Nadine Hubbs, “Rednecks, Queers, and Country Music” (University of California Press, 2014)

Beyond the Margins: The University of California Press Podcast · Nov 5, 2014 · 1h 7m

Academics don’t pay enough attention to class. And when we do, too often we only magnify the tendency for working class subjects to be defined according to middle class norms; and according to those norms, they, not surprisingly, fail in one way or another, justifying their position beneath the middle class. There are many unfortunate consequences of this dynamic. Among them, we seldom see what’s really happening in, say, the performance of a country song.

Nadine Hubbs, Professor of Music Theory and Women’s Studies at the University of Michigan, is an exception to this rule. In Rednecks…