Still By and For Racists? Country Music, Racism, and Ugly Progress in the Popular Press

• In Event: Race, Gender, and Class Roundtables Session
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): 11) Racism, Punishment, and Sports

Abstract

Academic conceptualizations and public perceptions of racial progress in the United States have received significant attention over the past decade. Whether mainstream press outlets have continued publishing celebratory racial progress narratives depicting the United States as moving toward a state of racial equality during this same period has received less attention. Analyzing 249 articles printed in Billboard, Rolling Stone, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal in 2024, I show how these outlets repeatedly highlighted trends in contemporary country music, such as the historically novel degree of commercial success by black artists, that could have been used to construct congratulatory depictions of racial progress in a genre long associated with prejudice and racism. However, contrary to the expectation that triumphant racial progress narratives dominate public discussions in the United States, country continued to be portrayed as by and for racists through consistent attention to its well-documented history of racism and the prejudicial actions of some contemporary artists, fans, and industry officials. Drawing from Du Bois’s conceptualization of “ugly progress,” I illustrate racial progress in country music was portrayed as marred by previous failures, especially tenuous, and unfinished. Instead of concluding these results necessarily evince a general shift away from distributing celebratory racial progress narratives by the news media, I suggest these results highlight race, class, and geography intersect to complicate portrayals of racial progress in the news media.

Author

• Braden Leap, Mississippi State University