly Parton rising to fame from a dirt-poor childhood, and Loretta Lynn turning her experiences into songs that spoke to women everywhere. Here too are interviews with the genre's biggest stars, including the likes of Merle Haggard to Garth Brooks to Rosanne Cash. Rife with rare photographs and endlessly fascinating anecdotes, the stories in this sweeping yet intimate history will captivate longtime country fans and introduce new listeners to an extraordinary body of music that lies at the very center of the American experience.

[outlawssweetheart]

Yes, we true country music should gatekeep the country music genre from pop stars and rappers using it as a gimmick, and their fans who otherwise hate on real country music.

Unlike the pop genre, country music historically has meaning to it, and that has been dying since the early 2010s. We have every right to pissed off about this new trend to further strip country music of soul.

[originalharmonysalad]

Explore the history of a uniquely American art form: country music. From its deep and tangled roots in ballads, blues and hymns performed in small settings, to its worldwide popularity, learn how country music evolved over the course of the 20th century, as it eventually emerged to become America’s music. 

Country Music features never-before-seen footage and photographs, plus interviews with more than 80 country music artists. The eight-part 16-hour series is directed and produced by Ken Burns; written and produced by Dayton Duncan; and produced by Julie Dunfey.

[musicdocs]

Country Music (2019)

[old-acc-gaylorscatmeredith]

Hits different is the most explicitly gay song Taylor has ever released

'Bet I could still melt your world, argumentative, antithetical dream girl' she is directly addressing her dream girl here. She's saying she could melt the dream girl's world. Literally what else could that possibly mean?

'I used to switch out these Kens' for what? It could be she's referring to men as Kens because she plays with them like dolls, but specifically 'switch out' rather than 'play with' implies she's switched them out for something else, like another Barbie - something I've found to be a common experience among girls who like girls.

Also 'asshole outlaw' reminds me of her country roots, and country music is generally very homophobic and sexist. She used to comply by these standards and mindsets but not anymore. Now, 'don't need another metaphor, its simple enough' she doesn't need to disguise it as friendship, instead she's writing song explicitly about this dream girl who she's in love with and skipping the metaphors for other more direct references:

Like references to other songs too, like mentions of summer because of Cruel Summer with 'freedom felt like summer ... now the sun burns'. 'I snuck in through the garden gate every night that summer just to seal my fate' when the only garden gate Taylor's been seen around is Karlie's. The matching lyric: 'I'm drunk in the back of the car and I cried like a baby coming home from the bar' matches with 'I never don't cry at the bar ... I slur your name 'til someone puts me in a car' she's drunk and says 'Karlie' or 'Kar' which is mistaken for 'car'.

A New Romantics reference too, which is such a gay anthem I could write a whole other post about it. 'Like waiting for a bus that never comes' is to me a weirdly out of place lyric just like 'we wait for trains that just aren't coming'.

I'd even argue 'I heard your key turn in the door down the hallways/Is it okay? Is it you?/Or have they come to take me away?' is asking if interacting with Karlie at all is okay to do at all, if she can focus on the public drama about them actually being about her and Karlie, when all she can think about is being found out and taken away from her fame and reputation.

Then of course 'each bar plays our song nothing has ever felt so wrong' meaning 'their song' must be a popular and mainstream song to be played at bars so often, or more broadly could mean mainstream love songs in general which are mostly straight and don't feel right to her for some reason. Her friends tell her that's okay because 'love is a lie' but she knows they're only saying it to make her feel better, when that's not the real reason why 'moving on was always easy'.

Despite all the men she never really liked and the love that never felt right to her, this one person 'hits different'. You as the listener have a choice, either hear she's with her dream girl and it feels right, or that she 'just needed to meet the right guy', as straight people tell lesbians their entire lives.

This has been a gaylor essay thank you for reading

[champagnemanagement]

SOB LOG 2023 HIGHLIGHTS!!!

