Cold War Country - (Studies in United States Culture) by Joseph M Thompson (Hardcover)

About the Book

"Country music maintains a special, decades-long relationship to American military life, but these ties didn't just happen. This readable history reveals how country music's Nashville-based business leaders on Music Row created partnerships with the Pentagon to sell their audiences on military service while selling the music to service members. Beginning in the 1950s, the military flooded armed forces airwaves with the music, hosted tour dates at bases around the world, and drew on artists from Johnny Cash to Lee Greenwood to support recruitment programs. Over the last half of the twentieth century, the close connections between the Defense Department and Music Row gave an economic boost to the white-dominated sounds of country while marginalizing Black artists and fueling divisions over the meaning of patriotism. This story is filled with familiar stars like Roy Acuff, Elvis Presley, and George Strait, as well as lesser-known figures: industry executives who worked the halls of Congress, country artists who dissented from the stereotypically patriotic trappings of the genre, and more. Joseph M. Thompson argues convincingly that the relationship between Music Row and the Pentagon helped shape not only the evolution of popular music but also race relations, partisanship, and images of the United States abroad"--

Book Synopsis

Country music maintains a special, decades-long relationship to American military life, but these ties didn't just happen. This readable history reveals how country music's Nashville-based business leaders on Music Row created partnerships with the Pentagon to sell their audiences on military service while selling the music to servicemembers. Beginning in the 1950s, the military flooded armed forces airwaves with the music, hosted tour dates at bases around the world, and drew on artists from Johnny Cash to Lee Greenwood to support recruitment programs. Over the last half of the twentieth century, the close connections between the Defense Department and Music Row gave an economic boost to the white-dominated sounds of country while marginalizing Black artists and fueling divisions over the meaning of patriotism.

This story is filled with familiar stars like Roy Acuff, Elvis Presley, and George Strait, as well as lesser-known figures: industry executives who worked the halls of Congress, country artists who dissented from the stereotypically patriotic trappings of the genre, and more. Joseph M. Thompson argues convincingly that the relationship between Music Row and the Pentagon helped shape not only the evolution of popular music but also race relations, partisanship, and images of the United States abroad.

Review Quotes

"Cold War Country provides a thorough documentation and analysis of the process by which Country music and the U.S. military became entwined. . . . Thompson's excellent Cold War discussion will be a go-to resource for understanding the relationship and actions of Music Row and the Pentagon regarding Country music during, and even after, the Cold War."--James E. Akenson, Louisiana History

"Thompson digs deep into the nuanced history of the mutually beneficial relationship between the Pentagon and Nashville's Music Row. . . . Cold War Country significantly contributes to American music and political historiography and would make an engaging and useful reading for a graduate seminar or upper-division undergraduate course."--North Carolina Historical Review

"Essential reading . . . Thompson's exploration of the longstanding ties between the US military and country music doesn't just help you rethink country music, but the ways in which America uses popular music to its own ends. Thompson's immaculately researched book upends expectations while diving deep into the previously unreported ties . . . between the army and Music Row."--Rolling Stone, Best Music Books of 2024

"Joseph Thompson tells the fascinating and forgotten story of how the Pentagon and Music Row encouraged and reinforced each other. . . . [and] reveals why this happened."--Boston Globe

"Thompson's book convincingly documents the close association of country music with the U.S. military while also providing lesser-known narratives about the careers of some famous country performers."--Something Else!