title: Jesus, Mama, and the constraints on salvific love in contemporary country music .
abstract: The discourse of contemporary country music creates a world permeated with religion and centered on the notion of salvific love. This form of salvation arises in the connection between people (or between people and God) and includes elements of sacrifice and transformation. Although highly conventional, country music must meet standards of 'authenticity' and 'relevance', which require the incorporation of contemporary American religious values (including self-love and self-actualization). An analysis of recent country music lyrics reveals the remarkable openness to new religious messages. However, the only acceptable messages are those that can be harmonized with the implicit Protestant Christian sensibility of the music. Salvific love, for this reason, is always heterosexual and at least compatible with a Christian message. While the music industry does its best to erase minority sexualities, the music itself is often surprisingly open to a queer interpretation.
authors.affiliation: Meyerhoff Center for Jewish Studies, University of Maryland, College Park.
authors.forename: M L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Grossman
mesh_terms: D003466:Cultural Characteristics; D019260:Expressed Emotion; D020010:Heterosexuality / Q000208:ethnology / Q000266:history / Q000502:physiology / Q000523:psychology; D049673:History, 20th Century; D049674:History, 21st Century; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D007802:Language; D009146:Music / Q000266:history / Q000523:psychology; D026684:Personal Autonomy; D011573:Psychoanalytic Interpretation; D012067:Religion / Q000266:history; D012725:Sexual Behavior / Q000208:ethnology / Q000266:history / Q000502:physiology / Q000523:psychology; D012919:Social Behavior; D013561:Symbolism