> -B.
Yeah, there's always been a reactionary streak in country music. I mean you can't get much more reactionary than Merle Haggard's "Fightin' Side of Me" or "Okie From Muskogee." And then you have that shameful, idiotic song (still REALLY popular on commercial country music stations) by Darryl Worley called "Have You Forgotten?" which basically equated the Iraq war with fighting Al Qaeda:
I hear people saying we don't need this war I say there's some things worth fighting for What about our freedom and this piece of ground? We didn't get to keep 'em by backing down ...
Have you forgotten how it felt that day To see your homeland under fire And her people blown away?
What really interests me, though, is the general shift in tone and theme that's occurred in mainstream country music: Why is it so much more sentimental, earnest and gooey (even angry?) than it was a few decades ago? This strikes me as a useful inquiry because -- assuming you can draw generalizations about cultural trends amongst the white working class from trends in country music -- it might help explain why so many working class whites have turned to the dark side. How does schlocky sentimentality breed reactionary politics (or vice versa)?
-WD