Haley Hedrick

At the beginning of this class, I thought I had a fairly solid idea of what country music is. I grew up listening to country music, mostly in the 80s, 90s, and early 2000s. I had not listened to music from generations that were further back. Of course, there were some exceptions and familiar names, one of those being Patsy Cline. Other than a few random songs here and there that I did not even know were from these decades, my understanding, experience, and knowledge of true old country was limited. In the past 5 or so years I have stopped listening to "new country", the sound seems so far from what I grew up listening to with my parents. I am a major fan of artists who seem to be "returning to the roots" and making their music with that mission but other than those select artists, the 80s, 90s, and early 200's were all I knew. 

  When I began to listen to "old country" in the sense of one hundred years ago, I began to see that music has changed exponentially to lead up to even the 80s and 90s country that I would have considered old. I do not believe I have had a single "turning point", but the first listening of songs from the 20s and 30s started the pivot in my perception of country music. The cowboy western country songs that overtook the 19th century in country music are not close to that of 70s disco country. Additionally, the country of the '60s and '70s differed in many ways from country music of the '90s. Before investigating songs throughout the decades, I would not have noted a distinction between 90s country and everything that came before. 

  A major factor that distinguished between the decades was the general level of simplicity that was present specifically in the country music genre of the 20s,30s, and 40s had a style with much simplicity and consistency. Music of the 80s to now seems to have more of an electric sound with musical complexities as well as a familiar form and build. New artists like Zac Bryan seem to be bringing back the sense of simplicity in country music. Most of his songs have little instrumentation and a simple and authentic vocal sound that slipped away some in the 80s-200s eras. 

     Another major factor for me was the presence of the rock sound in the 50s and 60s country that I listened to. I had no idea that country and rock used to be considered the same and then split off enough to be considered two separate genres. Southern rock has always been a sub-genre in my head but I would have thought it came from combining the two genres that existed independently instead of returning to this element that used to appear quite frequently in the 50s and 60s country.  

  This class so far along with the two main turning points helped me to see that the country is even more dynamic than I thought it was. I started with this idea of “old country” and “new country” and I have learned it is not as simple as that. There’s “new country”, “old country”, “older country”, “western country”, “rock country”, and even “gothic country” which is very interesting and I am still impressed that it exists. Even now in modern country music, you have those who are trying to rap, and sound pop, and those who are returning to the roots of country many generations back.

     Originally, I had the idea in my mind that an '80s and '90s country was the way to go and that a new country is an imposter of what used to be. All of this I still believe is true but maybe 80s and 90s country artists are the imposters, but when listening to 30s country it helps me to see that it is hard to generally compare any of these decades. Country music holds fast to certain elements, but seeing the versatility between decades has been the turning point for me. I know it's not one specific thing, but being able to hear the progression of the country week by week has helped me to see that the country I would think of was not the country my grandparents would think of, and so on.

  If I am being perfectly honest, I thought figuring out what country music is would be easy for me in the beginning. I am a music major and I was raised in the south on country music. I have enjoyed being challenged by this course when trying to effectively determine what country truly is to me. I still believe there are elements a country can not lose. The accent is a crucial part of achieving a true country sound. If no accent is present, everything in the song has to be screaming this is country to me. I have also been able to put a name to what I have been hearing for years during this course so far. The rock 8ths is an example. In my first couple weeks of field notes, before we learned about the beats, I had recorded that it sounded like a train. I now know that the rock 8ths is created with percussion with a vital piece being the snare edge. Another element would be the use of a stringed instrument whether that be a fiddle or a guitar, in most of my songs throughout the decades either have been present.

     Authenticity is an additional element that I feel is becoming lost in country in the grand scheme. I feel like now, most artists are not as bold in expressing their true beliefs in songs to avoid being canceled or the controversy, and artists who do gear themselves to a particular audience so it is okay to be hated by people who do not listen to your music anyway. Honesty is a part of authenticity but so is personal narrative which I have found to be present to some degree in every decade. It gives listeners something to relate to. It seems to me lyrics are getting lost in the overall sound, but there are a few artists that are breaking away from playing into the “desired sound”, and it is working for those who appreciate lyricism and authenticity. These artists and their growing popularity give me hope that there will be a new age of country that cycles back to the authentic sound where country began.

     Learning about the versatility and broadness of country music has helped me to see there is so much I do not know. Something I thought to had a good grasp on has become harder to define, but I think that lets me know that I am learning. It has helped me to realize that no matter what I think I know, there is always more to explore. Going forward, I do not want to stop with a basic understanding. By doing more research, I have found a country that I enjoy more. I have always been a fan of simple, acoustic, authentic, and lyrical music, and discovering music through these decades has helped me to expand my playlist to songs I did not know existed. Layers appear the more you search for them and this process has taught me to look for more layers in what I know.

Second Turning Point Essay

In my team, I took on many different roles while primarily being the singer and coming up with melodies for two of the songs. I wrote the second song on the EP entitled “Let Love Go” and developed the melody and chord progressions for this song. I have grown up singing throughout my life and my dad is a songwriter, so I have experienced bouncing off ideas with him in that past and he has taught me that if you think it, write it. I used this process as I wrote this song and then used what I had to slowly piece the song together. Being a music major, I also have developed knowledge of chord progression and I am familiar with hearing when a chord does or should change in a song. I was able to use these skills to help write the music and hear when there was a problem or chord that was not aligning up. For the song I wrote specifically, I was able to collaborate with other musicians and practice with them to see what worked best for the song. Without my knowledge of music, I do not believe I would have been able to effectively communicate with musicians to accomplish the task of getting tracks to complete this song. 

