Bringing a Woman's Perspective to Country Music
In case you didn’t know, March is Women’s History Month and every year I make sure to share a little more insight into women’s contributions to music history. My previous Women’s History Month posts can be found here and here in case you were interested. For this year’s Women’s History Month piece, I wanted to dig a bit deeper into country music and the women that pioneered it.
If I could describe the essence of country music to someone who didn’t have any clue about the genre, I would say that country music, at its core, is simply storytelling. Of course, much of the country music on the radio strays a bit further from the heart of country music, but thats a post for another day. However, the true heart of country music was working class Americans simply sharing stories and experiences of life in rural America. Country music as a genre is considered to have started around the early 1920s, which naturally branched off into other sub-genres of country such as swing, honky tonk, bluegrass, rockabilly, and many more. Although the genre got its start in the early 1920s, women didn’t even begin to have a chance at a country music career until the 1950s.
With large names like Hank Williams, George Jones, Bob Wills, and Ernest Tubb making quite a career for themselves by sharing songs about life in rural America, night life, love, and family, promoters were still not too keen about promoting female country singers. It wasn’t until 1952 that the barrier for women having a solo career would finally be broken.
In 1952, Kitty Wells became the first woman to have a song top the U.S. Country Charts with her single “It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels” which opened up the doors for women in the country music world to receive real recognition. Prior to her success with her 1952 single, Kitty Wells had been putting out other singles but the reception to female singers still wasn’t enough to give their music a real chance without being a member of a singing group that also had men. Kitty Wells really was the first woman to build a solo career as a country singer and was able to prove to record producers that female country artists could sell. With Kitty Wells opening the door, women in country music could finally share their point of view.
With the influence and inspiration from Kitty Wells, artists like Loretta Lynn, Dolly Parton, Patsy Cline, and Tammy Wynette started to take risks with songs that would highlight the double standards for men and women during those times. At the time, these men in country music were having the time of their lives partying nightly, partaking in heavy drinking and substance abuse, and having their share of infidelity while the women were expected run the household and raise babies. However, with country music being big on storytelling, the public wasn’t getting the full story until these women started sharing theirs, giving women everywhere the representation they so desperately needed. With songs like “Don't Come Home A Drinkin' (With Lovin' on Your Mind)” by Loretta Lynn, “Just Because I’m a Woman” by Dolly Parton, and “Stand By Your Man” by Tammy Wynette women all over America had a chance to feel seen. With songs like these, and many others, these female artists were able to really shine a light on some of the deeper aspects to womanhood. Aspects such as infidelity, marriage, raising a family, substance abuse, and various other topics that seemed to be shoved under the rug before then.
Although many of the songs that these women were putting out finally gave light to some of the deeper issues women were facing, they also represented how strong the women of the working class and rural America were and just how much they did for their families. Naturally, they were able to dig right back at the men, while in this male dominated industry, with lyrics that brought humor in a tongue-in-cheek way, for example, “Fist City” by Loretta Lynn. Once these women were starting to sell records and start to make careers for themselves, they were not playing around and giving the men in the industry hell right back.
As a woman who grew up in rural America and has been listening to country music my whole life, I cannot imagine a world without the music of Kitty Wells, Patsy Cline, Tammy Wynette, Loretta Lynn, and Dolly Parton. These women told the stories of women and provided a woman’s perspective to the storytelling heart of country music. Without the contributions and barriers these women broke, we wouldn’t have the names we love so much like Reba McEntire, Linda Ronstadt, Kacey Musgraves, Taylor Swift, Faith Hill, Brandi Carlile, Shania Twain, and so many others.
So the next time you are listening to the women of classic country, think about a woman in the 1950s at home alone with her children listening to their music for the first time and imagine the feeling of relief they must have felt the moment they finally felt heard and understood.
Happy Women’s History Month ladies!
