Culture wars in music

[krtek a houby]

Jason Aldean and Oliver Anthony in particular.

Controversial country song Rich Men North of Richmond makes US chart history

Oliver Anthony becomes first artist to debut at top of Billboard Hot 100 despite having no prior chart history, with a song that has drawn backlash for its stereotypes of welfare recipients

www.theguardian.com

Seem to be doing some damage in the US charts.

And a bit coy about the ambiguous lyrics but both are currently darlings of conservatives.

More so than previous right wing musicians like, guess, Ted Nugent etc.

 

[ska invita]

Sign of the times of how the right is growing powerful online....a level up from the alt right stuff....US is the hotbed and where the money is so viral reactionary country songs make sense

 

[pbsmooth]

I see Billy Bragg did a response about joining a union

Billy Bragg Releases Response Song to Oliver Anthony's "Rich Men North of Richmond"

British musician Billy Bragg released a pro-union response song to Oliver Anthony's single "Rich Men North of Richmond."

americansongwriter.com

 

[krtek a houby]

Sign of the times of how the right is growing online....a level up from the alt right stuff....US is the hotbed and where the money is so viral reactionary country songs make sense

The OA track is being portrayed (by the right) as working class protest anthem. But looking closer, it's a divisive dirge that targets people on welfare. Of course, that's slightly buried in amongst the righteous anger at politicians. But the dog whistles are there despite what OA may or may not claim. IMHO.

It's clever, though, as any criticism will be seen as liberal elitists dismissive of working class concerns.

 

[ska invita]

The OA track is being portrayed (by the right) as working class protest anthem. But looking closer, it's a divisive dirge that targets people on welfare. Of course, that's slightly buried in amongst the righteous anger at politicians. But the dog whistles are there despite what OA may or may not claim. IMHO.

It's clever, though, as any criticism will be seen as liberal elitists dismissive of working class concerns.

i havent acutally listened, more was venting my own fears about whats going on online tbh

 

[Bus Honeygun]

To be fair, there's a long tradition of cultural conservatism in country music.

 

[Steel Icarus]

Not just country music.

No sitting down on your butt
The world don't owe you
No sitting down in a rut
I wanna show you

Don't waste your energy
On making enemies
Just take a deep breath
And work your way up

Let's work, be proud
Stand tall, touch the clouds
Man and woman, be free
Let's work, kill poverty

- M. Jagger

 

[twistedAM]

To be fair, there's a long tradition of cultural conservatism in country music.

And then there was Johnny Paycheck

 

[skyscraper101]

Good to see Orang Utan standing up for the working people of Yorkshire anyway.

 

[rubbershoes]

Let's work, kill poverty

- M. Jagger

At least he's against poverty , rather than the poor

 

[Idris2002]

Like culture wars in anything else, the only winning move is not to play.

 

[Steel Icarus]

At least he's against poverty , rather than the poor

Sure he is

 

[krtek a houby]

Like culture wars in anything else, the only winning move is not to play.

For sure. Made a point of not linking to either artist.

 

[kabbes]

This stuff is as old as the hills in country music. E.g., Garth Brooks, 1993: American Honky Tonk Bar Association

When Uncle Sam dips
In your pocket
For most things you don't mind
But when your dollar
Goes to all of those
Standing in a welfare line
Well rejoice you have a voice
If you're concerned
About the destination
Of this great nation
It's called the American
Honky-Tonk Bar Association

 

[twistedAM]

This stuff is as old as the hills in country music. E.g., Garth Brooks, 1993: American Honky Tonk Bar Association

He was fine a year earlier with We Shall Be Free which he actually co-wrote unlike AHTBA, which apart from that that (inexcusable) line about welfare is a bit of a pop at redneck pissheads sorting out the world to rights in a bar.

"When the last child cries for a crust of bread,
When the last man dies for just words that he said,
When there's shelter over the poorest head,
We shall be free.
When the last thing we notice is the color of the skin,
And the first thing we look for is the beauty within;
When the skies and the oceans are clean again,
Then we shall be free."

 

[kabbes]

Regardless of whether Brooks himself wrote the lines, the point is that those kind of attitudes were and have long been a part of country music. As, paradoxically, has been the importance of also helping your neighbour (AHTBA exemplifies this with a line about “we don’t reach for a handout, we reach for those who are down”). It all fits with the conservative moral principle of proportionality, rather than equality per se. The “deserving” versus “undeserving” poor.

