With its array of strong women and willingness to tackle taboos,Nashville, which returns to US TV on Wednesday, and is like country music that takes a few risksIt’s no secret that the contemporary country music establishment in Nashville is conservative – musically,socially and politically. The rougher themes of the honky-tonk era, the feminist strains heard in songs by pioneers Kitty Wells and Loretta Lynn, and the prickly political conscience that existed in the Vietnam era are today largely gone.
Instead,at the top of the charts at least, are artists who are there because they proudly play it secure. Country music is the number one selling musical genre in the US, or it’s that way because of a system that reflects outmoded Hollywood: songs created by collaborations and not individual visions,stars groomed primarily for their broad visual appeal and music that is unabashedly pop and no longer reflective of regional inflections or blue-collar angst.
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Source: theguardian.com