Queer country

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"Country music is often said to be 'three chords and the truth.' But the country music industry and related musical genres have not been particularly friendly to queer or trans musicians. Queer country musicians have developed a strategy of sincerity to engage critically with the postmodern deconstruction of essentialism (through which queer and trans experience has been understood as liberatory but also dangerously rebellious) while continuing to desire authenticity (in which their identities are accepted as real, human, and understandable to a cisgender and straight audience). 'Queer country' argues that country and folk music's fraught framing of common personhood, authenticity, and otherness (concepts especially important to and actively debated among transgender and queer people) are appealing in order to create stories of self, yet they simultaneously invite critique of tradition. 'Queer country' identifies a meaningful development in modern queer and transgender life and contemporary vernacular music, using ethnography, musical analysis, and historical methods to understand its contributions to changing notions of gender, genre, and tradition."--"Though frequently ignored by the music mainstream, queer and transgender country and Americana artists have made essential contributions as musicians, performers, songwriters, and producers. 'Queer country' blends ethnographic research with analysis and history to provide the first in-depth study of these artists and their work. Shana Goldin-Perschbacher delves into the careers of well-known lesbian artists like k.d. lang and Amy Ray and examines the unlikely success of singer-songwriter Patrick Haggerty, who found fame forty years after releasing the first out gay country album. She also focuses on later figures like nonbinary transgender musician Rae Spoon and renowned drag queen country artist Trixie Mattel; and on recent breakthrough artists like Orville Peck, Amythyst Kiah, and chart-topping Grammy-winning phenomenon Lil Nas X. Many of these musicians place gender and sexuality front and center even as it complicates their careers. But their ongoing efforts have widened the circle of country/Americana by cultivating new audiences eager to connect with the artists' expansive music and personal identities."--Includes bibliographical references (pages 201-250) and index.Introduction -- Queer country and sincerity -- Genre trouble -- Rurality and journey as queer and trans musical narratives -- (Mis)representation, ownership, and appropriation -- Masks, sincerity, and (re)claiming country music.