Dueling Perceptions: The Five-String Banjo in Contemporary American Popular Culture

Abstract

The recent glut of “hillbilly” television has introduced and/or reintroduced millions of American pop culture consumers to the music of the five-string banjo. In some ways this phenomenon is similar to what happened during the 1960s and early 1970s when programs like The Beverly Hillbillies, Hee Haw, and others were popular with American television-viewing audiences. What is different, however, is that contemporary Americans are reacting to the people on their screens and to the accompanying music in radically different ways. This article—part recent history of the five-string banjo in America and part close reading of the instrument and relevant popular culture reference points—examines the American general public’s dueling perceptions of the instrument as a device of both authenticity and ridicule in contemporary American popular culture.