Jordan Thompson

Turning Point Essay

A turning point for me was when I stopped looking at how I felt about country music and started looking at what defines country music. Truth be told, I am still a little confused about what defines country music. Is it geographical, or does it need to sound country, or does it need to reflect country values and tell a story? I always thought country music was defined by the way it sounded, but now I'm not even sure what defines country music. All I can tell you is what I think it is.  

      Don Cusic defines country music as "the story of America set in song." He says that country music tells the story of the people who are the backbone of America. These people are the hard-working men and women who are "patriotic, God-fearing, and unpretentious, who struggle through life with neither great riches or fame and yet carve a meaning out of life through family, friends, work, and good times." For example, the song "God's Country" by Blake Shelton talks about being saved and being a part of God's country and reflects a culture of working hard until the week's done and taking a break on Sunday to praise God and then doing it all over again. This is a more recent country song and I think it demonstrates a piece of the definition of country music that Cusic gave. Another song called "Courtesy Of The Red, White And Blue(The Angry American)" by Toby Keith demonstrates the values of patriotism by including lyrics about the American way, American landmarks, symbols, fighting in the army, and celebrating the Fourth of July. This song also represents a piece of the definition of country music that Cusic gave. However, not all country songs reflect the model culture that Cusic provided. Some songs just talk about girls or guys, breakups, and drinking at a bar. For example, in a song called "One Of Them Girls" by Lee Brice where he describes a girl he would trade the whole world for. A song by Morgan Wallen called "Whiskey Glasses" talks about drowning sorrows in whiskey and using it as a way to hide from the truth. This does not represent the definition that Cusic gave and the story it tells. My question is does this make these songs less country, or has the story country music tells changed? Could it be possible that country music is defined by more narratives than it originally was? In class on Wednesday, someone described country music as a way of relating to people. I interpreted what she said like country songs are inside thoughts expressed in songs to make others feel like they are not alone and provide some sort of empowerment to listeners. For example, if you think about songs by women about slashing tires and getting revenge back on men for what they did to them, it not only allows women to feel and express their anger, but it helps women relate to one another and gives women a sense of empowerment. Some songs just talk about men looking at women and admiring their bodies, which is an issue in my opinion, but it allows men to relate to one another. While I see this trend in country music, I would not necessarily say it characterizes country music. I believe musical artists of any genre want to create music that their fans relate to so they will enjoy it. However, fans of country music may relate to a specific category of things. I am not sure what those things are. I believe in the past, country fans may have been more interested in and related to the culture of hard work, struggling, patriotism, and God, but now as generations pass, more people are interested in love and heartbreak and ways of coping with that. Maybe the narrative music expresses does not just depend on the genre, but also the interests of fans. After all, fans decide what country music is. 

       So if that doesn't define every country song you hear then it has to be the way country music sounds right? Apparently not. If you take the song "Crazy" by Patsy Cline, it is the least-sounding country song to ever exist. It sounds like a jazz song. It is very slow and calm, it uses the piano and drums, there are harmonizing voices in the background just singing "ahhhh," and Pasty Cline doesn't even have the smallest bit of country twang. The song "Make the World Go Away" by Eddy Arnold was similar to "Crazy" By Patsy Cline in the sense that it was slow and jazzy with a piano, drums, and no country twang. I would expect a country song to have instruments such as the guitar(electric or acoustic), pedal steel, fiddle, banjo, harmonica, or tambourine. I would also expect it to be more fast-paced and with a country twang. Country songs also tend to have simpler beats and nothing too complicated. Most of the time it stays the same throughout the whole song. I do not recall listening to any country songs that did not have a simple beat or a beat that did not stay relatively consistent the whole song. Maybe despite all the changes in country music, these two elements can remain consistent. After listening to these songs that are classified as country music, I am not sure if instruments and beats determine whether or not something is country. So then I thought, maybe it's defined by geographic locations. As it turns out, Patsy Cline was born and grew up in northern Virginia. When I think of the South and country I don't typically think about Virginia. I think of Texas, Tennessee, Arkansas, etc. Maybe Virginia is considered country, but I still question if geographic location determines if someone is a country artist. To my surprise, Beyonce recently released a country album. She is well-known as a pop and R&B artist, but she is born in Texas. My question is, would she be able to do that if she wasn't from Texas? I mean she is Beyonce so it is possible, but for any artist who makes country music, do they have to be from an area that is considered country? I am not sure. 

      In realizing all of this information I began to believe country music is more than how it sounds, but I still don't know what exactly it is. I have more questions than answers on what defines country music in reality. However, I will give my definition of what I think country music should be. I think country music should contain two of the three elements I described above. I think country songs need to sound country as far as the beat of the song and the instruments used, and I believe that for someone to be a country artist, they should be from the country. I feel this way because country music should represent some kind of culture even if it has changed and that should be the culture of the South. I think the instruments used in a country song are a part of representing that culture. I also believe that a country twang is necessary to identify a song as country, but I would not discredit a country artist if they did not have a heavy country accent anymore. The things I have learned by diving deep into what country music is makes me want to learn more about other genres of music. It showed me that there are so many different elements of music that make it even more beautiful. I cannot say I will listen to country music outside of this class because I will not, but I have developed a greater appreciation for it. 

