Issue of Authenticity, Commercialization of Country Music Analyzed in New Book by TU Professor Joli Jensen
Is country music losing its soul? The question is posed by Joli Jensen, a University of Tulsa communication professor and author of a new book that examines how country music changed in the 1950s and 60s as it reacted to the success of rock Ãnà roll.
Jensen is the author of ìThe Nashville Sound: Authenticity, Commercialization, and Country Music,î published in June by Vanderbilt University Press.
ìThose who care about country music continue to worry that somehow it is losing its authenticity,î says Jensen. ìThey look to the performers and styles of the past, believing that they represent a more genuine and less commercialized country music.î
Jensen studied the dramatic changes that occurred in country music when both Patsy Cline and Elvis Presley became popular. It was a time when the ìhonky-tonkî style of country music -- a twangy, nasal sound with lyrics about drink, work, love and loss -- was replaced by the smoother, orchestrated Nashville Sound with background vocals and violins instead of steel guitar.
Jensen wondered why a change in musical style would matter so much to fans. How does a switch from steel guitars to vocal groups, from fiddles to violins lead to questions about a genreÃs authenticity, charges of commercialization and fears about losing musical identity?
ìCultural forms such as country music help us establish our sense of who we are; they give us a sense of identity,î she explains. ìSo changes -- even if they seem minor -- matter deeply to those who define themselves according to cultural forms that they sense are threatened.î
The book is based on research she conducted while completing her Ph.D. at the University of Illinois. Jensen interviewed key figures of the period, many of them residents of Nashville, and analyzed numerous interviews, recordings and historical accounts.
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Note to editor: Jensen can be reached at TU at (918) 631-2826.
Contact: Rolf Olsen News Bureau The University of Tulsa E-mail: [email protected] Phone: (918) 631-2653 Fax: (918) 631-2035 Mail: UNIR-TU, 600 S. College Ave., Tulsa, OK 74104-3189
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