Mountains of Contradictions: Gender, Class, and Region in the Star Image of Dolly Parton -- Pamela W

Abstract:

The country music industry, centered in Nashville, Tennessee, was almost exclusively male-dominated until the 1960s.1 From its radio origins in the 1920s (broadcasting regional folk music through barn dances, the Grand Ole Opry and other live programming), it has grown into a nationalized media industry which now supports several cable television channels, networks of country radio stations across the nation, a recording industry, a publishing industry, and a collection of performers and personalities in a star system which is distinct from (though sometimes overlapping with) that of the Hollywood film and television industries. In spite of its broader appeal, the country music industry has continued to align itself with perceptions of a white, Southern, rural, working-class culture and associated cultural tastes (Malone 1979; Carr 1988); I suggest that it has subsequently had a role in constructing representations of such a culture.