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Introduction | Rural Radio | The Barn Dance Genre | The Barn Dance in East Tennessee | LaFollette | WLAF | Tennessee Jamboree | Original Broadcast, Part 1: Music | Original Broadcast, Part 2: Advertising and Banter |
"Our time has come and gone" | Notes | Recommended Resources

In its form and in its spirit, the Tennessee Jamboree was a descendant and a refashioning of the national radio "barn dance." Country music, by way of early "hillbilly" music, achieved its national and international status not through recordings or song publishing, but through its dissemination on the many barn dance programs that came to dot the U.S. soundscape.16 From the birth of radio in the 1920s, to its height in the so-called "Golden Age" of the 1930s and 1940s, on through the post-war period, the onset of television, the birth of rock and roll, and the monumental cultural shifts in the second half of the twentieth century, the country music barn dance variety show, in its changing forms, has had a venerated place on the airwaves.

Although the first local barn dance program emanated from WBAP in Fort Worth, Texas, in 1923, it was the aptly-named National Barn Dance, launched one year later on Chicago's powerful WLS and broadcast across the Midwest — and later the nation — that secured the genre's popularity and stimulated the spread of similar programs. Crafted as a mass-mediated, imaginary representation of "old-fashioned 'country' sociables," the pioneering weekly production established the genre's standard with its showcase of fiddlers, square dancers, and balladeers, alongside a roster of regional, rural, and ethnic stock characters, all interacting in slapstick comedy routines and scripted bits.17 Both the emerging corporate city stations, as well as smaller independent "farmer" stations originating in the hinterlands, sought to attract listeners from the countryside and urban areas. The romantic fantasy of the barn dance format proved up to the task.

Whether in small agricultural centers like Yankton, South Dakota, and Shenandoah, Iowa, or in regional hubs like Atlanta, Des Moines, or Wheeling, West Virginia, the barn dance format thrived. Perhaps more so than any other type of early radio programming, the popularity of the barn dance represented and informed a range of contemporaneous social issues. Throughout the early decades of the twentieth century, people increasingly migrated from rural to urban areas, often from south to north. With these major demographic shifts and reconfigurations, the national sentiments towards the binaries of rural/urban and old-fashioned/modern became increasingly conflicted. "[T]he nation's general ambivalence about rural life in the 20s, as well as mass migrations out of the country," writes Susan Smulyan, "may provide partial explanations for the popularity of the barn dance programs. Country music fused the conflicting responses to industrialization with the contradictory, somewhat romanticized feelings many urbanites had about rural life in the 1920s."18 The genre, while favored by many devoted listeners in rural areas, often proved equally appealing to the diverse, rapidly changing, and frequently fresh-off-the-farm urban populations.

For the early station owners in urban centers, the outstanding and unexpected response to country music offerings suggested that the power of their signal extended far beyond city limits. As cards and letters poured in from distant locales, broadcasters began to appreciate the extension of their influence.19 Regionally- and soon, nationally-oriented barn dance broadcasts secured an even greater cultural significance as economic conditions worsened. Kristine M. McCusker suggests that, with the onset of the Depression, these programs held a powerful appeal for rural and working class people:

The barn dance radio genre . . . emerged just as many Americans sought relief from the rapid, confusing, and often frightening changes of the modern era. What began as regional entertainment . . . in the 1920s became a national phenomenon in the 1930s that capitalized on . . . [the] search for a meaningful, substantial life in a chaotic world.20

By the end of the thirties, barn dance programs appeared on stations across the country. According to one estimate, five thousand radio programs nationwide featured some form of county music during this period.21

Somewhat paradoxically, as barn dance programs sprung up on new stations and moved across regional boundaries, they increasingly came to resemble one another. Certainly there were regional variations, but in most cases the shows retained a common formula. Richard Peterson provides a brief and simplified description of this standardization:

[The] format…dictated that there be variety from song to song in type, instrumentation, and personnel. In this context it was easy to insert informal banter among performers, humorous skits . . . and an increasing number of commercial advertisements. . . . The formula was based on Vaudeville—a quick succession of individuals and groups performing different sorts of music interspersed with comedy and informal banter between performers and the master of ceremonies . . .22

Much of this similarity among programs stemmed from the frequent exchange of managerial staff and musical talent between stations.23 The most historically significant example of this early radio industry fluidity is the case of George D. Hay, the popular announcer on the National Barn Dance who, in 1925, was lured to Nashville's WSM. There he began the Saturday night WSM Barn Dance, an instantly successful program that, in 1927, was famously dubbed the Grand Ole Opry. While modeled on the Chicago program, Hay's Opry soon staked out its own identity and developed into the most successful, influential, and long-running of all barn dance programs.

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Introduction | Rural Radio | The Barn Dance Genre | The Barn Dance in East Tennessee | LaFollette | WLAF | Tennessee Jamboree | Original Broadcast, Part 1: Music | Original Broadcast, Part 2: Advertising and Banter |
"Our time has come and gone" | Notes | Recommended Resources

Published: 20 November 2008

© 2008 Bradley Hanson and Southern Spaces