>"So where is the 'country' in country music? To borrow a well-worn
>advertising phrase, it might be more a state of mind than any specific set
>of unique musical characteristics. Country musicians seem to share certain
>assumptions about melody, harmony, form, and performance technique that
>together help to shape ideas about the nature of the country sound, its
>boundaries and its possibilities."
>
>One thing I like about that is that it nudges the reader in the direction of
>considering not only what those "certain assumptions" are, but how they're
>transmitted.
Please do not think I have completely lost it after reading the following:
Taking the very interesting "certain assumptions" idea into more public,
metaphysical and recursive territory - I'd say that country music is defined as
any music that anyone with a pair of ears calls country. It is, like all genres
or styles, defined by its own community. That definition will change over time,
as new people are introduced into and removed from the world. There's no way to
rigorously define it by tonality, chord patterns, melodic trends,
instrumentation, or lyrical topics . . . you can describe it those ways but not
truly define it. So, whatever anyone says here is country music - at least to
them.
>From this definition, the idea of degrees of country-ness follows - if more
people describe certain music as country, it's more likely that the next guy or
gal who hears it will think of it that way. So, therefore, it's more probably
country music.
And, if you could play a song for everyone in the world who could hear, and they
all answered "yes" to the question "is this country music?", then that song
would definitely be country. Then and only then.
I'm a big help, aren't I?
I do really like the sharing of certain assumptions idea - it really gets at the
heart of the matter of how genres and styles are born.
John Magee
