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I was born a popstar girl
Sep. 10th, 2010 02:46 pmIn regard to Wednesday's post about Dottie West: I should point out that pre-makeover Dottie is already going pop (the country-pop of Patsy Cline and Skeeter Davis, etc.), and whatever the lyrics and dress and placid instrumentation tell us about her in "Country Girl," there is a pop-jazz sense of rhythmic (dis)location in her singing, and at the end the melody becomes a potential rock 'n' roll wailer that's ready to let loose.
But still, prior to the late '70s she's at least giving lip service, if not throat service, to the idea of accepting limits and being snug in your place.* Country may be the only genre in American music that consistently does this (by "consistently" I don't mean "always does it throughout its length and breadth" but rather "does it a lot" or "at least allows performers to do it, to openly accept constraint and defeat"). Of course country has other impulses - the seeking of wide open spaces, the drive to invent and reinvent oneself (according to Wikip, Dottie's makeover includes plastic surgery), and so on - which intermix with or butt against the sense of limits, of place, of defeat, etc. So we can look, in particular instances, to see whether the reinvention and wanderlust clothe themselves in limits and roles (and defeat), say in cowboy garb, which is a role of adventure but in a traditional robe and a dying occupation. Or do they throw off the garb? Or engage in some combination of robing, disrobing, and counter-robing?
*Unless sometimes she isn't: my knowledge of country doesn't go deep or stretch long, and I don't think I'd thought ten seconds about Dottie West until two days ago; nonetheless... well, nonetheless, why isn't anybody not on Rolling Country talking about cultural stuff like this, limitlessness versus defeat etc.? Or are there lots of people doing so? I can't say I know the discourse.
But still, prior to the late '70s she's at least giving lip service, if not throat service, to the idea of accepting limits and being snug in your place.* Country may be the only genre in American music that consistently does this (by "consistently" I don't mean "always does it throughout its length and breadth" but rather "does it a lot" or "at least allows performers to do it, to openly accept constraint and defeat"). Of course country has other impulses - the seeking of wide open spaces, the drive to invent and reinvent oneself (according to Wikip, Dottie's makeover includes plastic surgery), and so on - which intermix with or butt against the sense of limits, of place, of defeat, etc. So we can look, in particular instances, to see whether the reinvention and wanderlust clothe themselves in limits and roles (and defeat), say in cowboy garb, which is a role of adventure but in a traditional robe and a dying occupation. Or do they throw off the garb? Or engage in some combination of robing, disrobing, and counter-robing?
*Unless sometimes she isn't: my knowledge of country doesn't go deep or stretch long, and I don't think I'd thought ten seconds about Dottie West until two days ago; nonetheless... well, nonetheless, why isn't anybody not on Rolling Country talking about cultural stuff like this, limitlessness versus defeat etc.? Or are there lots of people doing so? I can't say I know the discourse.
