Country Music

The 52nd annual Grammy Awards show is tonight, and seeing the advertisements got me thinking about country music and how it has changed over the years. Old country artists used to be men with banjos or guitars singing about their lives. These days, you can find country artists in fashionable clothes, cowboy hats, and expensive cars. They have become superstars in the entertainment world. While this a good thing in some sense, I feel that most artists are getting away from the ideals that country music was founded upon, and they are losing the traditions that made this genre great.

I've been a fan of country music for most of my life, but it seems that this genre has been changing over the years. I love country music because it is soothing and relaxing. The slow beats and low Southern accents always put me in a good mood. Most of the great country songs have an emotional side to them; you can tell that the artist is singing "through the heart" about something he/she cares about. As Dr. Hoefer described, country music should be about a man in a bar with a shotgun, whiskey, and a problem to solve. I agree that country music should be either about a problem, a woman, or just loving life and being grateful. However, country music seems to be moving away from these traditions in recent years. It is becoming much more contemporary and upbeat.

There are many categories of country music. The song "The Good Stuff" is a perfect example of country at its best. It's about a man who has a fight with his newly-wed wife and escapes to a bar. There, he meets the bartender and is reminded of all the good things he has in his life. He has a problem and solves it not over a glass of whiskey, but a glass of milk. Other songs, such as "Big Green Tractor" and "Alright" are simply about loving life and living slowly the Southern way. Songs like "All I Ask For Anymore" and "Lucky Man" are about being grateful for what you have and thanking God everyday. Loving women and having problems with women are also major topics in country music like in the songs "Love Like Crazy" and "Then". These songs are easy to enjoy because they are about emotional topics that the average person can relate to.

However, it seems that country music is becoming more of an entertainment business as of late. Newer songs such as "Last Name", "Online", and "Welcome to the Future" are louder and not as heartfelt as the past. It's sad to see that the focus of country is changing to more contemporary themes. Some songs like "Sweet Southern Comfort" and "Where I Come From" are good representations of the South. For example, Alan Jackson says the South is "cornbread and chicken, a lot of front porch sittin, and working hard to get to Heaven." Country used to be a distinctly Southern tradition, but it has been expanding to other regions recently.

So my question to you is do you feel that country music is still a distinctly Southern creation? Or has it changed over the years and what does it represent today? If you are not a fan of country music, why do you dislike it or what other forms of Southern music have you listened to?

Nicholas Keith

Time and Repititions

Many times I find myself thinking “ wait a second, I’ve had this conversation before”. It is a moment of great confusion. Déjà vu, in my opinion, occurs in instances where we are most comfortable. For example, there was a time I was playing cards with my family and I could’ve sworn that the conversation we were having had already been discussed. It are theses instances where we are really enjoying ourselves that this repetition occurs. I can never recall having a negative déjà vu moment.

Nicholas, your discussion as far as what “time” means, got me thinking. Recently I watched the movie “It’s a Wonderful Life”. To give you some background, George Bailey is a family man who just found out that his business was going to go bankrupt. As he knows this will ruin his life he contemplates suicide. It is here that an angel is sent to him who shows George what his hometown would be like if he had never been born. Throughout the scene you are able to see that George had made a huge impact on many lives whether he knew it or not. Because of him many peoples lives were changed for the better. Without George their lives went to shambles. What an experience it would be to see what life would be like if you were never born.

To me repetitions like the ones Binx Bolling had would be comforting. It shows how some things just don’t change. I know myself to like things just the way they are. A change would mean something new and different. I always eat Raisin Bran if I’m having cereal, I will always drink yellow Gatorade if I get a sports drink. I know that these things taste good to me therefore I stick with them.

Note: The clip above is the scene where George goes to his town having never been born.

Mitchell Scates

Repetitions and Performances

I agree with you Akshaya. The idea that postmodernism is “the fragmentation of time into a series of perpetual presents” really made me think too. I have often wondered about time and its impact on people, such as how different people view time, how people remember the past, and how our mind separates certain portions of our lives chronologically. Perhaps it is because our minds separate events based on time that we experience strange feelings of “déjà vu” when we complete “successful repetitions.” Our lives are so accustomed to being run chronologically in time that a similar action in a different time period may startle people. For example, I sometimes experience déjà vu when playing sports or walking around my home town (I’ve lived in the same house since I was three). A repetition gives me a weird feeling, but it also comforts me that things have not changed over time. However, it seems as though Binx enjoys these moments because he refers to them as “successful.” These moments make him feel alive, and lead him to believe that the time period between the repetitions does not exist.

*To check out a movie along these themes, see Denzel Washington's Deja Vu.



There are only a few moments in the novel when Binx admits that he feels “alive.” He mentioned that the first time he truly felt alive was when he was lying on the ground in Korea, among the battling soldiers, and he saw a dung beetle crawling across the ground. He felt alive because he was finally experiencing real, intense emotions. The soldiers were acting out of their primal instincts, as opposed to their everyday, calculated emotions and actions. They were finally real.

