Contact: Ann Marie Deer Owens, (615)322-2706
"Creating Country Music" explores authenticity in popular culture
Long before country became the dominant musical format on radio, Vanderbilt University sociologist Richard Peterson began researching the billion-dollar industry from a scholarly perspective. As a young boy, Peterson heard barn-dance programs on his grandfather's farm in Ohio. On his arrival at Vanderbilt in 1965 he found that the center of country music production was just five blocks from campus. Peterson began a scholarly quest to explore the development of country music and the reasons why Nashville was chosen over Atlanta, New York and other cities as the center of the industry. A third of a century later, his book "Creating Country Music: Fabricating Authenticity" is the culmination of extensive research into country music and the sociology of culture. Peterson believes his book fits a unique niche in the market. "There have been a number of books on individual artists, books on particular styles, picture books and comprehensive histories," he said. "However, I was coming to it as a sociologist, rather than as a music historian or a country fan would, asking, `Who decides what is authentic?'" To answer the question, Peterson developed friendships with many veterans of the music business, including Don Light, a Nashville talent agency director, who took him backstage at the Opry to meet famed bluegrass entertainer Bill Monroe and others. He attended numerous concerts and recording sessions, observing performers such as Chet Atkins, Waylon Jennings, Hank Snow and Charlie Pride in the studio. Peterson went on the road with the Oak Ridge Boys while they were still a gospel group. He also worked at Fan Fair, a weeklong series of performances, autograph-signings and other events dedicated every June to country music fans from all walks of life. Among the early artist interviews that stand out in Peterson's mind was one with Alcyone Bate Beasley, the daughter of a Vanderbilt graduate and medical doctor. Beasley had played on the Grand Ole Opry with her father, Dr. Humphrey Bate. According to Beasley, Opry founder George Hay changed the name of her father's band from the Augmented Orchestra to the Possum Hunters in an effort to create a country music image. Hay even made Beasley perform in rustic gingham dresses that she was embarrassed to wear as a Nashville city girl. It was that type of anecdote that provided Peterson his first lesson in the changing definition of authenticity in country music. In his book, he uses the ironic phrase "fabricating authenticity" to show that for the fans, authenticity is not a clear standard from the past. Instead, it refers to the reconstruction of selected elements from the past that meet the fans' approval today. Peterson, who is the founder of the sociology of culture section of the American Sociological Association, analyzed data in sources ranging from the scholarly archives of the Country Music Foundation to fan magazines. Entertainers who have offered opinions on Peterson's book include Eddy Arnold, who said Peterson "appreciates the importance of country music and respects how it achieved that importance." Timothy White, editor-in-chief of "Billboard Magazine" has described the book as "one of the most important books ever written about a popular music form." Peterson is receiving significant response to his book on the University of Chicago Press World Wide Web site, where he has posted "10 Things You Probably Didn't Know About Country Music." Among the little know facts: country music is called that in great part due to the anti-Communist witch-hunt of Senator Joe McCarthy. Peterson said that country artists were often labeled folk singers in the late 1940s. However, when Pete Seeger, a leading folk singer, was called to testify before McCarthy's committee for his purported Communist sympathies, the industry switched the designation from folk to country. The story of "Creating Country Music" ends with the death of Hank Williams in 1953 because he was the personification of the fabricated authentic country artist and has been the model for generations to come, Peterson said. The concluding chapters explore the changing meaning of authenticity in use and the conditions necessary for country music to thrive in the 21st century.
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