Category Archives: Class work

by Marissa Gallardo | February 18, 2015 · 8:00 am

Influences on the Big Band Sound of Western Swing

Because of our recent focus on country sub-genres and our talk with Christine Warren, I have taken an interest in Western Swing. As I was listening to some of Bob Wills’ music, I recognized a certain sound: Mariachi Music. Mariachi music includes, similar to Western Swing, a fiddle or violin, blaring horns, a variety of string instruments and the traditional “Big Band” Sound. These similarities struck a chord with me because of my interest in learning more about older country music (I have little knowledge before Neo-Traditional George Strait and Pop country Garth Brooks) and because of my love of Mariachi music and my Hispanic culture.

To further understand the influences of traditional Mexican music on Western swing, we must listen to the King of Western Swing himself, Bob Wills. His interesting band leader qualities and his high pitched interjections make for lively dance music. The big band sound is key to the inner workings of Western Swing as well as Mariachi music. Now here is Bob Wills…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0C08jmN1sM8

I have chosen this next video that features Los Lobos singing “El Pescado Nadador” because although it is not heavily traditional mariachi music it does feature many of the same qualities.

Wanting to look more into Mexican and Tejano influences, I stumbled across Radio Cultures: The Sound Medium in American Life. I found that not only is Western Swing and later forms of country music influenced by the instrumentation of mariachi bands but also by German and Czech polka bands. One of the easiest sounds to pin point as a similarity between Western Swing and Mariachi Music is the fiddle and, in some cases, the violin. The following video features violinists from Mariachis Los Arrieros and the Quebe Sisters’ fiddlers as they demonstrate the similar sounds of the two distinctly different genres and their ability to get the crowd dancing.

Big names that were influenced by this traditional Mexican music include Johnny Cash, Buddy Holly, Freddy Fender and Linda Ronstadt. Much of the western swing style with other incorporated influences eventually morphed into the beginnings of Rockabilly. The exploding horns in the beginning of Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire” exemplify the obvious Mexican influence on country music.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=It7107ELQvY

Understanding the intricacies of artists’ influences is a difficult task but it does make for some inspiring findings. If there is any one thing that I love about country music, it is its ability to transcend one specific influence and incorporate a variety of genres and styles.

Waltzing with the Debutante

Last week, the Rhetoric of Country Music class had the pleasure of welcoming the author (and country music expert) Christine J. Warren to class. She spoke about some of country’s early subgenres, shared great stories about the development of Austin’s live music scene, and read a couple of passages from her book Honky Tonk Debutante: The History of Honky-Tonk Music as I Care to Tell It (2014).

With this post, I wanted to share links to a couple of projects that developed from Christine’s visit. First, she mentions the class on her own blog (“Reality on the Half Shell”), and she even includes photos of the card we signed for her.

Second, I included an interview I did with Christine in the new episode of the Zeugma podcast series. Zeugma is sponsored by UT’s Department of Rhetoric and Writing, and it generally addresses topics related to rhetoric, technology, and popular culture. I am contributing to all of the podcast’s Season 3 episodes, but the new one on “Honky Tonkin'” has the clearest relevance to our class. Anyway, if you have about 20 minutes to spare, I’d love for you to check it out.

Do you have any lingering questions from Christine’s presentation? What do think of her blog post about us and the “Honky Tonkin'” podcast?

Let us know in the comments!

Making a Music Video

When I registered for the Rhetoric of Country Music class last spring, I figured that we would be listening to lots of music, reading lyrics, learning about the history, and watching videos to learn about the rhetoric of music. I never would have thought that we would have an assignment where we would have to make a music video to a country song. At first, I had no idea what I would do with my group, or what song we would choose, but I knew this would be an interesting and fun experience.

My group was made up of Jessica Jakobeit (JJ), Tori Horvath, and myself and we started looking for a song that we would like to make a video for. We could have chosen a song with a video already but we wanted to make one for a song that does not have a video already. That part was a bit complicated because there were a lot of songs that we liked but they already had a music videos. Eventually we started looking into Carrie Underwood songs and I mentioned one of the songs from her first album, Some Hearts. I had always liked her song “Starts With Goodbye” because I could relate to that song at one point in my life, so I thought that that song would be interesting to make a video for. We listened to the song as a group and started brainstorming ideas for it.

Kyle and JJ laughing while recording the video

The next class day, we started to record the different scenes that we would have in our songs. Since we did not have a guy to play a role in the video, we got a friend of ours, Kyle Moore, to be a part of it. I thought he was a good choice to be in the video because he loves country music, maybe even more than some of us in the group. We had to record some scenes outside, well all of the scenes outside and it was not the best weather to be outside because it was so cold. It took us the entire class period to record and I even had to meet again with JJ after our dance class to finish up. After we had all the scenes we needed, we started to put the video together, which was my favorite part. We used the footage that we got and got to add some transitions and other details to it to try to show a story that the song was talking about. It was fun getting to play with different features on iMovie and it was just fun in general, mostly because we were laughing at ourselves. Well we would laugh at Kyle and JJ but it was in a friendly way and I think they did amazing acting. I believe it took us like 3 hours in total to finish the video but I think it came out pretty good for not having almost any experience in making videos.

