Acknowledgments
The author thanks Gaston Franssen and Suzanne van Geuns for their insightful commentary on earlier versions of this piece.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1. It is of course not a given that commitments to progressive politics would meet with the same response ten years later. The larger issue at stake in her statement is the idea that country music is inherently white, conservative and republican. Scholars have pointed out the long-standing incorporation of labour rights and women’s rights in country lyrics, highlighting the contributions of Black artists and influences to the genre (e.g. Manuel Citation2008, Hubbs Citation2014, Dewees Citation2021). Approaching country music as a genre for and by conservative white people is not just inaccurate to its past and present stars, from Dolly Parton to Lil Nas X, but also obscures its political landscape.
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Annelot Prins
Annelot Prins is pursuing her PhD in American Studies at the Graduate School of North American Studies at the Freie Universität, Berlin. Her research is grounded in feminist theory and celebrity studies, and mostly focuses on American popular culture. She is especially interested in the relation between popular music and social justice. Her dissertation analyzes the rise of celebrity feminism in US-American pop music between 2010 and 2020.