At times in my life, I have also felt this feeling of fakeness in others. It is a feeling that everyone is just acting; no one is real while everyone is just trying to be the “nice guy”. However, I can understand this performance because I have done the same many times. I have put on an act to not show my true emotions or opinions. I feel that this is just part of being human. We have the ability to plan our actions and social interactions, so people typically act in the way they think others want them to act. We’ve all been guilty of it, and it seems that Binx and Kate are well aware of this fact of humanity.

Nicholas Keith

Repetitive Time

I really liked the statement in class that led into this discussion: "the fragmentation of time into a series of perpetual presents." In short, there is nothing but the present. Which of course, brings to the table the necessity of the future and past. I mean you can look at the present as the divider of who were and who we will become. This concept could be kind of like a parallel between the Signifier and the signified, where the present is like the Chasm of Meaning separating the two.

Yet now the question becomes, why have the anything to separate? Why have any distinction between the Signifier and the signified or the past and the future? Honestly, communication would be much easier if the signified and Signifier were united. But i guess that's what the whole modernism movement was about.

Still, that doesn't explain why past and future events have to be separated. Imagine, if you can that is, seeing all of time. Meaning every single event that can possibly happen. If you remember the movie Next with Nicholas Cage, then you might be able to think on these lines. For Cage, there is no one real future; there are infinite futures. And since he can perceive all of those futures, his present, in essence, consists of his futures. Thus, the present and future has been reconciled. and since any event can be recalled from the past, and thus perceived, the past can be said to also have been reconciled with the present. Therefore, time hasn't been "fragmented" into multiple presents, it always has consisted of multiple presents. There was no fragmentation involved.

Akshaya Srivastava

Disclaimer: I know that the majority of my argument rests on a fictional movie, and the hypothesis that the concepts presented in the movie can actually be a reality. However, my intent was simply to provide a hypothetical instance where the boundaries between past, present, and future collapse.

Repetition, What do you Think?

Several times throughout Walker Percy’s The Moviegoer Jack “Binx” Bolling speaks of repetition. Not in the sense of practicing lines for a play or throwing a ball, but in acting out an experience in the same manner in a separate period of time. The first repetition he presents in the novel is on a fine winter night fourteen years previous he had gone to see a western movie entitled The Oxbow Incident at a movie house on Feret Street. It was now fourteen years later and the same time of year, and with camphor berries popping underfoot he watched another western movie, Picayune, in the same theater (possibly the same seat) and claimed it a successful repetition. These repetitions, Binx feels, isolate the time period between them and stitch the events together such as, “peanuts in brittle” (p. 80).

He later recalls a distasteful repetition of a Nivea Crème advertisement. He remembered seeing the exact same advertisement in a magazine on his father’s desk twenty years before. It was the, “same woman, the same grainy face, the same Nivea Crème” (p. 80). Binx then proceeds to say that none of the events over this 20 year period could have mattered, “the thirty million deaths, the countless torturing, uprooting and wanderings to and fro” (p.80), because nothing about the crème had changed.

Some may call it déjà vu, but there has been several times in my life that I find myself doing the exact same thing in the exact same place. The feeling is eerie. It could be the way the light is coming off the water as I play catch with a best friend or any number activities, but these happenings often make the hair on my arms prickle. My brain at that moment recalls an exact memory and it’s almost as if everything else around me fades away; making me unsure which time period I am actually in.

Have you ever experienced a repetition or déjà vu? How do you feel about it? Or how do you feel about Binx’s experiences?

Although it seems entirely cliche to use the confederate flag as an artifact that I feel gives a representation of the South, let me first explain my reasoning. I am a northern boy; what most of my southern friends at tech would call a "damn-yankee". I am very blunt, have the tendency to be loud, and am still polishing up my manners. I have begun to habitually use "yessir"'s and "no ma'am"'s but it took me a little while to catch on. "Ya'll" is another term that has begun to show up in my vocabulary; to my mothers disapproval I must admit.

Growing up in the north the south is, for the most part, represented by this flag. The only time I can truly say that I had discussed the south was in history class in correlation to the civil war. The "rebels" of the south were known to us as racist Klan supporters who still wanted to secede and re-institute slavery. Upon arriving at Tech however, and making friends with many southern country boys; I have found that the confederate flag actually gives a different representation of the south and its culture.

This flag, as I have observed, in essence represents pride. Pride in their land and their culture, in their women and their hospitality, in their produce and in their lineage. The spirit of the south and the feelings it conveys to its inhabitants it much different than in the north. The variety of races, the less obnoxious attitudes (which I will be the first to admit I can be), and the accents. I observe all of these differences and absorb them, learning about these people who seem to be so much different to what I know; at first at least. But I also feel that the more I learn of them, the more alike we all become. Yet I know that they will continue to pride themselves in their "differences" and in their flag.

