Music and Music Culture
May – June 2006 Page 10 - Reed’s Ramblings Column
Chances are that you read FolkWorks because you think music and music culture are important. However, there are people who enjoy listening to music but have no curiosity or desire to learn more about that music’s history or the artists that perform that type of music. This may even be the vast majority of consumers of current popular music. Thankfully, we’re all much deeper thinkers than that.
Let’s look at some of the aspects of music culture by choosing one genre that often falls under the “folk umbrella,” bluegrass music. It’s by nature an acoustic music, populated with guitars, banjos, mandolins, basses, fiddles and occasionally resophonic guitars. Bluegrass music has blues, folk and old time country music as the original influences, and later some swing and modern pop influences as well. Most people credit Bill Monroe of Rosine, Kentucky, with being the inventor of bluegrass. That’s a nice myth, and over simplistic, but it works for those “most people.”
One can obtain bluegrass music recordings through retail brick and mortar establishments, and larger chains have a pretty good variety of bluegrass to choose from. There’s ample internet retail outlets to purchase CDs or download recordings. There are still a few retail outlets that publish catalogs and do mail order via something called the postal system, which is like the internet only even slower than dial-up. Consuming live bluegrass music may be more of a challenge, depending on one’s place of residence. In the greater Los Angeles area, there are several organizations (like BASC, the Bluegrass Association of Southern California) that host concerts, open mikes and jams. San Diego County boasts two bluegrass organizations that also provide the same services. Finally, a host of bluegrass festivals now run nearly year round, with several taking place within a reasonable drive of the L.A. area.
Does Bluegrass music have a music culture? Most emphatically, and attending those jams and concerts will start to allow you to note this culture, but attending a bluegrass festival is a far deeper and more immediate education. Bluegrass was born in Kentucky, and the American South has held the deepest bluegrass roots, especially in the Southern mountains. So the overall culture of the American South is a cornerstone. Bluegrass is a rural, agrarian style of music, so the culture of the American farming community also enters in. Clothing is an important part of any culture, and bluegrass music has its own style. Bill Monroe and His Bluegrass Boys experimented with the band uniform, for a time performing in what appeared to be English equestrian clothing including jodhpurs. But Bill pretty much settled on suits, ties, and Stetson hats. Although Kentucky is not often noted as a major cattle producing state, bluegrass has adopted a Western look, so cowboy hats and boots are often de rigueur. Far more important is the maker of the musical instruments. Bluegrass guitars need to be dreadnaughts, and although manufacturers other than C. F. Martin are tolerated, one best be playing a dreadnaught guitar that has “Martin-ness.” The five string banjo doesn’t have to be a Gibson, but it better have “Gibson-ness.” Mandolins also should have a Gibson pedigree, and only the “F” or “A” style can be used in bluegrass without major eye- brow raising. Now, although there is undoubtedly some solid sonic rationale behind these limitations of choice, it still has much to do with the rich, lengthy history of this music that has survived for over50 years. This is the same kind of rich, lengthy history (begin to note sarcasm now) that Steve Martin refers to in the movie L.A. Story where he defends Los Angeles’ architectural history by saying “Some of these buildings are over TWENTY years old!” (Confirm sarcasm now.) In other words, Bill played a Gibson mandolin. His guitarists used Martin dreadnaughts, etc. God help the talented group of bluegrass musicians that take the stage with instruments that fall well beyond this “list.” It doesn’t mean that they will fail by their instrument choices alone, but they will have a difficult if not impossible task of winning over the conservative fan (or “bluegrass police”) that expect things to be done the “way Bill done it.”
So is it easier to like bluegrass music if you own a Martin dreadnaught, wear a Stetson hat and cowboy boots, like Southern cooking and are prone to holler “yee haw” with little provocation? Perhaps. However, you can still enjoy bluegrass and live in the North, wear wingtips and disdain fried okra. You can also like bluegrass without knowing who Bill Monroe was, or whether Flatt and Scruggs really brought more to the bluegrass music than Bill, or whether Jimmy Martin really tried to punch out Ricky Skaggs back- stage at the Opry. You’ll just have less to argue about around the campfire if you do attend a festival.
Bluegrass music has a “culture” that impacts how one dresses, what one owns as a musical instrument, and how some knowledge of the history of bluegrass arguably helps define just what the bluegrass experience is. This is, of course, just one example of a type of folk music and how it is framed by its culture. A very similar situation exists with other types of folk music such as Cajun, Celtic, cowboy or even several other types that don’t begin with the letter “c.” So for many, music culture is as important as the music that gave this culture its birth.
Music and Music Culture
May – June 2006 Page 10 - Reed’s Ramblings Column