Ben R. Atkinson

Today, I’m excited that the website project I have been working on for the British Association for American Studies, has been delivered and a new website for the association has been launched. I have been working on this project, single-handedly, from design through to build and launch, for just over a year. Drawing on my knowledge of web design, development and digital media, and my time running my own creative digital agency for several years, has really helped with what has quickly developed into a huge project.

In March 2021, I was delighted to take up the opportunity of working with the British Association for American Studies after successfully applying for the part-time post of Digital Networks Manager. The role, new to the association, was introduced to manage the growing digital infrastructure within BAAS. This includes the association website, membership system, email, and Weekly Digest mailing list. The role also has some responsibility for social media, working with others on the executive committee to ensure that our social media channels are updated regularly and that we engage with the wider American Studies Community.

Ten years ago this week, I made a momentous journey. Little did I know at the time, but that trip would, in many ways, impact the journey my career would take over the coming decade and it would certainly shape and mould my personality into the person I am today.

It hardly feels like a whole decade again, but on the morning of Friday 14th August 2011, I arrived bleary-eyed at Heathrow airport with my family in tow. We’d been to a family wedding the day before in Norfolk and opted to drive overnight to the airport to avoid the inevitable London gridlock. It’s fair to say my parents tended to avoid the capital, especially my Dad who considered London to be his personal hell as far removed as it was from the great outdoors, nature and the countryside that he loved. His biggest peeve on that journey, as I recall, was the fact that even after we reached London we would have to drive almost the same distance again around the outside in order to reach Heathrow.

In any case, we made it to the airport without issue. This was an exciting day, my first time stepping foot on a plane, my first international flight. I don’t do things by half, as you might be able to tell. My first trip abroad was to be to the USA, six months away from my family studying a full semester at Minnesota State University, Moorhead.

This paper on the impact of COVID-19 in American country music, was presented at the Grieg Research School in Interdisciplinary Music Studies Summer School 2021, ‘Music in Crisis: Crisis in Music’, at the University of Bergen, Norway. You can view a video of the presentation at the end of this article.

This paper will examine the way in which the COVID-19 pandemic upended the US country music awards season in 2020 and the extent to which the crisis provided an opportunity for the country music industry to respond to the global social movements of #MeToo and #BlackLivesMatter. In particular, I will seek to establish the extent to which the decisions made by producers of two flagship country music awards shows, can be seen as an obvious alignment with popular social movements, well-known the public consciousness and further highlighted by the impact of the pandemic, or more reflective of a trend in which the country music industry is moving away from its divisive past in relation to issues of race and gender. 

In this past, I’ve always been notoriously bad at writing blog posts. Like diaries, calendars and address books there has always been something impossible for me about remaining organised enough to get my thoughts out in a regular fashion on the page. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve blogged a lot the past. But it always feels so much like a resolution, something I ought to do to better represent myself or share my work, and, inevitably, after a number of weeks the posts dry up and the blog falls by the wayside.

Right, now that’s all out in the open, I can tell you what I’m hoping to do from this point onward. The last twelve months of isolation have impacted all of us in different ways; we’ve all faced challenges during the pandemic and we’ve all had to adjust. In my case, I’ve been through a number of life changes since late 2019, and, coupled with the looming dread of saying goodbye to my 20s later this year, it’s also provided plenty of time to consider what the future might hold.

By now you will have heard the very sad news that we lost John Prine, one of the greatest songwriters in American history, to the horrible COVID-19 virus. John was often compared to Mark Twain in terms of his lyrical talent and his songwriting was some of the best I’ve ever heard, equally as impressive as Dylan, James Taylor, Springsteen, or any other you’d care to name.

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