Word count: 1297 

Turning Point Essay 2

            For our Final project I was one of the members of the executive team working with the Event Planning Committee. My role was to oversee this committee, make sure we were on track, and help out in any way that I could. The members of the Event Planning Committee created the final product for the flyer, mood board, agenda, attendance, and feedback forms, and organized all the details for the event. My organizational skills, attention to detail, eagerness to help others, and responsibility allowed me to support members of the events committee anytime they needed me to, ensure we were on track and we had all the details we needed for our event, and that it was done when it needed to be done. I contributed ideas for themes and locations. I was involved in conversations about possible equipment needed and things we could do to make our event better with the limited access we have to materials.  I also asked the professor clarifying questions to ensure our committee was on the right track. My committee members did most of the work relating to events so I am in no way trying to take credit for anything they did, but I was tracking our progress. Before starting this project I did not think that this project would be like planning a real event. I'm not sure why, but I thought of it as more of a presentation-style project and didn't think marketing and event planning would be involved and because of that I wasn't sure what my role would be and how I could use my major or other skills to contribute to this project. When Dr. Turner started sharing more about the project, I then realized that it was more like a project I had done in my sport marketing class where we had to come up with a marketing plan for a mock sporting event. Like that project, we had to come up with a date, location, time, schedule, flyers, a theme, etc. Once I was aware of the committees I thought I could be involved in the marketing or event planning committee. I chose to be a part of the executive team because I wanted a more overseeing role. I have experience in both marketing and event planning. I had experience in marketing because I am employed on campus as a Marketing Assistant in the Athletic Department so I've learned a lot about marketing through that role. I have experience in event planning because I am the event coordinator chair for an organization on campus so I am consistently planning and scheduling events in addition to requesting locations for those events. I went with the event planning committee because I found that more interesting to me for this project. 

        Members of the Events Committee communicated well with each other to create the final product for the flyer, mood board, agenda, attendance, and feedback forms and organized all the details for the event in a timely fashion. Kylin, Rowan, Harry, Payton, and Mahoney got right on top of their tasks, discussing ideas, and quickly started organizing them from start to finish. The beginning mostly consisted of throwing out ideas for location and a theme as the date and time were already provided for us. Then we discussed all possibilities for equipment needed for our event including catering and requesting tables as one member had experience with requesting these things through their role in an organization on campus. Still, we were limited in what we could do so these things ended up not being a part of our event. This committee interacted with the Creative Team to gather information about the kind of songs they were writing so we could develop theme ideas to later finalize which led to the creation of the mood board. The Event Planning Committee also communicated with the Creative team to develop a general event schedule with the names of the songs and the manner in wanted to deliver those songs throughout the course of the event. We then communicated these details in addition to the location, date, and time to the Marketing Team to help them with any flyers they needed to make. The only big challenge we had was trying to reserve a location during finals week. Student organizations aren't allowed to reserve places on 25 Live during finals week so it makes finding a location harder, but Dr. Turner reserved Pauline Theater for us. Due to this challenge, we were also not able to request catering for the event so we will not be able to have food at the event. 

        The project could've improved if it had been started weeks in advance, at least with the songwriting. Even though certain people had experience in music, I think it would've been more engaging if as we were learning about the different elements of music, we were put into for example four groups and each group made a song. As we learned about themes the class created a theme for the album. As we learned about structure, lyrics, rhythm, etc., each group should've been developing those elements of their song and it could be turned in as an assignment. We could've even used Bandlab to create the beat and background instruments for the song as an assignment. Later on we all could've gone to the studio to record our songs and put it together with what we created in Bandlab. Once all the songs were completed in the individual groups, I feel like all of the details of the event could've been decided as a class. We could've dedicated class time to just talking about these things, as well as completing flyers for marketing. Overall, the idea of the project is good, I just think it needs to be executed very differently than it was this semester.
 

        In the early half of the semester, we dove into the various components of country music. We looked at instrumentation, structure, lyrical themes, and historical context. Common instruments like fiddles, banjos, guitars, pedal steel, and drums are prominent in country songs, contributing to their distinctive sound. Country music is typically associated with the stereotypical country twang, however,  smoother, lower voices were more prevalent in the 1940s and 50s with a more jazz element. We also learned about song form and found AABA to be the most prevalent format in country music, with verses, choruses, and occasional intros, outros, and interludes, though some artists deviate from this structure. Compared to the thinner texture of R&B, country songs tend to be thicker in instrumentation, with elements like the Rock 8ths beat, Train beat, Shuffle beat, or Waltz. Historically, country music has been found to highlight themes of hard work, faith, patriotism, everyday struggles, and relationships. Reflecting on the evolution of country music over time, each era seems to influence music through experiences of its time. From the rural-oriented sounds of the 1930s to the influence of World War II on the somber tones of the 1940s, and the polished productions of the 1960s, country music has adapted to changing cultural landscapes while staying true to its core themes. As we entered the second half of the semester, we then began to dive into the development of country music and how the background of country music actually represented itself throughout history. While the roots of country music were not lost, many country songs diverged from the traditional themes of patriotism, hard work, and faith, focusing more on themes such as romance, heartbreak, empowerment, and drinking at a bar. While these may not align with the classic narrative of country music, they still resonate with listeners. Country music seems to encompass a variety of narratives, experiences, and interests of its audience.  even the sound of country music can differ. When thinking of country music I mostly expect a thicker song with instruments like the guitar and banjo, however, when looking at country songs throughout history some songs tended to be thinner and slower without country twang. Between the aesthetic and historical foundations of country music and their practical application in the music industry, I have learned that music is about relating to the audience and may have historical roots that develop into something different in the future. When we planned our release party project with a four-song album, the marketing team did market research to find what the audience was interested in most and that led to our theme being around country love labeled "Honored Love." Throughout this course, I learned that country music, or any genre of music, depends more on the audience than its historical roots in geography, sound, and narrative. This class has been incredibly valuable to me in the sense that it opened my eyes to how the world works. I've always been curious about how music develops and found it interesting that it develops in different ways. For example, when I talk about Rap or R&B, I have to classify modern or old in order for people to have a better idea of what I am talking about because both are very different.