Pop Convergence 2021

“South Gotta Change”: Southern Music in a Moment of Transformation (Room A: Sky Church)

The music of the South has long been a potent and contested symbol within popular music. Genres associated with the region – country, blues, “Americana,” bluegrass, Latinx music, Indigenous traditions, et cetera – have formed a sonic bedrock of U.S. pop styles while also standing in for larger conversations about race, region, history and “tradition” on a changing cultural and political landscape. In recent years, as the era of #BlackLivesMatter and “Make America Great Again” has reinvigorated conversations about the music and its meanings, the South’s artists and audiences have leapt into the center of these complex conversations. Artists from Rhiannon Giddens to Sa-Roc to Che Apalache to Adia Victoria and beyond have challenged genre boundaries, canonical narratives and contemporary representations in powerful interventions. Audiences have responded to these calls by reclaiming lost histories and proclaiming the music’s renewed relevance in contemporary conversations. And all have continued to push against the commercial exclusions, narrative distortions and socio-political backlashes that accompany their work.

This roundtable considers Southern music in this moment of disruption. The participants – a diverse group of scholars, writers and artists – will consider how artists, audience members and the recording industry have reacted to this moment, as well as challenges and opportunities characterize the future. They will also contend with the very notion of “Southern music” as a category, exploring both its potential and ambivalence in regards to race, gender, genre and other key issues. And they will discuss the music’s roles in assuring that, as Victoria suggests in her powerful 2020 release, “the South gotta change.”