James McCaffery

5/31/2017

Help Received: Appalachia: A History John Alexander Williams

James McCaffery

Music is one of the few art forms that is interactive. You can enjoy it just about anywhere, and it can enhance just about any moment. if you don’t believe me watch a movie without the soundtrack. (Oh, why do movies have soundtracks?) Working out, writing ePortoflio responses, driving, mowing the lawn; all of these are so much better when music is added. With so many differing genres of music to its parallel to its own universe. Hell, the Billy Joel album I’m listening to right now is pumping me up for class. Music creates and changes our emotions. It always holds a message with which the individual can relate to. sure, some music makes messages clearer than others, yet they are always up to individual interpretation.  So perhaps when looking back at Appalachia its clear they had their own reasons for music. Hope if definitely a key factor. Joy is the second thought that comes to mind. Sometimes life was hard. Things may look down, and you needed a reason to keep that smile on your face, or be willing to go back to work. memories of better times or older days. Classics everyone knew that could lead to the whole Saloon belting it out no matter what. Politics also came into fruition when they needed to grow the population and spread the word on the issue. It was something they could holds to and cherish. In a changing world it was their constant.

“The country music to which Appalachian migrants listened in their new homes and in urban bars and roadside taverns expressed a nostalgia for this way of life that gradually eroded the stinging memories of hardship, replacing them with a sentimental view of country living that belied the manner in which most mountaineers of the mid-twentieth century would live.” (Page 308 Appalachia: A History John Alexander Williams)