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I think the other strange thing people will do is say that if even one characteristic of a region a city or state is grouped is not met, then it can't be considered part of that region...one characteristic. The ironic thing in the South is that if even one characteristic is missing, then it needs to be excluded, which I have only one thing to say...why???? The other thing is that outsiders, especially if they see just one Southern characteristic present, that means the city or state has to be Southern..that is also something I just don't understand at all. 1 "harmless" characteristic, even 2, should not be enough to exclude any city from any region unless one of those characteristics happens to be dialect. I think the New South is accurately defined today with the exception of Maryland and Delaware, and so is the Midwest. I don't think that the people who created those definitions did so without giving a single thought to the matter.
I think 20 years from now people will be arguing about whether Tennessee and North Carolina are Southern. Why does an area have to remain exactly the same to be considered Southern? I have said it before.... if thousands of Americans move to Mexico it is still Mexican!
The same with Florida. Florida is still a completely Southern state regardless of how many Northerners and hispanics have moved there in the last 60 years. It was already a well-established Dixie state, it seceded and fought for the Confederacy. It makes me want to laugh when people try and exclude it.
I think 20 years from now people will be arguing about whether Tennessee and North Carolina are Southern. Why does an area have to remain exactly the same to be considered Southern? I have said it before.... if thousands of Americans move to Mexico it is still Mexican!
Greatly put. Add Texas to the list if people want to go by this logic as well. Because transplants from all over the world and country are flocking there in droves.
Vasinger, WMZQ is the only country station based out of DC now. There is I believe one in Frederick that plays more traditional country and Baltimore has its own station. I know New York City does not have a country station anymore. I don't know about Philadelphia. Though Taylor Swift (I know you WON'T like her music lol) is from PA there are few fans there compared to Maryland or Virginia.
All in all though, the South exists with a certain separateness from the rest of the country. Perhaps it might be summed up well by certain passages in Tim Jacobson's book "Heritage of the South." Jacobson wrote:
"More than any other part of America, the South stands apart...Thousands of Northerners and foreigners have migrated to it...but Southerners they will not become. For this is still a place where you must have either been born or have "people" there, to feel it is your native ground.
Natives will tell you this. They are proud to be Americans, but they are also proud to be Virginians, South Carolinians, Tennesseans, and Texans. But they are conscious of another loyalty too, one that transcends the usual ties of national patriotism and state pride. It is a loyalty to a place where habits are strong and memories are long. If those memories could speak, they would tell stories of a region powerfully shaped by its history and determined to pass it on to future generations.
Or, as Florence King says in her book "Southern Ladies and Gentlemen",
"Put a fence around the South and you'd have one big madhouse."
I think 20 years from now people will be arguing about whether Tennessee and North Carolina are Southern. Why does an area have to remain exactly the same to be considered Southern? I have said it before.... if thousands of Americans move to Mexico it is still Mexican!
Interesting point. However, you can't dispute the fact that transplants to the Southeastern part of the Sun Belt have extremely diluted the Southern culture, which I believe is the main point of contention in defining certain states as "Southern."
Vasinger, WMZQ is the only country station based out of DC now. There is I believe one in Frederick that plays more traditional country and Baltimore has its own station. I know New York City does not have a country station anymore. I don't know about Philadelphia. Though Taylor Swift (I know you WON'T like her music lol) is from PA there are few fans there compared to Maryland or Virginia.
So I guess gauging "Southernness" on the accessibility of country music stations isn't entirely accurate if you can find it in a city like Philly. Country music has definitely grown to a national fan base over the past half-century.
The South starts where people start listening to country music. Nobody I know from north of the Mason-Dixon Line even listens to crossovers like Kenny Chesney or Tim McGraw. Only 2 major stars in Nashville are from the North, and one of them moved south halfway through her life
The south doesn't JUST listen to country music. Liz
The South offers some of the richest music in the United States. The musical heritage of the South was developed by both whites and blacks, both influencing each other directly and indirectly.
The South's musical history actually starts before the Civil War, with the songs of the African slaves and the traditional folk music brought from the British Isles. Blues was developed in the rural South by Blacks at the beginning of the 20th century. In addition, gospel music, spirituals, country music, rhythm and blues, soul music, funk, rock and roll, beach music, bluegrass, jazz (including ragtime, popularized by Southerner Scott Joplin), and Appalachian folk music were either born in the South or developed in the region.