My initial thought when the creative teams’ task was assigned was “How in the world are we going to get all of this done in time?” I had never written a full song by myself, no one in our group played an instrument other than a ukulele, we did not know how to use music editing software, and I had never even started writing the music for a song from scratch. It is hard to describe exactly how we pulled it off, and we were cutting it close, but all that matters is that we did it. My process of writing started whenever I was driving down the road and I just started singing. I quickly pulled out my voice memos and recorded snippets of me singing that would then be vetted and placed together to make the final song. It was a turning point for me when I realized I would have to do more than just think of a melody or sing it. I did not know where to start with writing the music for a song, so I had to find a way to learn. I was able to figure out what key the song was in and then came up with a progression that made sense with the melody. I wanted to give the instrumentalist something to work with so I used an AI music app, demo, to develop a sample using the chords I had entered. This project taught me that when I am presented with a difficult task and I do not know what I am doing, with hard work and the use of resources, I can eventually figure it out. 

The interactions with my team were full of both grace and encouragement. We were all in the same boat of not knowing what to do, but everyone did a great job of stepping in to throw out ideas and suggestions throughout the whole process. My group was biting off a major chunk of this class project and so we had to be gracious with each other through the learning process. We were able to collaborate to find instrumentalists, write songs, operate music software, and reserve spaces to record. Everyone has been super available and encouraging and it has been so much fun to work with this group of people full of great ideas and the confidence to share them. 

The creative team's interactions with the other teams were probably less than they should have been. Marketing specifically was heavily dependent on us producing content and while we understood that, we felt our process was hard to rush and one we could not afford to lose class time on to do other things. This interaction, while not perfect, gave insight into how it is when working with different teams to produce a product and develop an image. Many artists assume the role of wanting to focus on creating and feel stressed when they feel creativity has to be rushed for something that's not their job. Unfortunately, this is the role our team was likely viewed to assume. Due to the creative team's responsibilities, we were not able to produce content fast enough for the marketing team to work with, and for that, we apologize. The project's outcome likely would have been better if we had worked faster, but as I said, it was a difficult process to accomplish and certainly to rush. 

I think our biggest structural issue was defensibly the lack of instrumentalists on our team. None of us played instruments that were viewed as “country”. I am not sure if anyone else in the class played an instrument and just did not say anything, but in our team specifically, we only knew how to play ukulele. No one in our group played by ear either so a lot of trial and error took place to figure out chord progressions and notes. The way we overcame these challenges was by asking those we knew to help us with our project. We were able to find an acoustic guitarist and pianist to help with one of our songs. In addition to this, we relied on our singular instrument played by the group heavily to back up the vocals of two of our songs on the EP. It may not be perfectly fitting for country songs, but we worked with what we could. 

In the first half of our class, we focused on the history of country music and listened to country music to generate an idea of what exactly country music is and all of the elements it possesses. We talked about the various types of country music and its progression through history. It started as simple with usually a guy and a guitar. It then continued to evolve, adding more instruments like fiddle and harmonica and eventually drums, etc. We discussed the divergence of rock and country and how elements of both still linger. In addition to this, a big topic of discussion of lyricism. The lyrics of country tend to follow the same themes, while some are narrative songs. The songs of narrative have been somewhat phased out while themes continue to hold of cowboys, boots, bears, the outdoors, hard work, etc. In our project, we wanted to play on these elements. We involved an acoustic guitar to have that simple feel and used the ukelele alone in two songs to cater to simplicity as well. Throughout our 4 songs, we wanted to tell a story that employed the narrative that was present in country music. Including the use of words and phrases like boots, button-downs, city boy, country girl, etc. and the idea of a simple life wanted to be lived by the country girl. In our song, Each Night there is a more modern rock country feel that we wanted to incorporate to acknowledge the interaction between rock and country. 

This project has helped me to see how much work it takes to create an EP, let alone a whole album. My group was struggling to create 3 songs start to finish in a few weeks. Granted, we did not have the resources and producers big-time artists have, but it helped us to see what went into the process. Artists are creating albums with 30 songs while going on tour creating merchandise and marketing themselves. Their project has helped me to realize there is more to modern artists than just singing and creating songs, which is probably what they would prefer. Artists have to deal with the demands of marketers, publication teams, and planning teams while likely having deadlines so the teams know how to make the artists most successful by knowing what they are working with. As I mentioned, the creative process is hard to rush, and as much as it would be nice to just write and sing the songs without worrying about time constraints, that is likely not the reality. I have grown in respect for artists through this process and I feel like have an overall deeper understanding of all they are accomplishing and the work that has to go into every detail. Although it seems restricting in future studies and future music collaboration work, developing a plan outline from the beginning with all parties involved would create a better product. When working in teams like this, everyone's work is semi-dependent on someone else and this project has taught me that sometimes you cannot just focus on your part and expect it all to be okay. In the future when I am working with others, I want to better prioritize collaboration and communication of deadlines and expectations. 

I love the concept of the mock record label that was incorporated this year and it was very exciting to get a taste of the music industry creatively. Although I feel it was in theory representative of the work division of a real-life record label, for a class project it was frustrating to feel like the work was not equally distributed. To remain incorporating different majors while also enhancing engagement I do not believe one team should be responsible for the song production, especially if there is a lack of musicians in the course. I think it would be a good idea to have an executive team, marketing team, legal team, and event planning team that fulfill the responsibilities of each branch while also being responsible for the creation of 1 song as a team. This way people gain experience in more than one area and the time-consuming task of music creation would not be left to a small group of people. If there are people who play instruments or sing in the class they should be divided amongst the groups and be willing to be “floaters” if different groups need them for their song. This way everyone is more equally involved and there will be a better atmosphere for collaboration and communication. I loved this course, and the way it was taught, and I'm excited to see how it grows in the future!