Snapshot: Two Views of Music, Race, Ethnicity, and Nationhood

Country music is a vernacular form of American popular music that traditionally has been associated with the Southeast and with the rural Midwest. It is generally characterized by an emotive and highly ornamented singing style, an instrumental accompaniment that relies heavily on small ensembles of stringed instruments, and a repertoire that has been derived from and influenced by older folk balladry and nineteenth-century popular song. Although the actual term Country Music did not gain widespread...