In general, country music is based on the folk music of white Southerners, and blues and rhythm and blues is based on black southern forms. However, whites and blacks alike have contributed to each of these genres, and there is a considerable overlap between the traditional music of blacks and whites in the South, particularly in gospel music forms. A stylish variant of country music (predominantly produced in Nashville) has been a consistent, widespread fixture of American pop since the 1950s, while insurgent forms (i.e. bluegrass) have traditionally appealed to more discerning subcultural and rural audiences. Blues dominated the Black music charts from the advent of modern recording until the mid-1950s, when it was supplanted by the less guttural and forlorn sounds of rock and R&B. Nevertheless, unadulterated blues (along with early rock and roll) is still the subject of reverential adoration throughout much of Europe and cult popularity in isolated pockets of the United States.
Zydeco, Cajun, and swamp pop, despite having never enjoyed greater regional or mainstream popularity, still thrive throughout French Louisiana and its perphieries, such as Southeastern Texas. These unique Louisianian styles of folk music are celebrated as part of the traditional heritage of the people of Louisiana. Conversely, bluegrass music has acquired a sophisticated cachet and distinct identity from mainstream country music through the fusion recordings of artists like Bela Fleck, David Grisman, and the New Grass Revival; traditional bluegrass and Appalachian mountain music experienced a strong resurgence after the release of 2001's O Brother, Where Art Thou?.
Rock n' roll largely began in the South in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Early rock n' roll musicians from the South include Buddy Holly, Little Richard, Fats Domino, Bo Diddley, Elvis Presley, Ray Charles, James Brown, Otis Redding, Carl Perkins, and Jerry Lee Lewis, among many others. Hank Williams and Johnny Cash, while generally regarded as "country" singers, also had a significant role in the development of rock music. In the 1960s, Stax Records emerged as a leading competitor of Motown Records, laying the groundwork for later stylistic innovations in the process.
The South has continued to produce rock music in later decades. In the 1970s, a wave of "Southern rock" and blues rock groups, led by The Allman Brothers Band, Lynyrd Skynyrd, ZZ Top, and 38 Special, became popular. Macon, Georgia-based Capricorn Records helped to spearhead the Southern rock movement, and was the original home to many of the genre's most famous groups. At the other end of the spectrum, along with the aforementioned Brown and Stax, New Orleans' Allen Toussaint and The Meters helped to define the funk subgenre of rhythm and blues in the 1970s.
Many who got their start in the regional show business in the South eventually banked on mainstream national and international success as well: Elvis Presley and Dolly Parton are two such examples of artists that have transcended genres.
Many of the roots of alternative rock are often considered to come from the South as well, with bands such as R.E.M., Pylon, and The B-52's forever associated with the musically fertile college town of Athens, Georgia. Cities such as Austin, Knoxville, Chapel Hill, and Atlanta also have thriving indie rock and live music scenes. Austin is home to the long-running South by Southwest music and arts festival, while several influential independent music labels (Sugar Hill, Merge, Yep Rock and the now-defunct Mammoth Records) were founded in the Chapel Hill area. Several influential death metal bands have recorded albums at Morrisound Recording in Temple Terrace, Florida and the studio is considered an important touchstone in the genre's development.
Recently, the spread of rap music (which is arguably the only major American music not started in the South) has led to the rise of the sub-genre Dirty South. Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, Memphis, Miami, and New Orleans have long been major centers of hip-hop culture.
Ok, I these these states are unquestionably in the South, in their entirety, according to both their own residents and people who live elsewhere:
Louisiana
Alabama
Mississippi
Virginia (Northern Virginia is seen as an aberration)
North Carolina
South Carolina
Georgia
Kentucky
Tennnessee
Arkansas
I wouldn't disagree with any of the above, but according to the one goes by the most extensive polling data (Southern Focus Poll), the here are the results:
Percent who say their community is in the South (percentage base in parentheses)
Alabama 98 (717) South Carolina 98 (553) Louisiana 97 (606) Mississippi 97 (431) Georgia 97 (1017) Tennessee 97 (838) North Carolina 93 (1292) Arkansas 92 (400) Florida 90 (1792) Texas 84 (2050) Virginia 82 (1014) Kentucky 79 (582) Oklahoma 69 (411)
West Virginia 45 (82) Maryland 40 (173) Missouri 23 (177) Delaware 14 (21) D.C. 7 (15)
Percent who say they are Southerners (percentage base in parentheses)
West Virginia 25 (84) Maryland 19 (192) Missouri 15 (197)
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