During most of the 1990s, country music held the largest market share of all radio formats, and its audience became the most educated and highest paid of all radio audiences. But country music traces its roots to the dirt poor rural populations of Appalachia, the cotton belt, and the dust bowl, and emerged as a commercial genre during the urban migrations of rural Americans following the Great Depression. Elements of country's core values survive despite country's repeated drifts in and out of the cultural mainstream. Money is no measure of a person's value. The underlying affirmation of the equal dignity of all persons regardless of social class forms the basis of a tradition of social criticism from the perspective of the white working class.
Life is disconcertingly difficult and unfair.
The affirmation of basic human dignity stands in tension with the lived experience of marginalization. The fate that dooms romantic relationships in Hank Williams' songs reflects a general sense that the powers determining life's direction are capricious and beyond control. Actions have consequences. Responding to life's troubles by seeking escape in booze and sex only brings more trouble. What we don't learn directly but can infer from Hank Williams and country music tradition is a viable alternative to honky-tonk escapism.