Work songs, hegemony, and illusions of self

Abstract

This essay suggests a complex dialectical relationship among (1) the meanings that acculturation encourages workers to attribute to their everyday experiences, (2) the meanings enacted in country music work songs, and (3) the support of hierarchical social and organizational power relationships in workers’ identities. In country work songs, concrete images of blood, sweat, and tears are treated as the only legitimate evidence of a worker's rightful place within the symbolic community. In this music, a “working‐class” identity based on manual labor is celebrated. It is celebrated, however, in a way that invites self‐identification with hegemonic forms.