Don’t know about SOB LOG? Primer: I keep a log of every time I cry because we typically avoid talking about our tears, and I don’t think we should! The main reason is embarrassment and fuck that. We need to normalize crying. It IS normal and common and healthy- we just don’t talk about it. Now it’s a different story if you are crying every day because of loneliness or self-hatred or something like that. You most definitely need to talk about it to someone but it should probably be a professional! I am talking about the tears that come as a reaction to emotional experiences—like reading a book or listening to a song or watching the news.

So this year I came in at 127 SOBS, which is the exact same number from 2021!!!! Here are my TOP TEN SOBS in chronological order based on the criteria of variety and ridiculousness.

This 95 year old man’s bday celebration at a dunkin donuts

Ke huay quan's speech at Golden globes

I cried MANY times about the death of my brother’s BFF Annie, particularly hard listening to the song he sang for her

Seeing a picture of Trayvon Martin at Experience Aviation

Reading about law in MO forcing trans people to detransition

Caught up on season 2 of The Mandalorian: baby yoda touching PP’s face unleashed a torrent

When Nazis showed up at a drag event at Land Grant Brewery in Columbus

I somehow cried during INSIDIOUS 4

O'Shae Sibley, a Beloved Dancer, Killed After Vogueing at Brooklyn Gas Station

This one’s a 2 parter: I cried during Quellek’s death in Galaxy Quest and then I cried AGAIN when Quellek’s death was talked about in the Galaxy Quest documentary, Never Surrender: A Galaxy Quest Documentary (which is EXCELLENT, btw).

I cried many times during the following shows: Midnight Mass, Rupaul’s Drag Race, the Ken Burns’ Country Music series (especially the Hank Williams ep), Strange New Worlds, The Golden Bachelor, GBBO, just to name a few! And not many people will appreciate this but I SHED A TEAR FOR TUVIX!! (I watched the Tuvix ep of Voyager after the Lower Decks ep inspired by it.)

So that’s it!! Happy sob logging in 2024!

[helenofjupiter]

assigning taylor swift songs to bridgerton couples (part 1)

with explanations that no one asked for (proceed with caution)

part 2 for e, f, g and h

so i’ve been going kinda crazy about bridgerton the past few weeks, i read (and reread) all eight books and at some point while reading i couldn't stop trying to find taylor songs in my mind which would fit each couple. so i chose two songs for every pair, some of these have actual thought behind them, others are mostly based on vibes. i hope you enjoy this unhinged tangent <3

anthony & kate - i was actually reading gregory’s book when this completely genius thought hit me - treacherous IS the kanthony song. i mean it starts with “put your lips close to mine as long as they don’t touch”. insert a picture of any one of the hundred times they almost kissed in the show. even the build up of the song reminds me so much of the slow burn we had in the series. also lyrics like “i hear the sound of my own voice asking you to stay” (anthony being “what?? no!!! you can’t go back to india. wtf do you mean you’re not staying once edwina marries???”),  “and all we are is skin and bone trained to get along forever going with the flow but you're friction” through the lens of kanthony i see this line as them just constantly aggravating each other.

the second song for them is dancing with our hands tied. i hadn’t thought about this song in a criminally long time. oh boy. (i also just now realised how long this post is gonna be) “i, i loved you in secret, first sight, yeah we love without reason” i’m sorry but these dumb bitches were in love since that first fateful early morning horse ride you can’t convince me otherwise. “people started talking, putting us through our paces // but we were dancing, dancing with our hands tied, hands tied” this screams when they got caught and were forced to marry in the book. their hands were tied - they had no other choice but to marry but they were dancing because they actually did love each other (awww). other than that there are two lines that sort of go hand in hand - “i loved you in spite of deep fears that the world would divide us” and “i'm a mess, but i'm the mess that you wanted” in my head this is from anthony’s perspective. him dealing with his fear of morality and losing kate and while kate does have the eldest daughter syndrome, anthony is the bigger mess of a person in the relationship.

benedict & sophie - enchanted is a no brainer, it needs no explanation. now for their second song i picked the lakes. this resides in the vibes category. listening to this i can’t help but imagine benophie living an artsy quiet life in my cottage. i’m actually interested to see how their living situation will play out in the show because i feel in the books benedict wasn’t as involved in the ton. i guess it’s just a bit hard for me to envision show!ben being so chill about moving to some place in the middle of nowhere. 

