The Unmentionable Whiteness of Americanaland
The problem with Americanaland, begins with its subtitle: Where Country & Western Met Rock 'n' Roll. It's catchy and marketable, this idea that a diverse genre represents a meeting of two great streams of American popular music. But it's also reductive and misleading, and worse, racially obtuse. To be clear, I am not imputing any bigotry, intentional or otherwise, to the author. It's just that the limitations of the "country meets rock 'n roll" rubric —and the scant attention paid to Black music throughout the book—results in an incomplete and skewed account that avoids confronting some of Americana's pertinent and challenging issues.