The Twang
Where did the twang go? I call such music bare electric light bulb music. Yes, it has changed and, indeed, largely disappeared -- especially for women vocalists. It could be argued that the twang still lingers among males vocalists: men have not faced as many transitions or felt society’s pressure as much as have women. But music is like language, it constantly changes and is never bound by stasis.
Yes, during the last 60 years bare electric light bulb music reached its largest audiences and also basically disappeared. Those same years encompassed the rise and fall of Doo-wop (cf Dion and the Belmont's), Soul (Percy Sledge, Otis Redding, The Temptations, The Supremes), Psychedelic music (Strawberry Alarm Clock, inter alia), Surfer music (Beach Boys, Jan and Dean), Disco, 1980s synth (Roxette), first wave punk (Sex Pistols, Devo), and girl groups (Ronettes, etc). Just as boy groups were radically changed -- the Jackson 5 has little in common with Boyz to Men, country music became something other than Merle Haggard, Johnny Cash, Kitty Welles, Dottie West, Brenda Lee, Tammy Wynette, Conway Twitty, Hank Williams, and Buck Owens. But there will always be an audience for them, just as there will always be an audience for Patsy Cline, Glen Miller, Tommy Dorsey, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and Oscar Peterson -- simply because each made damn good music.
These very different genres of music changed or disappeared for many of the same reasons. The forces which caused the disappearance of bare electric light bulb music are, for the most part, the same forces which impacted all of popular music. But, as is true for each of the genres mentioned above, certain forces weighed more heavily on bare electric light bulb music. Country music, the home of twang or bare electric light bulb music, reflected and spoke for a segment of America which has been modernized and homogenized by modern communications and social mobility. WWII effectively destroyed the extreme isolation of the rural south: the Southern diaspora peaked as America came home from war. The grow of mass media altered how people saw their familiar world of outhouses, wood-stoves, constant pregnancies, and the work involved in operating small farms. A pastoral life no longer held any charm. And as industry and the rise of agribusinesses moved more people out of the country and into the cities, important bits of peoples’ identities began to fracture. Cities, especially the newer, southern cities became generic: regional accents faded as did regional identities. In the smaller cities, the presence of nation wide chain stores and the growth of industries which attracted workers from wildly diverse locales further eroded the sense of place -- a current example of this can be seen in every Wal-Mart or production line, there is an underlying sameness that subsumes regionality. As Merle Haggard was to express it in, “Back in the Good Old Days When Times Were Bad,” the past had lost its appeal.
As America was still grappling with these changes, technology and an increasing awareness of social inequities accelerated the pace of change. TV opened new vistas and was quickly followed by the upheavals of the 1960s and 1970s. The sexual revolution and the rise of feminist theory tore at the fabric of even the smallest town’s mores. Women were ensconced in the workplace and enjoyed the freedom and greater autonomy they were afforded. Yes, Tammy Wynette could recall the past with “Stand By Your Man.” But Loretta Lynn, a mother of 6 children (2 born before she was 19) had hit after hit with such songs as “Don’t Come Home A’ Drinkin‘ With Loving on Your Mind,” “I Want To Be Free,” “The Pill” (about birth control), “Your Squaw is on the Warpath,” and the stunning narrative of disparity found in “One’s On the Way.” Even Tammy Wynette celebrated freedom in her hit “D-I-V-O-R-C-E.” Dolly Parton’s “Just Because I’m a Woman” and “To Daddy” proclaimed the rights to new freedoms. Her huge crossover hit, “9 to 5,” became a working woman’s anthem.
Deana Carter’s, “Did I Shave My Legs For This”
certainly is as cutting as any ‘chick rocker’s’ lament. It is also interesting to note that there but a suggestion of a twang in her voice. Deana’s song is as cutting and brittle as Leslie Gore’s “You Don’t Own Me.” Nor is attitude lacking in either Pam Tillis‘ “Cleopatra, Queen of Denial”
or Michelle Wright’s “Take It Like A Man”
. In all of these there is still the echo of bare electric light bulb music. And in each one can discern the emergence of the Dixie Chick and their song “Earl Had To Die.”
Country music, like all music, both mirrors its audience’s feelings and, more often than not, articulates or clarifies for that audience its unexpressed feelings and desires. All music is active in this manner and all music draws bits from the past as well as the present. Further, all music is created in a world of motion and, therefore, cannot remain static.
Emmylou Harris has clearly stated that “I smoked country music, but I didn’t inhale.” Still, Emmylou is considered primarily a country artist, though she is the first to admit that the label can be a problem, conjuring as it does images of Shania Twain busting out of sequined bra tops. In appearance, if not in sound, Twain recalls images of ‘twang.’ However, at least, for virtually all female country vocalists, twang no longer resonates with their audience.
Although the loss of the twang could be read as a sign of country music’s subordination into mere pop, I doubt such will be the case. In fact, something interesting is happening: bluegrass is becoming revitalized by groups such as Trampled By Turtles and Judah and the Lion. This combination of a rock sensibility with the energy and power of bluegrass is logical and produces some kicking music.
At the same time, the new country group, Civil Wars, has taken the brassy glitz of Shania Twain and gentled it and turned into an introspective, moving music.
Yes, change is the only constant. Perhaps the name American Cosmic Music has finally become established. Despite the permanence of change, many of the diverse elements that are constitutive elements of country music are permanently preserved. For those who long to revisit twang, You Tube is filled with it -- just as it is filled with bluegrass, roots music and everything in between.
And that is the best I can do with the saga of what happened to twang.
