Radiolab - Songs that Cross Borders

Coming off our adventures with Square Dancing, and Jad's dive into the world of Dolly Parton, we look back at one our favorites. About a decade ago, we found out that American country music is surprising popular in places like Zimbabwe, Thailand, and South Africa. Aaron Fox, an anthropologist of music at Columbia University, tells us that quite simply, country music tells a story that a lot of us get. Then, intrepid international reporter Gregory Warner takes us along on one of his very first forays into another country, where he discovers an unexpected taste of home. Support Radiolab today at Radiolab.org/donate. Aaron Foxes book: Real Country: Music And Language In Working-Class Culture Gregory Warner's podcast Rough Translation

Duration: 28m
Broadcast on: 29 Oct 2019
Audio Format: other

Support Radiolab today at Radiolab.org/donate.

Aaron Foxes book: Real Country: Music And Language In Working-Class Culture

Gregory Warner's podcast Rough Translation

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- Wait, you're listening to Radio Lab, from WNYC. - Hey, I'm Chad Abumrod. - I'm Robert Krovich. - Radio Lab. - And we have been spending a lot of time dancing and singing lately. - We just put out a thing about square dancing. You have the dolly thing going on in another whole other operational over there. - Yes, sir. And both of those things have kind of a question at the heart of them, which is, is it mine, is it yours? - Could be everybody's, you know, and there's some music that does sort of break through. - Exactly, and the crazy thing is like 11 years ago, we did a show called Pop Music, which I think it was initially like about like why are certain things catchy? Like why do certain ear worms get stuck in your head? - Right, but I think it also ended up being more interestingly about why do certain songs seem to sort of just slip across borders? - From weird places, from Tennessee to Zimbabwe, say, or then to Afghanistan. So you get a song and it moves strangely around the world. It's popular for some and not for others. And when we were stumbling about this question way back then, it was a thought that we heard first from, well, from this guy. - Aaron A. Fox. - He is a professor of musicology at Columbia University in New York. - And the damn good country in Western league guitar player. Country, not that rock and roll. (beeping) One, two, three, down and down and down and down. (imitating guitar) I hear that train come in, it's rolling around a bit. - Country music is a genre we normally associate with. Kentucky and Asheville. - West Virginia. - Particular part of America, Cowboys pickups. - Yeah, but it has spread, he says, to the most unusual places. - So some examples of that and there are quite a few. - Include the extreme popularity of American country in Western music over the last 50 or 60 years with Aboriginal Australians. - You mean Hank Williams would be recognizable to somebody somewhere in Western Australia? - Absolutely, really? - Dolly Parton being another one.

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