Jordan Conant

The Southern Thing

The Southern Thing - Drive-By ...

The link posted above leads to a site which allows you to listen to "The Southern Thing" by Drive-By Truckers. I came across it while listening to the radio. At first, the mellow opening drew me in and I decided to give it a shot (usually, whether I like a new song or not is determined within the first 6 seconds of hearing it). However, it was the first line that kept me listening, and as I listened, I started wondering what the heck this song was about. Apparently not pistols, or boots, or guitars. Then what?

At first I thought it was about slavery and emancipation, simply because that is the image I have of the South. South = Slavery. That plain equation has been beaten into me by my northern education. The agriculture, the Civil War, the ideal of the Southern Belle, even the accent, come second to slavery. However, I soon realized that the song was about something deeper; it was about the pride of the South.

"The Southern Thing" is simply all of the accomplishments of the South. MLK, Robert E Lee, the sense of the majority of the population ("Did NOT believe in slavery"). Every one of those makes one feel proud to be a Southerner. The Southern Identity is a proud one. While he may have made mistakes, the Southerner has learned from those mistakes and helped shape his home into one of which is he is proud of.

Akshaya Srivastava

NASCAR

NASCAR, or the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, is a true representation of the South and its unique culture. NASCAR began in the Prohibition Era when alcohol was outlawed in many states. The first NASCAR racers were smugglers of moonshine who raced the illegal substance all over the southern United States (like "Smokey and the Bandit"). The South is typically viewed as a collection of "rebel" states, so this is a fitting beginning to this Southern sport. NASCAR was officially founded in the 1940s when it became an organized sport and gained public appeal across the South. Today, most of the professional racers come from the Southern states and most race tracks are in the South. Although NASCAR has expanded in recent years, its roots still remain firmly entrenched in the South and its culture.

NASCAR is unique in many ways. It is arguably the most regional sport in the United States, with the majority of its fan base in the South. It is also the only sport that hosts a Christian prayer before the competition begins. This reflects the strong Christian religious values associated with the South and its culture. In addition, NASCAR is the only major sport that allows spectators to bring their own alcohol and camp out in the middle of the track. I’ve been to a few NASCAR races before, and I have never seen men carry more beer cans. Prior to the race, the culture of the South can be seen everywhere around the track: country music, barbeques, Confederate flags, and fried food. Men are throwing footballs, women are making conversation, and everyone is welcoming each other’s company. The festivities before the race represent the South’s laid-back, slower lifestyle and open hospitality. However, some negative aspects of the South are also present. NASCAR is still a predominantly Caucasian sport with no African-American drivers. In fact, very few minorities are interested in NASCAR. This is probably a lasting effect of the deep segregation that plagued the South for years.


NASCAR is a representation of the South because it was created by Southerners for Southern entertainment, and it has evolved into a definite aspect of Southern culture. It does not merely represent the South and its values; it offers a representation of Southern culture and its people. At NASCAR races, people consciously try to portray Southern culture. They act like rednecks even if they aren't true rednecks and offer a representation of the South. NASCAR is a sport that the South calls its own. For example, some counties in North Carolina require new immigrants to take a class about Southern culture. This includes a seminar about the history of NASCAR! But I suppose this is possible in a region where Dale Earnhardt is God and Richard Petty is King. Only in the South.

Nicholas Keith

Above you see a picture of a pineapple fountain. This fountain is located in Charleston, South Carolina at Waterfront Park. At first you might think that it's just a nice looking fountain in which they decided to use a pineapple. When I first saw it that is exactly what I thought. I figured, "I guess people like to eat pineapples here in Charleston". Little did I know it meant so much more. The pineapple has long been a symbol of hospitality as well as expressing a sense of welcome.

To me the pineapple is a perfect representation of the South. The people of the South have long been known for being very hospitable to their guests. This is instilled into young southerners at a very young age. You are taught to be on your best behavior in front of others while being polite and being conscientious of your guests needs. To see a prime example of this one needs to look back to the time of the plantation. Plantation families would often entertain guests for months at a time giving them quarters and food all the while. In doing so this would help out the guests tremendously as it would often take months to travel to get to the plantation, depending on where their coming from. Letting the guests stay at the plantation house for long periods of time would allow the guests to stay and relax instead of getting back on the road for another long journey. These plantation families offered great hospitality.

If you look at the picture you can see in the background the Charleston harbor. I believe this is a perfect placement of the fountain because it would easily be seen by any person who is coming into the city by water. A person would look at the pineapple fountain and get a sense that they were welcome into the city and that they would be treated with much respect.

Mitchell Scates

Test 3

ok thanks

Test 2

Ok so you go to settings and then you invite yourself (using your own gmail account). then go to your email and follow the instructions there.

Good luck!

Akshaya

test 1

test 1