Course Description: Country Music
This course will examine the history and cultural impact of country music in the twentieth century. We will consider country music primarily as an art form, but also as a lens to consider race, class, gender, religion, identity, and region. We are defined in part, after all, by the songs we sing. We will investigate the stories of major icons of country music-Hank Williams, Loretta Lynn, Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, Dolly Parton, and so on-as well as uncovering lesser known masterpieces, from scratchy recordings of old-time music to 1970s honky-tonk to Black trailblazers like Stoney Edwards. Among the avenues for exploration and discussion: the fusion between folk cultures in migration; rural folk music's encounter with mass media; American populism as an aesthetic and affect; mythos and mythmaking; movies and the West; the Southern storytelling tradition; melodrama and lonesomeness; labor and longing; God and dirt. We will read history, analysis, and journalism alongside listening to podcasts (like "Cocaine & Rhinestones") and watching films (like "Coal Miner's Daughter"). And, of course, we will listen to country music, from the earliest recordings of "hillbilly records" to the pop country of the 1990s.
Suggested Searches
Try these sample searches on your class topic in the library catalog:
Recommended eBooks & Print Books
Hidden in the Mix by Call Number: Transy Library General ML3479 .H53 2013ISBN: 9780822351498Publication Date: 2013-07-10
Hillbilly Highway by ISBN: 0691250294Publication Date: 2023-09-26No detailed description available for "Hillbilly Highway".
Gather Background Information
Use broad reference materials to find background information about your topic. This will help you narrow your topic and will also give you keywords to find the most relevant sources. Credo can be a good place to start for that first step in research.
- Credo Reference This link opens in a new window
Credo Reference provides access to a large number of encyclopedias, dictionaries, thesauri and other reference books. Subjects covered include art, biography, history, literature, music, religion, and science and technology.
- Country MusicProvides a mind map of keywords and reference articles about country music.
- Opposing Viewpoints In Context This link opens in a new window
Opposing Viewpoints In Context is a rich resource for debaters and includes pro/con viewpoints, reference articles, interactive maps, infographics, and more. A category on the National Debate Topic provides quick and easy access to content on frequently studied and discussed issues. Periodical content covers current events, news and commentary, economics, environmental issues, political science, and more.
- Country MusicProvides information and sources about country music.
Databases--Find Scholarly Articles
Below are suggested databases for finding articles on topics relating to your course.
Need more options -- Databases A-Z
- Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window
Multi-disciplinary full-text database, with more than 8,500 full-text periodicals, including more than 7,300 peer-reviewed journals. Includes searchable PDF content going back as far as 1887. - Communications and Mass Media Complete This link opens in a new window
Provides articles in areas related to communication and mass media. CMMC offers cover-to-cover indexing and abstracts for more than 500 journals, and selected coverage of nearly 200 more, for a combined coverage of more than 690 titles. Furthermore, this database includes full text for over 380 journals. - JSTOR This link opens in a new window
Provides articles from 1,900+ scholarly journals in the arts, humanities, and sciences and around 5,000 ebooks. Coverage dates for journals are from the very first issue of each journal (the nineteenth or early twentieth centuries for many) and continues to 2 – 5 years prior to the current year (moving wall).
Do We Have the Journal?
- A-Z Journal Finder - Do We Have That Journal? This link opens in a new windowDiscover if we have the journal that you are looking for and which years are available.
Below are some journals that contain scholarly articles on topics relating to your course. Click on a journal and type keywords into the search box to find articles on your topic.
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American Music
- The Journal of American Folklore
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Journal of Musicological Research
- Journal of Popular Music Studies
- The Music Quarterly
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Popular Music & Society
- Southern Cultures
- Southern Quarterly
Scholarly Articles
A few scholarly articles on the topics relating to your course are below.
Library Session Materials 2025
Films
- Films On Demand: Humanities & Social Sciences Collection - Master Academic This link opens in a new window
Films On Demand is a web-based digital video delivery platform that allows you to view streaming videos from Films Media Group anytime, anywhere, 24/7. Thousands of videos are available for in-class use and remote viewing from the library, in the dorm, or at home. Films and film clips can be embedded in course management system (Moodle).
Citation Information
- "MLA Formatting and Style Guide." The Purdue OWL, Purdue U Writing Lab, 2022This resource, updated to reflect the MLA Handbook (9th ed.), offers examples for the general format of MLA research papers, in-text citations, endnotes/footnotes, and the Works Cited page.
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