Feels so right, feels so wrong, now we're crying, now we're running back for more… Tale of a bad ex? Nope! It's our flat-out love affair with country music. Join us in the last episode of Season 1 as we reveal all our feels about this much-abused genre, with a special focus on its fabulous storytelling and the time-honored tradition of lady revenge songs. We'll share some of our favorite tunes and talk about Lauren Berlant's infinitely useful theory of "the female complaint." Carrie Underwood, Miranda Lambert, and the Dixie Chicks dust off their boots (and shotguns) to help us unpack the intimate public of women's culture, which connects ladies through shared stories of suffering, broken dreams, and hellfire-n-vengeance when things get to be a little too much. C'mon down, y'all!
Links to Stuff We Talk About
Theory
Lauren Berlant, The Female Complaint: The Unfinished Business of Sentimentality in American Culture (Duke University Press, 2008). https://www.dukeupress.edu/the-female-complaint
Context
"Walk the Blurred Lines: Country Music’s Cross-Over Popularity." October 30, 2014. Nielsen. http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/insights/news/2014/walk-the-blurred-lines-country-musics-cross-over-popularity.html
Richard A. Peterson, Creating Country Music (University of Chicago Press, 1997) http://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/C/bo3625068.html
Music
Songs we shoutout and/or play in this episode:
On storytelling
Brad Paisley / “Waitin’ on a Woman”
Reba McEntire / “The Night the Lights Went out in Georgia”
Deanna Carter / “Strawberry Wine”
Dolly Parton / “Jolene”
On revenge
The Dixie Chicks’ / “Goodbye Earl”
Carrie Underwood / “Before He Cheats”
Miranda Lambert / “Gunpowder and Lead”
And some others we don't get to on the show, but that you'll not want to miss:
Carrie Underwood “Two Black Cadillacs”
Carrie Underwood “Blown Away”
Miranda Lambert “Kerosene”
Reba McIntire / “Fancy”
Patsy Cline / "Crazy"
Bonus: What’s a tomato in country music? Find out here ;)