"There's a Place Down by the Mall": Locating Country Music's Modern Landscape

Abstract: While early country music audiences were perceived as impoverished, rural, and southern, the genre's modern mythology has emphasized the demographic of female consumers with disposable incomes because of its high investment value to advertisers. Market researchers seem to agree that these ideal shoppers prefer a country music soundtrack. The suburban landscape that houses malls and stores has likewise appeared in country music lyrics in recent years. For as much as the genre has evolved, there is one way it hasn't. Black artists and listeners in particular have been denied participation in the country music industry, though they've always been present, as musicians who have continually fought to achieve recognition and as listeners who have wholeheartedly embraced their music and supported their inclusion. Because audiences have continually crossed lines of race, region, age, and political affiliation, it is a myth to suggest that the genre's listeners are limited to suburban women.