Justus Ullman

Music was always a huge part of my family life at home. Apart from “Veggie Tales,” “Ralph’s World,” and other children's bands I grew up listening to, my dad put me on to bands such as The Doors, Queen, and Boston from as young as kindergarten. As someone who has always been drawn to diverse genres of music, my journey into the world of country music was initially hesitant. For as long as I can remember, I’ve listened to almost every genre of music I can think of BUT country music. Classical composers such as Beethoven (technically romantic but who’s really keeping track) and Mozart were played around the house, along with a psychedelic mix of Pink Floyd and a dramatic Lés Miserables were on rotation. Growing up in an urban environment such as DC limited my exposure to country music, and my understanding of its depth and cultural significance was rather shallow. However, over the course of these past two months and through discussion and my own fieldwork, a particular song became the catalyst for a profound shift in my perspective on country music as a whole, leading me to appreciate and embrace the genre more fully.

My initial reluctance towards country music was rooted in stereotypes and preconceived notions that painted the genre as a one-dimensional expression of rural life, trucks, and heartbreak. I had a joke with my friend back home that I would never listen to country music because every song would inevitably talk about one of four things: beer, women, trucks, and guns. While I still think that that generalization is true, I think that there is more to be uncovered about the richness of the genre and what it offers. I definitely dismissed it as an unfamiliar and inaccessible form of art. The first turning point that I had was during an in-class discussion about the musicality of country music. 

When I listen to music, I have always been a musical listener and not a lyrical listener. There are songs that I routinely listen to and have known since before I started first grade that I still do not know the lyrics to. Bands like Pink Floyd (which is my all-time favorite band) place extreme emphasis on the feeling that you get while you listen to their songs. Tracks have muddy lyrics, 4+ minute instrumental breakdowns, and indistinct chatter in the background. The point was never to listen to what they were saying (Roger Waters was a crackpot anyway I’m not sure I want to hear what he’s saying). So when I listen to country music I hear the simple bass line, repetitive chord progressions, and similar country accents and immediately write it off as bad music. I had friends say to me, “Oh, but you have to hear what they’re saying; they’re telling a story.” That’s the same reason I’m not a huge fan of Taylor Swift is because I think that it’s too similar to everything else out there. After we had a discussion of the importance of the storytelling aspects of county music, I decided to go back and listen to some of the old songs in my list and give them another chance. Songs like “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” by Hank Williams and “Whiskey Glasses” by Morgan Wallen have deep tones. They are very emotionally evoking while having simpler song structures and instrumental patterns. Does the fact that they are simpler musically while having rich text invalidate them and their overall genre? That is something that I have been grappling with not just in this class but also in my entire musical life. 

The turning point in my perspective on country music came during a discussion with a friend who loves country music. He was more of a fan of modern country, such as Luke Combs, but also dabbled in oldies like Garth Brooks. My friend argued that country music reflected the human experience, capturing life’s joys, struggles, and complexities in a way that resonated with people from all walks of life. I definitely had been writing off country music as something that was simple and unintelligent, but I decided to delve deeper into the genre, attempting to uncover the authenticity that my friend spoke of.

As I explored the works of iconic country artists and delved into the history of the genre, I began to understand that country music is a much more nuanced genre that goes beyond the stereotypes that had initially driven me away from it. It mirrors the human condition, addressing universal themes of love, loss, perseverance, and the pursuit of a better life. The authenticity of country music lies in its ability to convey these themes honestly, transcending geographical and cultural boundaries.

One song that played a role in reshaping my perspective on country music was George Jones’s classic, “He Stopped Loving Her Today.” The song tells the tale of a man who was desperately in love with a woman his whole life; he waited for her every day, and the only thing that could stop his love was his literal death. The heartbreaking narrative and Jones’s emotive delivery left an impact on me that I was not expecting. It is an incredibly simple song musically that does not differ from the overall genre, but I decided to take my friend’s advice and really lean into the words of the piece. It moved me. The raw vulnerability and emotional depth conveyed through the lyrics and Jones’ soul-stirring performance made me realize the power of storytelling within country music. It was no longer just a genre of twangy guitars and cowboy hats; it became a vessel for profound narratives that resonated with the human experience in ways I hadn’t anticipated.

