This collection makes an important intervention in analysis of country music’s cultural politics by detailing the presence of progressive thought within the genre from the emergence of commercial country music in the 1920s through the present. While country music has long been stereotyped as a conservative genre, recent academic studies have found a complex range of political affiliations across the history of the genre, including progressive content. Scholars such as Nadine Hubbs, whose work is featured here, have identified progressive alliances supported by some white, working-class audiences involving working-class advocacy, LGBTQ+ rights, and cross-racial class alliances. This collection offers a vital contribution to this crucial academic interrogation of those stereotypes and country music’s more complex historical practice. Some of the strengths of the collection include the balanced focus on different historical periods, the variety of different kinds of progressive expression it establishes, and the rich range of methodological approaches, including...

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