Rejection of family values

Although there is a very small group of professional singers that are women in today’s country music industry, society has made huge steps. There were once earlier times when women weren’t even allowed to vote, rather than perform in front of live audiences and on records. There are great things that a female singer can bring to music, but early country music audiences were not able to experience those aspects because women weren’t allowed to make much of an appearance. Gender became a bigger topic discussed in the ‘20s, especially with the ratification of the nineteenth amendment and “flapper girls” and other ladies who decided to not let society control their behavior. There is a great impact that women made in early country music by being depicted differently in songs and playing different roles of characters in string bands and other forms of country music entertainment between the 1920s and 1950s.

According to “Country Music: A Cultural and Stylistic History” by Jocelyn R. Neal, one of the first appearances of women in country music is from Ernest Stoneman and the Dixie Mountaineers in the 1920s. They were a hillbilly string band that consisted of six players, two of whom were women: Hattie Stoneman (Ernest Stoneman’s wife) and Irma Lee Frost (Hattie’s younger sister). These women played a very large role making the band a success; Hattie took on her fathers talent (John William “Bill” Frost) as a well-rounded fiddler and Irma was able to read musical notation from which she learned at church and sung high soprano (Neal, page 24.) The Dixie Mountaineers was one of the few that consisted of women players. It was difficult for females to be incorporated into country music without being of close relation to one of the band members, but when they were, it gave more character and sometimes seemed to intrigue the audience even more.

Women were always a big part of the evolution of country music; they were just forced to be “behind the scenes” and let the men have the spotlight. It was very hard for women to be recognized in any kind of music industry, especially when the “role” of a woman at the time was catering to the needs of their children and spouse. On the other hand, if a woman truly wanted to perform commercially, she had to be alongside family or a spouse. Some examples would be the Carter family consisted of A.P. Carter, Sara Carter (the wife of A.P.) and Maybelle Carter (their cousin), Fiddlin’ John Carson’s daughter, Rosa Lee Carson (Moonshine Kate), became his sidekick, Andrew Jenkins had recordings with Irene Spain (his stepdaughter), etc. In some cases, women lied about being in a sister act or the spouse of a man in order to appear in a barn dance or on radio shows.

The 1920-1930 American culture continuously rejected the idea of a woman abandoning family values and their normal “role” as a mom and wife to perform in front of audiences and on the radio. This wouldn’t have been how it actually played out, but the women who were able to be a part of the country music industry surpassed many strong-minded opinions through the art of their music. Women contributed important aspects to country music and were often the backbone of many well-known country songs.