The journey into country music served as a reminder that true learning requires an open mind and a willingness to explore the unfamiliar. It prompted me to question my biases and preconceptions, encouraging a more critical and reflective approach to my own thought processes. This shift in my learning style broadened my cultural understanding and fostered a sense of empathy and appreciation for the diversity of human experiences.

In retrospect, my journey into the heart of country music was not just a musical exploration; it was a transformative experience that reshaped my perspective on art, authenticity, and the human condition. The discussion with my country music enthusiast friend and the emotional impact of George Jones’s “He Stopped Loving Her Today” served as catalysts for this profound shift.

The past couple of weeks working on this project have been full of hard work and stress, but also formation and learning. When I volunteered to work on the creative team, I was excited; I am a music minor and have been taking theory over the past two semesters, and I was looking forward to putting the skills and techniques I had learned into writing unique and original songs. I had never written a song before this class, let alone three, but I was eager for the challenge. My strengths came in the form of leadership and musical experience. I have been doing a lot of personal inquiry into chord structures and was excited to put that into practice. I fully wrote the music for two of the songs that we put on and had the pleasure of performing a cover of one of my personal favorite songs that I listened to last semester. My group members came to me for input and suggestions, and I enjoyed spitballing ideas and overcoming challenges in the Smith Library recording studio.

When the project was first announced, I was a little weary of the work that I was to do. Even though I had absolutely no experience writing music, I felt that out of the people in our class, I was the most qualified to lead the music front. I also had never recorded my own music before, so that task was daunting at first. As we started to move more into the actual implementation of the project, I started to grow more confident. I taught myself how to use Bandlab and use the equipment in the recording studio. Everything from audio splicing, to file conversion, pitch editing, autotune, speed adjustments, and rhythm editing were self-taught. There was no room for error because I had to present this work to the class whether I liked it or not.

Thankfully, I had a productive and eager team with which to work. Shauna did almost all of our lyrics and played the ukulele for one of our songs, Haley did a ton of recording work as she sang on all of our songs, and Paris helped us in the recording studio and found people to play instruments for us. Together, we worked hard every class (and outside of class, too) to polish this project. The executive team was the only other team with whom we had semi-constant communication. They helped us polish an idea of what we wanted before the songs had been written and were our channel of communication with the other teams. Thankfully, there were no real roadblocks to us working as a team; we all showed up to the studio, we all did our fair share of work, and we all had a productive mindset about finishing what we needed to do. Every class period we came to the studio with a plan of what we wanted to get done that day, and almost every day we finished what we wanted to. The main motivation killer was the knowledge that we were doing so much more work than the other teams. I have never been in a class project where there has been a greater disparity in work distribution among the class. I spent tens of hours both inside and outside of class time working, editing, learning, and stressing about these songs, all while knowing that some of my classmates made an instagram account and while knowing that others were doing absolutely nothing. I worked very hard so that the show would not fall flat, while my classmates literally only had to show up (and some of them did not even do that). 

But that gave me motivation; that lit a fire under me that made me want to make my songs better and my editing cleaner. The creative team rarely came to the studio and complained; we came to the studio and did the best that we were capable of. 

Country music has a unique place in the musical landscape, balancing deep historical roots with wide-ranging modern appeal. I have greatly enjoyed learning about its deep history over the past several months. Reflecting on the aesthetic and historical foundations of the genre, I witnessed fascinating folk traditions, storytelling, and a connection to rural life. At its core, country music has always been about authenticity and relatability, drawing on themes of love, loss, hardship, and celebration. These universal themes resonate across generations and cultures, making country music a genre that can speak to anyone. Even more than that, it tells a story. Country music, at its core,  is music that anyone can listen to, that anyone can connect to, and that anyone can write. 

I have a couple of suggestions for ways to improve this class in the future. The first and main thing would be an equitable distribution of work. It kind of felt like a slap in the face when I knew that I was doing so much more than my classmates. However, with a project like this, it is natural that the people who write music will do more work. I would recommend having in-class materials and structure for the other groups. Programs like Stukent can provide online simulations to give students professional experience promoting a brand or concepts. I’ve used it in the comm school and it could be very helpful for distributing work. Another idea is to create 4 different teams each having an element of creative, marketing, planning, and executive. Each team works together to create everything. These are just a couple of ideas I had to redistribute work more fairly. 

Overall, I learned a lot going through this whole process but it was much more work than I was expected. Our team operated well and we came up with a product I was proud of. In the future there should be a more equitable delegation of work.