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The Great Depression And The People Of The 1970 ' S

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In today’s day and age when people think of country music they imagine the classics, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, George Strait and many more. When people think of a redneck, they imagine a diehard country boy, who loves his country with a confederate flag in one hand and a beer in the other. But that is our generations take on these two words. The real question here is what did those two words mean to the people who came up with them and defined them. It couldn’t have been easy. It was no surprise that people were still recovering from the Great Depression and the more recent recession. Families were left destitute, men were working factory jobs for less than minimum wage, if that, and people had just about given up hope. In the time of turmoil and pain, these people of the 1970’s found a way to give themselves something to believe in. The songs that the artists wrote, sang and performed gave these individuals something to believe in and something to look forward to. One day they knew they could have that dream. Sure, not all of the country music at the time was upbeat and about the future. It dwelled on the past like the Great Depression and when Americans lost everything, but it made the people of the 1970’s want to work that much harder to make something of themselves. People were determined to take a stand and make a change. The development of “redneck” and “country” culture came from the idea of a better life for the people of America in the 1970’s. This occurred with

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