{"id":149020,"date":"2023-07-02T06:35:55","date_gmt":"2023-07-02T14:35:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=149020"},"modified":"2023-07-02T06:36:15","modified_gmt":"2023-07-02T14:36:15","slug":"the-first-ladies-of-country-music-listening-to-patsy-tammy-loretta-and-dolly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=149020","title":{"rendered":"The First Ladies of Country Music: Listening to Patsy, Tammy, Loretta, and Dolly"},"content":{"rendered":"

Scott Yenor writes<\/a>:<\/p>\n

* Pop music both expresses and shapes popular values. Anyone listening to the radio in the 1960s and \u201970s received a pretty comprehensive commentary about men, women, and all that might pass between them. And while much of rock \u2018n\u2019 roll encouraged boys and girls to traipse lightly through a series of casual encounters, country music explored the heartache and the rewards of love sincerely pursued. Among the ladies of the genre there emerged a distinctively American portrait of womanhood, juxtaposing female strength\u2014especially in Loretta\u2019s songs (in country music, most everyone is on a first-name basis)\u2014with vulnerability, as seen best in Tammy Wynette\u2019s heart-achers. Their lyrics were unromanticized and sometimes even unromantic. They were candid about what made a man attractive, and how his attractiveness could make married life challenging. All the same, in the last analysis these women still managed convincingly to extol the virtues of marriage and fidelity. Their example can help provide an important counterweight to the extreme dysfunction of our modern sexual ethos.<\/p>\n

* At the fundamental level, the women of classic country acknowledged\u2014with a forthrightness that is now all but forbidden\u2014how important love is to a woman\u2019s happiness. The melancholy lyrics of Patsy Cline could never gain mainstream favor today, since they suggest that female happiness arises chiefly from love and marriage rather than career or partying. Her greatest hits depict lonely, regretful women who missed their chance at love.<\/p>\n

* It speaks volumes that Cline\u2019s brand of loneliness has all but disappeared among female country singers. More women over 45 are unmarried today\u2014both as a percentage and as an absolute number\u2014than at any time in our history, and the number is climbing. Yet feminine loneliness and regret have declined as musical themes and in art generally. Either women simply do not mind their newfound solitude, or an entire domain of female experience is going unspoken and repressed. Rising rates of female depression and medication would suggest the latter: women have not lost their longing for love, just their outlets for expressing it. Today\u2019s songs insist on celebrating women\u2019s bravery while minimizing or ignoring their regrets. But does refusing to acknowledge vulnerabilities make one stronger, or weaker?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Scott Yenor writes: * Pop music both expresses and shapes popular values. Anyone listening to the radio in the 1960s and \u201970s received a pretty comprehensive commentary about men, women, and all that might pass between them. And while much … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42953],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-149020","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-country"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t