Wrong's what I do best
Subtitle: hard country music and contemporary culture
By: Barbara Ching
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2001
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 186
ISBN-13: 9780195108354; 9780195169423
Subjects: Klassenverhoudingen; Cultuur; Country-muziek; Country music; History and criticism; Sociale aspecten
Other titles: Hard country music and contemporary culture
Description: "Barbara Ching defines the features that make certain country songs and artists hard. She compares hard country music to high American culture, arguing that hard country deliberately focuses on its low position in the American cultural hierarchy. The artists sing of failures to live up to American standards of affluence. The songs are set apart from mainstream country music, which focuses on nostalgia, romance, and the patriotism of regular folk.

Ching demonstrates that hard country's bad puns, sad stories, and unsavory characters are not as simple as we want them to be. In a style that demands both devotion and alienation from its fans, hard country ultimately seeks out the extreme and the objectionable, and in doing so, shows us the darker side of ourselves."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Introduction: Learning the hard way.; title: "Country 'til I die": Contemporary hard country and the incurable unease of class distinction.; title: The Possum, the Hag, and the Rhinestone Cowboy: The burlesque abjection of the white male.; title: The hard act to follow: Hank Williams and the legacy of hard country stardom.; title: Drawing hard lines: Buck Owens, Dwight Yoakam, and the Bakersfield sound.; title: Dying hard: Hard country at the finish line?