Soul, Country, and the USA

In his 1903 seminal work, The Souls of Black Folk, African American scholar W. E. B. DuBois boldly predicted that the problem of the twentieth century would be “the problem of the color line” (3). This pronouncement was made as he was perched on that shaky threshold between the morally tragic nineteenth century and the tentatively hopeful twentieth century. As hope gave way to helplessness in the early twentieth century, in spite of valiant waves of resistance to the most violent racism and bigotry, DuBois’s statement seemed eerily prophetic as the problematic matter of race in America continued to dig its jagged roots into the receptive sociocultural soil of the United States. Once imagined as a contained field of contamination in the Deep South, historical evidence has shown that these divisive roots had spread from sea to shining sea. Discourses that revolve in complicated circles around media representations of American culture, the educational and criminal justice systems, and campaign rhetoric during voting season in the United States reveal the fruit of those racial roots, further reminding observers that DuBois’s statement may be an apt measuring stick for investigating the twenty-first century.

Purists of soul and country music often lament the state of contemporary music. They complain that the quality of the music is now so far from the essential aspects, accusing the artists of selling out to such an extent that the music no longer has the integrity that made it special and a uniquely authentic manifestation of an American cultural identity. The fact that acts like Taylor Swift and Lady Antebellum, Janelle Monae and Usher open for major shows like the Grammy Awards and the American Music Awards and reach the precious prime-time viewership signifies the distance of the journey that music has taken from the folk roots. Christmas specials now move beyond the typical quasi-jazzy Michael Buble shows to include country Christmas shows hosted by artists like Sugarland’s Jennifer Nettles. On every major television singing competition, a country star sits comfortably in a judge’s seat: Blake Shelton on The Voice, Keith Urban on American Idol, and Brad Paisley on Rising Star. As rooted as soul and country music are in the folk heritage of the American South, the journey to mass audiences has necessitated a series of consistent compromises and creativity that has landed country and soul artists in the lucrative marketing bins of popular music. Explaining this process, Harper writes that “the ‘pop’ designation is not easy to decode.

In 2013, LL Cool J and Brad Paisley collaborated on a song about the history of race in America. A hip-hop-country collaboration, the song was an attempt to bridge the void that exists in American culture. That they used a song to speak about the historical antecedents of the gap reflects the importance of pop music and its ability to communicate important ideas about race. Paisley’s lyrics explain that although he is a white Southerner, he is more than the stereotype. LL Cool J agrees with the idea that race is much deeper than skin color. He urges folks on the other side to look beyond his doo rag and promises not to judge the red/Confederate flag. There is the hope in these lyrics that in the twenty-first century the American society has reached or should have reached a point at which people are viewed by the content of their character and not by the color of their skin. This is an ideal that is both lovely and lofty, a notion that has dominated the rhetoric of the great twentieth-century civil rights leaders. Within the context of the United States, race is a natural occurrence. Cornel West explains that “without the presence of black people in America, European-Americans would not be “white”—they would be Irish, Italians, Poles, Welsh, and other engaged in class, ethnic, and gender struggles over resources and identity” (Race Matters, 107).