SmArts

December 5-11, 2016

Music and mobility

By Molly Rector

I recently read an article by author Katie Madonna Lee about the relationship between country music lyrics and Wal-Mart. In the article, titled “Your Cheatin’ Heart,” Lee outlines the ways in which social class makes (often not-so-) subtle appearances in the lyrics of contemporary popular country songs, and discusses the changes over time the genre has seen when it comes to the issue of class in Early American country music, she says, was rooted in survival, and dealt with class by necessity since it was a primary story-telling method for people living in poverty.

Lee points out that music in America has tended to represent a facet of the American dream: upward mobility. She notes that whereas before, country stars tended to be people who grew up impoverished for whom music was a way of “making it out,” contemporary successful country musicians tend to be college-educated members of the upper-middle-class who were raised in suburban environments. Lee uses this as evidence that the popular notion of upward mobility is out of sync with reality: the path to financial success for country musicians now relies less on authenticity of voice than on the resources one has access to early on (like formal music lessons and money to sink into demos).

The issue is, of course, much more complicated than I have room to explore in this column, but I’m very interested in this idea that we see art as a tool for class mobility. The idea of the successful artist (or musician or writer) who started with nothing speaks to Americans – it hits all of our value points: the narrative of the successful artist is that talent (which we see as innate and authentic) with enough motivation (hard work) allows a person to win (facing hardship) a seat at the table (class mobility) by appealing to and representing a large number of people (democracy) who otherwise wouldn’t be represented (humble roots).

We see this narrative repeated over and over again in the most-discussed artist bios – and especially in Hollywood-produced biopics. It’s a powerful narrative, and one I think we actually like to apply to all forms of celebrity, sports included (think: Blindside). In my opinion, the repetition of this narrative makes celebrity a sort of misguided bastion for the notion of the American dream of upward mobility. Even more so than success at (say) sales – a field that has (Mad Men aside) much less glamour than musical stardom. Less visible glamour, at least.

Molly Rector is a staff writer for the Daily Record. Contact her at molly@dailydata.com.