How Mickey Guyton Is Changing The Country Music Industry
When you hear the phrase “country musician,” who do you envision?
Do you hear a Southern drawl? Do you see boots or a big hat? Where do you think they’re from?
Is he a burly guy with traditional values and a beer in hand? Is she a scantily clad songstress with a shiny guitar?
Perhaps most importantly, what color is their skin?
You’ll be in good company if up until that question, you’d envisioned someone white. The world of country music is one of the most historically white-washed genres, despite the consistent, undeniable contributions of Black musicians whose music can easily be called “country” but historically been described as “folk.” Let me speak some truth here: the line between these two genres is an invention of white supremacy in the United States by music industry. What started as a decision by marketers to label music by white and Black folks differently evolved to create the foundation of the exclusion of Black musicians from the country music industry. This isn’t to say that there aren’t musical differences linked to cultural differences —who can deny the rich history of spirituals and hip hop?! (I’ll save my thoughts on appreciation vs. appropriation, covers and musical influence another day. We do not have space or time for that right now). The point here is that the history of marketing, production, and distribution of music is hugely influenced by the historical (and persistent-in-present-day) racism in America. The entire Morgan Wallen horror is just one little glimpse into this.
The sonic color line, as Jennifer Lynn Stover calls it, is hearable wherever you use your ears: in code -switching, in the denigration of AAVE (which is very much a valid form of language), in radio broadcasting, in how we describe someone’s voice, volume, and diction. There have always been artists who break through the sonic color line and expose the line’s very existence to us. Artists who break the barrier today, just as in history, are subject to all kinds of heightened critique of their music as well as racialized hatred directed toward their person by listeners who believe they are an unwelcome intruder into a genre or style. The occasional Darius Ruckers and Lil Nas Xs of the country music scene serve as the exceptions that prove the rule. Now if, from an intersectional perspective, we add gender into the picture, you can start to imagine the kind of ground-breaking, sonic-color-line-crossing incredible song work that Mickey Guyton is doing.
Mickey Guyton is a heavy hitter as a writer and a singer. Her song “Black Like Me” is a much-needed anthem for the current times. While the music industry is still struggling to give parity to female musicians, Guyton is facing racism from said women-empowerers. Nevertheless, she persists.
She rises! She’s Grammy freakin’ nominated! Mickey Guyton is the first Black female solo artist to ever be nominated in a country category. And on top of that, she used her Grammy nomination as a platform to boost the visibility of other Black women in country music. I mean. C’mon. One more thing: she’s 37and kicking ass. I cannot begin to tell you how many female musicians I know who have had their dreams squashed by men (and women) who were told they were too old to make it. How can you not support her?!
I’ve found her music to be an incredible balance of production and authenticity, rawness and refinement, humor and honesty, judgment and joy. She sings stories of the hardship of being Black in a white supremecist country, trying to figure out how to raise a child (Guyton welcomed her first this year!). She sings stories about womanhood and looking for love.
Mickey continues to uplift other Black women who sing in and about the South, the good and the bad and the in-between, including dope blues queen Adia Victoria, who is our featured artist for the second installment of Song and Social Change at Vanderbilt! Take a few minutes to listen to my favorite tracks from her EP, “Black Like Me” and “Rosé.”
xo
em
