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Share this podcast with anyone you know who likes country music, or is interested in the history of race and music in the US. "Country music is black music. The banjo came from Africa." So why is modern country music so white? podcasts.apple.com/ie/podcast/you…
The conversation in that podcast reminded me of this fantastic episode of Uncivil, in which we learn about the tangled racial history of the song "Dixie" and hear about the experiences of a contemporary black fiddler who used to perform it. gimletmedia.com/shows/uncivil/…
The "Old Town Road" phenomenon is such a rich teachable moment in regard to the history of music and race in the US...largely because it immediately provokes the historical question "how did country music come to be associated so overwhelmingly with white people?"
I mean, listen to this song performed by two African-American women and tell me what's "not country" about it. She learned to play like this in the 1930s and 1940s.
