Country music culture : from hard times to Heaven / Curtis W. Ellison.

Author/creator Ellison, Curtis W.
Format Book
Publication InfoJackson [MS] : University Press of Mississippi, ©1995.
Descriptionxxiii, 314 pages, 16 pages of plates : illustrations ; 24 cm.
Subjects

SeriesStudies in popular culture
Studies in popular culture (Jackson, Miss.) ^A253827
Contents Mother church -- Tragic troubadours -- Domestic turmoil -- Salvation -- Success -- The marketplace of emotions.
Abstract This social history of country music from the 1920s to the present discusses such artists as Patsy Cline, Grandpa Jones, Dolly Parton, and Garth Brooks. Since its beginnings in the 1920s, country music has soared beyond an almost exclusively regional audience to become America's most popular form in the 1990s. Seventy years of regional modernization have framed it for broad appeal in today's popular culture. This book offers a perspective on contemporary country music's stars, promoters, and fans. It probes deeply to learn how a vibrant country music culture evolved from rustic radio programs to become aggressive promotion of recording artists and an extended network of performers and fans unparalleled in other forms of popular music. Drawing upon a remarkably diverse range of sources--literary and scholarly works, fan magazines and music business publications, biographies of country music stars, recordings, radio and television programs, and motion pictures--this book is based on firsthand observations of more than seventy-five live concerts and public events. It provides impressive evidence of the boundless devotion an immense audience extends to its favorite music, a music that defines the culture that produced it.
Bibliography noteIncludes bibliographical references (pages 281-292) and index.
LCCN 94036518
ISBN0878057218 (alk. paper)
ISBN9780878057214 (alk. paper)
ISBN0878057226 (pbk.)

Availability

Library Location Call Number Status Item Actions
Music Closed Stacks - Ask at Circulation Desk ML3524 .E4 1995 ✔ Available Place Hold