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Rightwingers are upset over Beyonce releasing country song. Dukes of hazzard guy says something stupid
Link to tweet
Former Dukes of Hazzard actor and country singer John Schneider and the OAN host are upset about Beyoncé releasing a country song, saying that leftists are trying to take over everything and Beyoncé doing a country song is like a dog peeing on their tree.
24 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
In reality, just like most popular music genres, country music in the U.S. began with Black People. More specifically, the story of country begins with the banjo. The modern-day banjo is a descendant of a West African instrument, made from gourds, called the Akonting. When enslaved persons were taken from Africa to America, their instruments came with them. For four hundred years, enslaved people created their own music, hymns, spirituals, and field songs—all with roots in African music. Accordingly, in the 1840s, the banjo was seen as an exclusively Black instrument; it was unheard of for a white person to play the banjo.
In the 1850s, minstrel shows came into raging popularity. These shows were a terribly racist form of satirical entertainment in which white people would dress in Blackface to mock Black people and Black culture. Performing the music and dance of enslaved people, with instruments such as the aforementioned banjo, the shows portrayed African-Americans as lazy, stupid, and foolish—stereotypes that originated on the plantation and still linger as overarching prejudices towards Black People. Then, somewhat unintentionally, minstrel shows introduced the banjo to white audiences in a palatable way such that the banjo was quickly appropriated by white people. Thus, the minstrel show laid the groundwork for the rise of hillbilly music roughly around the 1920s.
Hillbilly music, which would later be renamed country, became the music of the south. Hillbilly music was not solely centered around the banjo; the first hillbilly artists drew inspiration from slave spirituals, field songs, hymns, and the blues, which itself has black origins. In the 1920s and 30s, despite America being a deeply segregated nation, both Black and white hillbilly artists collaborated on a number of popular tracks. According to Patrick Huber, a history professor at Missouri University of Science and Technology, “Nearly 50 African-American singers and musicians appeared on commercial hillbilly records between those years — because the music was not a white agrarian tradition, but a fluid phenomenon passed back and forth between the races.”
After World War I, hillbilly music was officially rebranded as country music and commercialized. Big record labels wanted to sell country music, but couldn’t do so if it was integrated. Thus, Black artists on previous famous records received no recognition, and the covers were sold with white stand-ins. Suddenly, country music became marketed as “white music.” White audiences then adopted country music as their own, and as they moved north, white southerners brought country with them, further spreading the notion that country was “white music.” Meanwhile, Black artists, musicians and their contributions were effectively erased, in the white mainstream, from their own genre.
In the 1850s, minstrel shows came into raging popularity. These shows were a terribly racist form of satirical entertainment in which white people would dress in Blackface to mock Black people and Black culture. Performing the music and dance of enslaved people, with instruments such as the aforementioned banjo, the shows portrayed African-Americans as lazy, stupid, and foolish—stereotypes that originated on the plantation and still linger as overarching prejudices towards Black People. Then, somewhat unintentionally, minstrel shows introduced the banjo to white audiences in a palatable way such that the banjo was quickly appropriated by white people. Thus, the minstrel show laid the groundwork for the rise of hillbilly music roughly around the 1920s.
Hillbilly music, which would later be renamed country, became the music of the south. Hillbilly music was not solely centered around the banjo; the first hillbilly artists drew inspiration from slave spirituals, field songs, hymns, and the blues, which itself has black origins. In the 1920s and 30s, despite America being a deeply segregated nation, both Black and white hillbilly artists collaborated on a number of popular tracks. According to Patrick Huber, a history professor at Missouri University of Science and Technology, “Nearly 50 African-American singers and musicians appeared on commercial hillbilly records between those years — because the music was not a white agrarian tradition, but a fluid phenomenon passed back and forth between the races.”
After World War I, hillbilly music was officially rebranded as country music and commercialized. Big record labels wanted to sell country music, but couldn’t do so if it was integrated. Thus, Black artists on previous famous records received no recognition, and the covers were sold with white stand-ins. Suddenly, country music became marketed as “white music.” White audiences then adopted country music as their own, and as they moved north, white southerners brought country with them, further spreading the notion that country was “white music.” Meanwhile, Black artists, musicians and their contributions were effectively erased, in the white mainstream, from their own genre.
https://skidmorenews.com/new-blog/2022/2/23/a-dive-into-the-black-history-of-country-music-giving-credit-where-its-due
Response to Demovictory9 (Original post)
