Scooter 
I was recently asked to perform a #CountryMusic set for a #MusicBingo appearance.
The first thing about #mingo is that you need a very large set list. Keep in mind that a bingo card has 24 numbers on it out of a pool of 75. You get about 15 or 20 songs in and somebody is going to hit. They come up, you check the card, you hand them the prize, and now you have to go on to the next set - which means you need another 75 to choose from. A regular DJ might do a 40-song set; I have to have 300 minimum.
And I'm not really a country fan. In my very early past there was a lot of it, as the family was from NC hill country, so I knew about the Opry and Conway Twitty and George Jones; much of that is before 1980, though.
Even at that, I had 100 country songs to choose from - meaning I had to download another 200. If I never hear another country song in my life, that will be okay.
It really is an interesting glimpse into the rural world in this country. For one, there's a lot of focus on specific items, objects, activities: trucks, beer or whiskey, guns, dogs, hunting and fishing, going to church. Brand names are dropped often. All of it is viewed as ubiquitous and essential. The consumption is never questioned. The whole treatment is rather superficial.
In the same way, more abstract topics are reduced to their symbols. Patriotism is rampant in country, but it rarely gets beyond the flag and the military - it doesn't mean anything else to them. "Freedom" is also invoked, but never defined beyond a sort of assertive personal individualism - it definitely isn't extended to anyone else: anyone from a city or another country is immediately to be excluded from "our country" or "this town". Christianity is limited to church and faith in an intercessor - again, personal and sometimes in a folk/mystic way.
Any conflicts or tensions are viewed simply and resolved simply; nothing else exists except a resigned recognition of "the way it is", giving the whole genre a kind of bleakness. Domestic violence and poverty are all through the music, but (as opposed to hip hop) there's never any thought given to causes - it just happens to them.
Given that this is the most outward cultural representation of rural U.S., this might be something to consider in the near future.
The first thing about #mingo is that you need a very large set list. Keep in mind that a bingo card has 24 numbers on it out of a pool of 75. You get about 15 or 20 songs in and somebody is going to hit. They come up, you check the card, you hand them the prize, and now you have to go on to the next set - which means you need another 75 to choose from. A regular DJ might do a 40-song set; I have to have 300 minimum.
And I'm not really a country fan. In my very early past there was a lot of it, as the family was from NC hill country, so I knew about the Opry and Conway Twitty and George Jones; much of that is before 1980, though.
Even at that, I had 100 country songs to choose from - meaning I had to download another 200. If I never hear another country song in my life, that will be okay.
It really is an interesting glimpse into the rural world in this country. For one, there's a lot of focus on specific items, objects, activities: trucks, beer or whiskey, guns, dogs, hunting and fishing, going to church. Brand names are dropped often. All of it is viewed as ubiquitous and essential. The consumption is never questioned. The whole treatment is rather superficial.
In the same way, more abstract topics are reduced to their symbols. Patriotism is rampant in country, but it rarely gets beyond the flag and the military - it doesn't mean anything else to them. "Freedom" is also invoked, but never defined beyond a sort of assertive personal individualism - it definitely isn't extended to anyone else: anyone from a city or another country is immediately to be excluded from "our country" or "this town". Christianity is limited to church and faith in an intercessor - again, personal and sometimes in a folk/mystic way.
Any conflicts or tensions are viewed simply and resolved simply; nothing else exists except a resigned recognition of "the way it is", giving the whole genre a kind of bleakness. Domestic violence and poverty are all through the music, but (as opposed to hip hop) there's never any thought given to causes - it just happens to them.
Given that this is the most outward cultural representation of rural U.S., this might be something to consider in the near future.
DoRaleigh
Des Moines Insider
Bruhaha
ThinDragonFly's Gruppe
