audience
authenticity
Category=ATL
Category=AVLP
Category=NHTB
Chicago
Chicago radio programs
country and western
country music
country music and pop culture
country music comedians
country music comediennes
country music humor
country music radio history
country music radio programs
culture
early country music
early radio programs
East Coast
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eq_bestseller
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
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eq_music
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
essay
folk
Grand Ole Opry
Great Depression
historic radio programs
Mdwest
music
National Barn Dance
National Barn Dance cast
National Barn Dance Chicago
National Barn Dance humor
National Barn dance influence
National Barn Dance legacy
National Barn Dance performers
National Barn Dance radio show
National Barn Dance storytellers
National Barn Dance was broadcast across
nostalgia
postwar country music
radio
radio broadcasting
radio history
radio storytellers
rock 'n' roll
rural
South
tradition
twentieth century
U.S. history
urban
WLS
WLS history
WLS-AM history
World War II
Product details
- ISBN 9780252075575
- Weight: 481g
- Dimensions: 178 x 254mm
- Publication Date: 25 Jun 2008
- Publisher: University of Illinois Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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The National Barn Dance was the nation's most popular country music radio show during the 1930s and 1940s. The pioneering radio program defined country and western entertainment until the Grand Ole Opry and rock 'n' roll supplanted it in the 1950s. Broadcast for more than three decades from Chicago on WLS's powerful 50,000-watt signal, the show reached listeners throughout the Midwest, the East Coast, and South, delivering popular entertainment to both rural and urban areas while celebrating the fading folk traditions of an increasingly urbanized America.
The Hayloft Gang draws on the colorful commentary of performers and former listeners to analyze the National Barn Dance, its audience, and its impact. Contributors trace the history of barn dance radio, explore the paradox of a foundational country music program broadcast from a major city, investigate notions of authenticity in the presentation of country music and entertainment, and delve into provocative issues raised by the barn dance phenomenon.
Contributors: Chad Berry, Michael T. Bertrand, Lisa Krissoff Boehm, Don Cusic, Wayne W. Daniel, Loyal Jones, Kristine M. McCusker, Stephen Parry, Susan Smulyan, Paul L. Tyler, and Michael Ann Williams.
Chad Berry is the Goode Professor of Appalachian Studies and a professor of history at Berea College. He is the author of Southern Migrants, Northern Exiles and a coeditor of Studying Appalachian Studies: Making the Path by Walking.
