Creating Country Music

Creating Country Music Fabricating Authenticity

by Richard A. Peterson

University of Chicago Press, 1997
Cloth: 978-0-226-66284-8 | Paper: 978-0-226-66285-5 | Electronic: 978-0-226-11144-5
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226111445.001.0001

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University of Chicago Press (paper, ebook)

ABOUT THIS BOOKTABLE OF CONTENTS

ABOUT THIS BOOK

In Creating Country Music, Richard Peterson traces the development of country music and its institutionalization from Fiddlin' John Carson's pioneering recordings in Atlanta in 1923 to the posthumous success of Hank Williams. Peterson captures the free-wheeling entrepreneurial spirit of the era, detailing the activities of the key promoters who sculpted the emerging country music scene. More than just a history of the music and its performers, this book is the first to explore what it means to be authentic within popular culture.

"[Peterson] restores to the music a sense of fun and diversity and possibility that more naive fans (and performers) miss. Like Buck Owens, Peterson knows there is no greater adventure or challenge than to 'act naturally.'"—Ken Emerson, Los Angeles Times Book Review

"A triumphal history and theory of the country music industry between 1920 and 1953."—Robert Crowley, International Journal of Comparative Sociology

"One of the most important books ever written about a popular music form."—Timothy White, Billboard Magazine

Acknowledgments: A Note on Method

1. Introduction: Finding Country Authenticity

Part 1- Making the Music Commercial

2. Atlanta: Birthplace of Commercial Country Music

3. Renewable Tradition: The Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers

Gallery 1. The Folk vs. Pop Look

Part 2- Fabricating the Image of Authenticity

4. Old-Timer Image of Authenticity

5. Hillbilly Image of Authenticity

6. Cowboy Image of Authenticity

Gallery 2. Geezers, Hillbillies, and Cowboys

Part 3- Radio-Made Country Music in the 1930s

7. The Barn Dance in the Air

8. Radio Station Barnstorming

9. Soft Shell vs. Hard Core: The Vagabonds vs. Roy Acuff

Gallery 3. The Evolving Hard-Core and Soft Shell Looks

Part 4- Making "Country" Reproducible

10. Honky-Tonk Firmament: Lives, Music, Lyrics

11. Hank Williams as the Personification of Country Music

Gallery 4. Iconic Country

12. Creating a Field Called "Country"

Part 5- Authenticity and the Future of Country Music

13. Authenticity: A Renewable Resource

14. Can the Circle Be Unbroken?

Notes

References

Credits

General Index

Song Index