ABSTRACT
Since early in the twentieth century the music labelled as ‘country’ has enjoyed a number of periods of popularity and apparent decline. This has prompted cyclical theories which seek to explain the genre’s dynamic of change and aesthetic renewal as well as the business practices which contribute to this. These cyclical theories are spoken of by executives working on Music Row in Nashville and are written about by researchers who have studied the production of country music. A key reference point here is the work of sociologist Richard Peterson (1976, 1997), who for more than twenty years has systematically applied his ‘production of culture’ perspective to the institutionalization of country music, explaining how the various booms and busts have been accompanied by stylistic changes that, since the earliest days, have involved the quite deliberate ‘fabrication of authenticity’.
