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Sounds Like Home: Bluegrass Music and Appalachian Migration in American Cities, 1945-1980

McGee, Nathan
http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9069-5704
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1479824005091132

Abstract Details

2016, PhD, University of Cincinnati, Arts and Sciences: History.
Bluegrass music has long had strong associations with rural America and the Appalachian mountains in particular. The music itself, while often based on an idealized vision of rural America, developed in the urban milieu of the post World War II era. White Appalachians joined millions of other southerners in flooding north into urban cities in the 20th century. They brought with them some general cultural traits that often became exacerbated in the urban communities they joined. In short, as mountain migrants came north they often became more “southern” and more “Appalachian” as these character traits became identified by various urban groups. When migrants settled in cities, musical communities emerged that provided a sort of uplift for migrants and became a cultural marker for Appalachian-ness in many instances. This process did not develop in a vacuum, but rather the identification of the music with Appalachia became often a conscious choice by musicians, fans, reformers, and general residents in the urban communities. Cities like Cincinnati and Dayton, Ohio, Baltimore, Maryland, and Washington D.C. all struggled to come to grips with what it mean to have these new mountain folk living in their midst. The first exposure to Appalachian identity for many urban residents occurred through the musical sounds associated with the mountains. In the midst of backlash against Appalachian culture, migrant communities continued to develop their own culture and lifestyles in the cities. Cities became bluegrass laboratories where migrants and musical enthusiasts from around the country met and mingled in new settings. As the music grew in popularity, fans and musicians alike both consciously and unconsciously pushed the music back into the mountains and developed it as an Appalachian sound. This dissertation examines how this process occurred in these cities. The intermingling of urban reform work, musical performance, migration, and an interest in the broad “folk” led by a younger generation all helped develop the popularity of the music. The renewed interest in the mountain “folk” generally and the idea of Appalachia specifically developed within the broader folk revival of the 1960s. These developments provided a mechanism for a new generation of musicians and revivalists to tie themselves to a sometimes-fictive past. This work shows how bluegrass music operated at the center of these developments and became a predominately urban genre of music despite the rural associations. My work follows in the tradition of examinations of Appalachian history, in particular the relationship between the idea and the reality of the “peculiar” American region.
David Stradling, Ph.D. (Committee Chair)
Wayne Durrill, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
Tracy Teslow, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
Curtis W. Ellison, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
228 p.
American History
Appalachia; Bluegrass Music; Folk Music; Urban Migration; Country Music; Urban History

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • McGee, N. (2016). Sounds Like Home: Bluegrass Music and Appalachian Migration in American Cities, 1945-1980 [Doctoral dissertation, University of Cincinnati]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1479824005091132

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • McGee, Nathan. Sounds Like Home: Bluegrass Music and Appalachian Migration in American Cities, 1945-1980. 2016. University of Cincinnati, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1479824005091132.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • McGee, Nathan. "Sounds Like Home: Bluegrass Music and Appalachian Migration in American Cities, 1945-1980." Doctoral dissertation, University of Cincinnati, 2016. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1479824005091132

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

ucin1479824005091132
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This open access ETD is published by University of Cincinnati and OhioLINK.