Soul, Country, and the USA: Race and Identity in American Music Culture

In twenty-first century America, soul music and country music hold influential positions as the two central flagships that propel the expression and evolution of American popular culture. From their respective but concentric positions on opposite ends of the perpetual continuum of American racial identity, these musical cultures attract their audiences with their distinctive musical aesthetics and characteristically relatable cultural messages. Applying ethnomusicological tools, this book examines the socio-cultural influences and consequences of these two genres: the perception of and resistance to hegemonic structures from within their respective constituencies, the definition of national identity, and the understanding of the 'American Dream.' These genres communicate coded information to their enthusiasts whose experiences and world views are formed and reinforced in this transaction between producers and consumers. Each emerging American reality revolves around a unique sub-culture that is replete with its own highly developed signifiers and undergirded by its own interpretation of identity, space, vernacular, and politics. In the midst of these divergent realities, these two musical cultures are direct descendants of a common ancestor. The southern Americana musical tradition, which emerged from the experience of poverty and working class struggle, serves as the cultural and aesthetic progenitor from which these genres and their associated cultural mores have derived.

Soul music and country music propel American popular culture. Using ethnomusicological tools, Shonekan examines their socio-cultural influences and consequences: the perception of and resistance to hegemonic structures from within their respective constituencies, the definition of national identity, and the understanding of the 'American Dream.'

Stephanie Shonekan is Assistant Professor of Ethnomusicology and Black Studies at the University of Missouri, USA.

1. Introduction: Outside Looking In

2. Folk Roots to Pop Masses: An Entangled History

3. Money and Media: Radio; Television; Film Representations

4. Race and Identity: Homies and Hillbillies

5. Gender and Relationships: Women and Femininity

6. Semiotics and Songs: Visual and Oral Meanings

7. Politics and power: Left or Right

8. Religion and Faith: Jesus Walks or Takes the Wheel

9. Conclusion: The American Dream