I don’t think AHTBA is a pisstake, either. It very much fits with the aesthetic of the other songs on In Pieces, like Ain’t Goin’ Down Til The Sun Comes Up.

 

[Johnny Vodka]

The OA track is being portrayed (by the right) as working class protest anthem. But looking closer, it's a divisive dirge that targets people on welfare. Of course, that's slightly buried in amongst the righteous anger at politicians.

Well, yeah, but I'd put some money on that guy voting Trump.

 

[stavros]

To be fair, there's a long tradition of cultural conservatism in country music.

"Where did you come from Cotton Eye Joe?" is very confrontational to a new arrival to a community.

 

[maomao]

This stuff is as old as the hills in country music. E.g., Garth Brooks, 1993: American Honky Tonk Bar Association

Welfare Cadillac is a good two or three decades before that. Doubt it was the first either.

 

[xenon]

Isn’t country a lot about rugged individualism. No big government. Looking after my own. Blah blah blah. I mean it’s not that surprising really. Can’t divorce it from the cultural context. I mean I’m not listening to country to hear enlighten lyrics , critiques of late stage capitalism and what not. if butchers apron was still posting I bet he’d give us some counterexamples. But he isn’t. Also I’m not actually listening to country music.

 

[xenon]

Like the other thread about dodgy songs. I mean yeah what you gonna do. At least you know where you are with death metal.

 

[krtek a houby]

Now here's a song can really get behind

 

[krtek a houby]

And back to country, Lil Nas X and Orville Peck really turn the genre on its head, in regards to perceived sexuality in the genre

 

[krtek a houby]

Orville and Willie covered this oldie

Let's have Willie's



Lyrics are of their time, but he's an ally and upset the right, so it was significant back then

 

[danny la rouge]

Isn’t country a lot about rugged individualism. No big government. Looking after my own. Blah blah blah. I mean it’s not that surprising really. Can’t divorce it from the cultural context. I mean I’m not listening to country to hear enlighten lyrics , critiques of late stage capitalism and what not. if butchers apron was still posting I bet he’d give us some counterexamples. But he isn’t. Also I’m not actually listening to country music.

Yeah, I'm proud to be a coal miner's daughter
I remember well the well where I drew water
The work we done was hard
At night, we'd sleep 'cause we were tired

 

[danny la rouge]

All of us are immigrants
Every daughter, every son
Everyone is everyone
All of us are immigrants
Everyone

 

[Yossarian]

Welfare Cadillac is a good two or three decades before that. Doubt it was the first either.

Richard Nixon requested Welfare Cadillac when Johnny Cash played at the White House

The biggest flaw in Nixon’s plan? He didn’t really know very much about country music.

This fact became rather obvious when word got out about the president’s three song requests for the evening: Cash’s own “A Boy Named Sue,” Merle Haggard’s “Okie from Muskogee,” and Guy Drake’s “Welfare Cadillac.”

Shocked upon hearing the requests, Cash agreed to perform “A Boy Named Sue”—but he refused to sing the other two. He insisted that he didn’t have time to learn them, and that he didn’t want to step on their original artists’ toes. Additionally, though, as Cash later wrote, the songs were “lightning rods for antihippie and antiblack sentiment"

An Evening at the White House with Johnny Cash

Johnny Cash's performance at the Nixon White House in 1970 brought excitement, controversy, and country music to D.C.

boundarystones.weta.org

 

[krtek a houby]

Older listeners will remember the furore that surrounded the Dixie Chicks when they spoke out against Bush and the Iraq war.

A few years later they released this in response to the madness

 

[petee]

 

[kabbes]

Yeah, I'm proud to be a coal miner's daughter
I remember well the well where I drew water
The work we done was hard
At night, we'd sleep 'cause we were tired

All of us are immigrants
Every daughter, every son
Everyone is everyone
All of us are immigrants
Everyone

Neither of those are incompatible with xenon’s point about rugged individualism, particularly when you combine it with what I was saying about proportionality vs equality. In the first song, she emphasises hard work as a moral duty. In the second, it’s emphasising equality of opportunity, not of result.

Being a conservative doesn’t mean just hating everybody else — that’s an unhelpful caricature. Those songs perfectly encapsulate long-standing conservative beliefs about the importance of giving everybody the opportunity to get their head down, work hard and look after their family.