Making a Left Turn

Here’s a listening tip: If you want to hear conservative politics, tune into talk radio; if you want to hear more progressive messages, switch to a country station. The gradual shift of country music from the right to the left side of the political spectrum is one of the most underreported cultural stories of our time. Perhaps it took the Neanderthal rampaging of our present Congress to bring this point to light.

Historically, country music has been the most politically reactionary form of American popular music. It remained that way through the ’80s, thanks in no small part to the testicular outbursts of Hank Williams Jr., one of the decade’s highest-profile and best-selling artists. His legacy contains such paeans to sweet reason as “If The South Woulda Won” and “Women I’ve Never Had.” Williams was abetted in his fumings by the likes of Charlie Daniels (“Simple Man,” “What This World Needs Is a Few More Rednecks”) and the ever-dependable Merle Haggard (who coined the luminescent line, “Back before microwave ovens/when a girl could still cook and still would”). In the ’60s and ’70s, country music was almost uniformly hawkish on the subject of the Vietnam War, and it was virtually silent when it came to the struggle for civil rights.

Country’s newest stars bring to their art less cultural baggage and more vision than did previous waves of performers. Most of today’s brood were young kids during the ’60s. By the time they were in junior high, racial integration, war-weariness, abortion-on-demand and the general notion of “women’s liberation” were accepted facts of life. Because they grew up with television and interstate highways, they never experienced the isolation and parochialism that were commonplace for their parents. Most of them attended college before they took the plunge into music—and many of them graduated. This sort of upbringing appears to have inclined them toward a rather genial tolerance and away from the usual knee-jerk fears and suspicions. Little wonder, then, that so many of their songs embody an open and accepting attitude. Their “good old days” are not the same as Bob Dole’s and Newt Gingrich’s.

Garth Brooks’ “We Shall Be Free” (1992) was a landmark of country music tolerance, urging as it did an unbounded acceptance of all humanity. This song included the then-provocative line “When we’re free to love anyone we choose,” which Brooks said referred to homosexual love. Later, in “The American Honky-Tonk Bar Association,” which he sang but didn’t write, Brooks rightly took a hit from critics for vilifying people “standing in a welfare line.” This inconsistency is not surprising, though, since country seldom adopts the doctrinaire stance of true “protest music.”

After years of treating members of the female sex as “mamas,” “little darlins” or “honky-tonk angels,” country music has made its greatest political strides in acknowledging the complexities, rights and aspirations of women. Leading the way have been such strong and outspoken examples as Loretta Lynn, Dolly Parton, Gail Davies, Emmylou Harris, K. T. Oslin, Mary Chapin Carpenter and Reba McEntire. Of these, McEntire has most consistently hammered at stereotypes of women and has been the most willing to sing about subjects that affect them. Through such songs as “Somebody Should Leave,” “You’re the First Time I’ve Thought About Leaving,” “Is There Life Out There,” “For My Broken Heart” and “She Thinks His Name Was John,” McEntire has become country music’s most sympathetic portrayer of modern women in crises. It seems to be her function to understand these women and explain them to us—not to moralize about what got them where they are.

Mary Chapin Carpenter lashed out at the unfairness women suffer at the hands of their husbands and society at large in “He Thinks He’ll Keep Her.” Pam Tillis presented a more stoic view of the same subject in “Let That Pony Run.” Martina McBride sang of a wife who kills her abusive husband and herself in “Independence Day.” (“Let That Pony Run” and “Independence Day” are both Gretchen Peters compositions—the political impact of young women songwriters on country music has been inestimable.)

And still the progressive songs keep coming. The title cut of Collin Raye’s new album, I Think About You, takes us into the mind of a man who sees the dehumanizing ways women are treated and fears for the future of his own 8-year-old daughter. John Michael Montgomery’s “No Man’s Land” and Victoria Shaw’s “Single Mother (A Day in the Life)” show the valiantly human sides of Capitol Hill’s favorite anathema.

Comparatively few country songs at any given time carry blatant political messages. But subtle hints about how men and women should relate to each other, suggestions that we learn to appreciate others unlike us, and language and topics that were once taboo are routinely patched into otherwise innocuous ditties—and they may have a cumulative liberalizing effect. For those who miss the self-denigration, moral smugness and superstition that once permeated country, there is always contemporary Christian music.

Last week, very quietly, the Internet reached a milestone: As of Sept. 13, there’s now a fee of $50 per year to register a site on the ’net. It’s not something you’ll read about in the newspapers, outside of a few trade publications; nor are any of the big news magazines likely to cover it. This development is, however, perhaps the biggest change to hit the Internet since its creation.

The fee will not affect the average user who subscribes to any of the Internet’s services, but it will require businesses that want their own network name (like the Nashville Scene’s “nashscene.com”) to pay for the honor. Such a name is called a “domain name”; it’s the Internet equivalent of a real estate address.

Until now, obtaining a domain name was free, since the work was subsidized by the National Science Foundation (NSF). The only items required for the granting of a domain name were the presence of a computer on the network, and a good reason for having that name. Most applicants met the criteria, and soon, the NSF had nearly 100,000 domain names on file—with still more pending. “In the last two years, registrations have jumped tenfold,” says NSF spokesman Dave Graves. “It is estimated that by the end of this year, the figure will have topped 20,000 per month.”

Complaints about how long it took to receive the names—five weeks was a standard wait, and in some cases, it was taking months—led to a decision last year to restrict the number of applications. First, a new automated form was tested, and the wait dropped to around 2 weeks. Then, on Wednesday of last week, after much soul-searching, the other bomb dropped.

“Until now, the taxpayers have funded the Internet’s domain registration process,” says NSF program officer Don Mitchell. “This shift to user fees is consistent with and was anticipated in NSF’s original concept of developing support for the Internet.” The NSF is hoping to reap about $5.5 million dollars in these fees, to replace the same amount lost in government dollars. Over time, the NSF expects to generate revenue with this process. The collection of fees will take place both at sign-up time and one year from date of issue. A Virginia company, Network Solutions, has been selected to collect the money. “Eventually,” states the NSF’s press release, “the registration process will generate revenue which will be used to improve the Internet infrastructure.”

The change will apparently affect only network and commercial sites—those with domain names that commonly end in .com or .net. Registration of educational sites (.edu) will continue, as always, to be subsidized by the federal government. Government sites (.gov) will remain free until government networking agencies decide how they will pay in the future. Military organizations (.mil) will continue to be registered by the Department of Defense.

News of the change did not sit well with some operators of specialized domains. After the press release was circulated, one company even volunteered its services to register domain names free of charge, effectively cutting the NSF out by establishing their own name-lookup machines. However, most owners of domain names took the news in stride, informing their users and stating a willingness to pay for what, until now, had been a totally free ride.

Scene Online News

It’s been a busy week for the Nashville Scene online. For fans of Internet newsgroups, the has created a forum for you: . It is available now from most of your local Internet providers—ask them for details. If you are on CompuServe or America Online and can’t find it, just hang loose and wait; it’ll appear eventually.

The ’s Web site has also garnered a little local praise. We’ve been selected as the Mid-State WebGuide “Feature of the Month” and got a glowing review to boot. If you want to read what they wrote about us, try directing your browser to http://www.wwns.com/mtc/mswgfeat.html.

This review is part of a larger monthly magazine called the Middle Tennessee Computing magazine, and it’s most certainly worth a look. Editor Kevin Halpern has done a good job with the site, which is a thoughtful exploration of current computer issues.

That’s enough for this week—visit us online!

Joel Moses can be reached via e-mail at joel@moses.com.

Try the Online at http://www.nashscene.com/.