“The baby boomers are having children (creating the so-called ‘baby boomlet’), returning to church in great numbers, and (not coincidentally) finding in country music (especially ‘suburban country’) a musical expression for their increasingly conservative tastes.”

People magazine, that indispensable source for vital information on Americana, has once again sniffed out the Zeitgeist. In a recent page about celebrity doings, the magazine sums up much about where American culture is heading: Donna Summer, the ’70s disco diva who recently signed a long-term contract with Mercury Records, is selling her L.A. ranch and looking for a farm in Nashville. “A lot of people I know are relocating to Nashville—Music Row is one street where there’s a real sense of community in the business, not a vicious competition. . . . “I’m not just jumping on the country bandwagon,” she says. “I’m getting older now, and I want to be heard, not just danced to.”1