Country Music and the Problem of Authenticity
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4525637 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Eddie Malone (0000-0002-8516-6207, The University at Albany , USA, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Volume | 63 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 75-90 |
| Publication date | 2023-03-02 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The British Journal of Aesthetics (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0007-0904 • E-ISSN: 1468-2842 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1093/aesthj/ayac020 |
| OpenAlex | W4226001336 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 6 |
| References cited | 19 |
In the small but growing literature on the philosophy of country music, the question of how we ought to understand the genre's notion of authenticity has emerged as one of the central questions. Many country music scholars argue that authenticity claims track attributions of cultural standing or artistic self-expression. However, careful attention to the history of the genre reveals that these claims are simply factually wrong. On the basis of this, we have grounds for dismissing these attributions. Here, I argue for an alternative model of authenticity in which we take claims about the relative authenticity of country music to be evidence of 'country' being a dual-character concept in the same way that it has been suggested of punk rock and hip-hop. Authentic country music is country music that embodies the core value commitments of the genre. These values form the basis of country artists' and audiences' practical identities. Part of country music's aesthetic practice is that audiences reconnect with, reify, and revise this common practical identity through identification with artists and works that manifest these values. We should then think of authenticity discourse within country music as a kind of game within the genre's practice of shaping and maintaining this practical identity
Aesthetics · Art · Country · Identity (music · Literature · Popular music · Punk · Sociology · Value (mathematics · Diverse Musicological Studies · Music History and Culture · Social and Cultural Dynamics
Creating Country Music
Dual character concepts and the normative dimension of conceptual representation
So Black and Blue
Dual Character Art Concepts
Authenticity Within Hip-Hop and Other Cultures Threatened with Assimilation
Should white men play the blues
Ghosts, ragged but beautiful
Two Concepts of Rules
Aesthetic practices and normativity
American Country Music in Japan
The aesthetics of country music
Appropriation Art, Fair Use, and Metalinguistic Negotiation
The Aesthetics of Punk Rock
Bill Malone, Alan Lomax, and the Origins of Country Music
| Unique citing works | 6 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 3 |
| Citation span | 2024 - 2026 (3) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 6 |