Country music scholar Pecknold (co-editor of A Boy Named Sue: Gender and Country Music
) delves into the beginnings of the business of the oft-scorned “hillbilly” music—as country was called before the early 1950s—and studies how it grew into a nationwide moneymaking force by the 1970s. She traces the industry's footing back to radio advertising of the 1920s and the broadcast barn dances of the early '30s, then on to the convergence of the business in its ultimate epicenter, Nashville, in the late '40s and early '50s. Fledgling associations, both of deejays and fan clubs, played a powerful force in driving the music business until the 1958 formation of the Country Music Association (CMA). Pecknold is quite adept when analyzing both novels and films depicting the music business; however, the narrative sometimes lags when she recounts insider details of fan clubs and the formation of the CMA. This is not for the pleasure reader looking for stories of country music personalities; it's a serious academic tome that will be of great interest to the student of the business and cultural context of country music. (Jan.)
