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Dr. Clyde N. Wilson

Country  Music:  A Film  by Ken Burns

4/19/2020

5 Comments

 
Picture

​The music of white Southern plain folk, called “country” as a marketing label to disguise its source, is a major presence in 20th century American culture. It is too big and too beautiful to too many people to be ignored. Southern literature, of which it forms a part, is the only living cultural creativity in superficial and ephemeral “American culture” When something Southern is too important to be ignored, it becomes “American.” This is an age-old phenomenon and doubtless forms the motive of this series---a Yankee imperial takeover with control of money and media.

Thus the Southern music creators of the 1960s get referred to as “The Sons and Daughters of America”---just like Ken Burns’s beloved radicals and rioters of the same period. And African Americans get a fourth of the screen time and billing as if they were the real originators of the music and the music is an aspect of the Civil Rights Revolution. Burns seems to think that the appearance in Nashville of Northern parasites like the faker “Bob Dylan” was a great boon to country music.

I always approach Ken Burns with skepticism. In his “Civil War” and other productions he is the Great Distorter who falsifies history to fit the sentiments of a current liberal. Unfortunately, Southerners have allowed themselves to become a loyal but despised element of the Yankee Empire. Nevertheless, this 8-part series is worth watching. It is good to have the history told (up to the 90s). The Southern people and the Southern music shown are intrinsically attractive. (As in Burns’s “The Civil War” the material is important despite the doctored interpretation and serious omissions.)

These country music people really are the soul of America and it can’t be disguised. Two things I most noticed. 1) The prevalence of poverty as the mainstream of Southern life through most of the 20th century, as has been so vividly documented in the Kennedy brothers book Punished by Poverty. 2) The authenticity and beauty of the accents that are now disappearing. “Country music” is today rapidly sinking into the lowest common denominator, which is the “American” way. It is good to have this record of the time when it was real.
5 Comments
Joe Johnson
4/20/2020 05:01:27 am

Dr. Wilson, I'm sorry, but i cant' watch anything on PBS. Also, I don't want to hear anything about feminism or civil rights.

Reply
Joe Johnson
4/20/2020 05:08:02 am

Dr. Wilson, I've never wanted to watch the film the eyes were watching god knowing it was endorsed and promoted by that fraud and idiot Oprah Winfrey.

Reply
Anthony Powell
4/20/2020 01:39:00 pm

In the last paragraph of this article, Dr Wilson writes 'The authenticity and beauty of the accents that are now disappearing.' How true this is. I encounter many people raised in the South, particularly ages 20-35, or so, deliberately attempting to lose their Southern accent, trying to sound as if they live in Chicago or Indianapolis, or San Francisco. I have to tell them, from time to time, if you're ashamed of living in Dixie, and the way Southerners speak, by all means MOVE north! We can get along fine without you.

Reply
RICHARD A FEIBEL
4/27/2020 05:08:08 am

WHAT THIS AUTHOR FAILED TO WRITE WHEN HE SPOKE OF THE NORTHERN PARASITES ,BUT DID NOT MAKE HIS POINT ,EITHER FROM LACK OF KNOWLEDGE OR JUST PLAIN COWARDNESS. THE PEOPLE WHO CAME TO NASHVILLE AND STOLE THE SHOW [[ACTUALLY BEFORE WHEN WHEN CHICAGO'S WGN STARTED BROADCASTING THE SATURDAY NIGHT BARN DANCE IN LATE 20'S ]] SEARS ROEBUCK OWNED THE STATION AND WANTED TO REACH THEIR RURAL CUSTOMER]. BUT LATER IN THE LATE 40'S AND ON THE NYC JEWISH SONG WRITERS AND PRODUCER APPEARED ON THE SCENE .THIS IS WHAT CHANGED THE BASIC MUSIC AND SEXUALITY BECAME THE FOCAL POINT .CRYING OVER LOST LOVES INSTEAD OF THE FOLK MUSIC OF EVERYDAY LIFE. THAT'S COUNTRY !!! NOT THIS CRAP THAT PRAISES TRUCK STOPS .

Reply
William Yankovich
12/9/2022 12:29:33 pm

Just here for the racist comments...and it never disappoints.

Reply



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    Author

    Clyde Wilson is a distinguished Professor Emeritus of History at the University of South Carolina He is the author or editor of over thirty books and published over 600 articles, essays and reviews

    Dr. Wilson is also is co-publisher of Shotwell Publishing, a source  for unreconstructed Southern books. 

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