Queering Country Music: Conceptualising LGBTQIA+ Voices in a Contested Genre
Thursday 25th April 2024, 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM (London Time)
Country music is a genre that is sometimes assumed to lack LGBTQIA+ participation. Over the past 30 years, scholarship (Rich, 1992; Dickinson, 1999; Hubbs, 2014; Goldin-Perschbacher, 2022; Royster, 2022) has begun to challenge these assumptions and shone a spotlight on the long history of LGBTQIA+ people’s engagement with the genre, as both artists and audiences. This course builds on this emerging field of research to consider the way LGBTQIA+ artists use country as a storytelling medium with potential to represent a broader range of experiences and narratives than the country music industry has historically recognised.
Country music has a self-referential conceptualisation of itself as a genre that is heavily invested in notions of authenticity. On the one hand, this holds potential for the expression of LGBTQIA+ voices. On the other, authenticity is heavily policed by the country music industry who wields this notion to construct and enforce exclusionary ideas of who country music is, marginalising women, people of colour and LGBTQIA+ people, erasing these histories of participation in the genre (Bishop and Watson, 2022; Goldin-Perschbacher, 2022; Moss, 2022; Pecknold, 2013; Royster, 2022; Watson, 2019). At the same time as this discriminatory industry context, LGBTQIA+ people continue to engage with country music and push the genre forward.
This course considers the way songs by LGBTQIA+ artists navigate country music aesthetics and definitions of genre, looking at the voice as a medium for articulating and reworking ideas of authenticity and genre identity. The presentation explores particular songs in depth covering the period from the 1970s until the present day, featuring artists such as Lavender Country, Chely Wright, Namoli Brennet, Indigo Girls, Jake Blount, and Allison Russell.
There will be a consideration of how each song navigates the genre, which has both potential and risks for LGBTQIA+ artists, dedicating particular attention to the way trans artists engage with precarious notions of authenticity. Through paying close attention to these songs, this course aims to showcase LGBTQIA+ voices in country music and to suggest ways that these artists challenge our understand of who and what country music is.
James Barker
James Barker (he/they) is a PhD candidate in Music and Media at Newcastle University, UK. His PhD research explores the potential of queer reading as a strategy to assert LGBTQIA+ belonging in country music, using Dolly Parton as a case study.
Sorry, this is an archived short course...
We have plenty of upcoming short courses coming soon. See details of some of them below or look at the full list of short courses.
Tuesday 27th October 2026
5:00 PM - 7:00 PM
(London Time)
Pop Pedagogy - an Overview
Kim Chandler
Some successful pop stars are celebrating career lengths of over sixty years, having been around since the 1950s when pop music emerged and diversified from jazz, so pop singing has been in existence sufficiently long now that, for teaching purposes, we can observe and analyse what type of approach serves it best.
Friday 30th October 2026
3:00 PM - 5:00 PM
(London Time)
Feldenkrais Method® - its application in speech and song!
Marina Gilman
The Feldenkrais Method® is a form of somatic education that uses gentle movement and directed attention to improve physical and mental functioning, including singing and speaking. Since we are not always aware of the source of tension or discoordination, it is difficult to make the necessary adjustments to ensure optimal use of the voice!
Monday 2nd November 2026
5:00 PM - 7:00 PM
Tuesday 3rd November 2026
5:00 PM - 7:00 PM
(London Time)
The Vocal Health Challenges for Actors and Singers!
Leda Scearce
Two part course! Vocal health principles are inextricably and symbiotically linked with singing and acting voice pedagogy: Good vocal health allows the singer and actor to more easily and effectively achieve their technical and artistic goals, and good teaching reinforces vocal technique that diminishes the risk of vocal injury. We now also recognize the necessity for singers and actors to understand how their instruments work, how to take care of their voices, and what to do when something goes wrong. Singing and acting teachers are indeed on the front lines of vocal health!