colin & penelope - of course, dress. i listened to this on repeat while reading the whole book in one sitting. honestly a marvellous experience, can’t recommend enough . for the second song i had to go looking, had to travel far like colin one might say. and once i arrived in the long forgotten country of taylor’s debut album i found a piece of music so clearly polin coded that it’s baffling this fandom isn’t talking about it. the song in question is  i’m only me when i’m with you. it feels silly to explain this one because being from taylor’s early career the lyrics aren’t terribly clever so let’s focus on the chorus. “i'm only up when you're not down, don't wanna fly if you're still on the ground” some people want colin to be just ken in the show but i actually really liked how they both have a career in writing at the end of the book (penelope better had published the book she started writing). “the other half i'm only trying to let you know that what i feel is true and i'm only me when i'm with you” you can’t tell me this isn’t colin telling penelope she is beautiful over and over again and how much he loves him because he was a fool not to realise it sooner. while in the book penelope feeling like she is truly confident and herself around colin, i think in the show this line works from colin’s side just as well. 

daphne & simon - while most of the fandom has crowned wildest dreams as the saphne anthem (taylor’s version), i just couldn’t get behind it. yes, they used the song in their season but in my mind it just does not embody their relationship. firstly, the great war, i mean the first line “my knuckles were bruised like violets”. simon… boxing… you see the connection, right? okay, i promise it gets (even) better. “and maybe it's the past that's talking, screaming from the crypt. telling me to punish you for things you never did” in case of simon, he was hanging on to his hate towards his father and refusing to have kids with daphne, punishing her while it wasn’t her fault what had happened to him as a child. “somewhere in the haze, got a sense i’d been betrayed” i hate this part of their stroy (i do not condone daphne’s actions) yet i can so clearly picture simon still partly on his high of pleasure but starting to realise what daphne had done to him. i think i like this as their song because well they both were all kinds of wrong in this situation and at the end of the song it’s acknowledged “there's no morning glory, it was war, it wasn't fair” and still it has a happy ending just like saphne. their second song was hard to find and i’m not a hundred percent sure about it but a present to you so it goes…  “all eyes on us, you make everyone disappear” - season 1, episode 1 “stare into my eyes”. i felt i needed to give them a sexy song and i do feel like it matches their sexual tension but this one is definitely up for debate.

[gracejones]

just realized I might get a trent reznor cameo during this ken burns country music docuseries…

[rogersandclarke]

one time in high school i was talking to a friend and they were like “yeah i’m applying to hampshire but i probably won’t go, cause it’s too far from an airport and i’m too crazy for that. i need my parents to be able to get to me quickly. anyway, ken burns went there.”

and so i said, “oh yeah, country music.” and she said “oh, um, no, he’s a documentary filmmaker.” and i was like “oh. yeah, no, i know, i meant that like his series country music is airing on pbs right now.”

[helloitsbees]

also Fancy by bobbie gentry (i would die for her), Harper Valley PTA, merle haggard in general (my faves: mamma tried and little ole wine drinker me), charlie pride (fave: kiss an angel good morning and is anybody goin to san antone). Ken Burn's country music documentary has a good album for getting some classic country, i dont love every song on it but it's got a nice mix i think. i would also die for dolly parton but i assume you're familiar with the queen

yesssssss thank you!!

[sadsongsandwaltzes]

Hey boy, ya wanna come over and binge watch all 16.5 hours of Ken burns country music documentary and DVD bonus features, or no?

[professeur-stump]

Quand vous décidez d'enregistrer une chanson, mettez-y tout votre cœur. Ne dites pas : "On pourra la refaire." À chaque fois que vous la refaites, vous perdez quelque chose. Surtout celui qui chante. Alors donnez tout à la première prise.

(Roy Acuff au Nitty Gritty Dirt Band)　⌘ vu & entendu dans (Ken Burns, Country Music)