This project is definitely one of my favorites ever and I am really proud of what we did. I hope everyone else in class had as much fun as we did and I would love to hear about your own experiences about making a video.

11 Comments

Filed under Class work, Music Videos, Reflection

by Dustin Hixenbaugh | · 10:04 am

Student-Made Music Videos

If you’re joining the Country Music Project for the first time, welcome! The students enrolled in the “Rhetoric of Country Music” course at the University of Texas have spent the last couple of class periods preparing music videos for some of their favorite country songs. The purpose of the activity was to give them an inside look at the process of making a video to accompany a song, and to practice their skills at bringing their favorite songs’ stories to life. Please note that these videos were created for entirely educational purposes and do mean to infringe upon the rights of any of the artists involved in the original recordings.

Miranda Lambert’s “Dry Town” (2007). Video by Gerrit Cook, Brittany Fietsam, and Lejla Pracic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnN7BtGxNLU&feature=youtu.be

Kacey Musgraves’s “Follow Your Arrow” (2013). Video by Mikey Casarez, Carilu Martinez, and Elizabeth Stack. [Note: The video includes footage from Burning Man (Nevada) and Austin’s Zilker Park.]

Taylor Swift’s “Jump Then Fall” (2008). Video by Alyssa Hazen, Minsu Kim, Dena Lipper. and Tamar Oren.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68Feq1PYHgY&feature=youtu.be

George Strait’s “Here for a Good Time” (2011). Video by Amy Burt, Hannah Parmer, and Ramie Payne.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0HVtZGCkzs&app=desktop

George Strait’s “I Saw God Today” (2008). Video by Holly Kern, Zane Gurwitz, and MaKayla Markey.

Carrie Underwood’s “Starts with Goodbye” (2005). Video by Tori Horvath, Jessica Jakobeit, and Alina Monzón.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrq4JevLcQs

Hank Williams’s “I Won’t Be Home No More” (1953). Video by Mark Anderson, Brent Borman, and William Glass.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7lcrg5BZho

9/11 and Country Music

474085--50f947f8-f83a-4834-923b-94bc8ea26558-poster Where were you on the morning of Tuesday, September 11, 2001, when terrorists associated with the al-Qaeda group flew commercial aircraft into the World Trade Center and Pentagon in what became one of the deadliest and costliest attacks on United States soil? This is the question Alan Jackson asks in one of many country songs that appeared in the years just after the attack (“Where Were You [When the World Stopped Turning]”). As Jackson argues, wherever you were, you probably remember how you received the news. You probably remember feeling torn about how you and the United States should respond.

The early 2000s were an exciting time for country music. In the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, older songs such as Hank Williams, Jr’s “A Country Boy Can Survive” (1982) and Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the U.S.A.” (1984) returned to radio stations, helping Americans through their grief. Artists such as Jackson, Dolly Parton, and Mary Chapin Carpenter wrote songs about reflection and healing, while others such as Toby Keith and Darryl Worley wrote songs that gave vent to the nation’s anger and called for a violent reckoning.

“Fuck You, Toby Keith”

The Dixie Chicks’ “Travelin’ Soldier” (2002), which relates a simple story about a girl waiting for her boyfriend to come home from Vietnam, gained new resonance as President George W. Bush led the country into wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in order to drive a wedge between al-Qaeda and its political supporters. After the Dixie Chicks’ lead singer, Natalie Maines, criticized the war while performing in London, listeners turned against her, pulling “Travelin’ Soldier” off the radio and essentially ending the band’s short time at the front of the country music industry. Scholars have still not fully assessed the ways that 9/11 and country music interacted in the first decade of this new century—how we learned more about each of them during the process.

In your final projects, you will explore the ways that country music has been used (and continues to be used) to give artists a voice in times of crisis and circumstances of controversy. As the guidelines indicate, you are welcome either to write a new song or compile a list of 8+ already-existing songs that intervene in a present debate. As you undertake this work, I hope you will keep the example of these 9/11 songs in mind. Even country artists who are known for singing about girls, trucks, and booze sometimes take advantage of the rich opportunity the genre provides them to make political statements.

Below, I have linked several songs that (re)appeared after 9/11 and that relate to that topic. Your job in class today is to give three of these songs a close listen and then post a comment identifying some similarities and differences that you notice. Overall, what do you think characterizes songs that responded effectively to the crisis? What lessons, if any, have these examples taught you about writing songs that respond to an issue of intense social importance?

When you have completed this activity, please resume work on your music video. When you have completed the video, export and post it either to YouTube or the class website (using the “media” button). Email Dusty the link to the completed video before class begins next Tuesday, November 25.

Note that the comment you leave today does not count as one of the ten that you are required to make for credit.