{"id":441,"date":"2020-01-19T21:47:09","date_gmt":"2020-01-19T21:47:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chrislezotte.net\/wordpress\/?p=441"},"modified":"2020-03-29T00:00:42","modified_gmt":"2020-03-29T00:00:42","slug":"old-car-songs-and-the-new-woman-driver","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chrislezotte.net\/wordpress\/carculture\/old-car-songs-and-the-new-woman-driver\/","title":{"rendered":"Old Car Songs and the New Woman Driver"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"287\" height=\"416\" src=\"http:\/\/chrislezotte.net\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/carsongs-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-450\" srcset=\"https:\/\/chrislezotte.net\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/carsongs-1.jpg 287w, https:\/\/chrislezotte.net\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/carsongs-1-207x300.jpg 207w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 287px) 100vw, 287px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>A topic that often finds its way into car journals, blogs, and online automotive publications is the &#8220;car song.&#8221; Auto journalists and enthusiasts of a certain age frequently call upon the classic car song as a way to reminisce about the past. As popular music is often referred to as the song track of one\u2019s life, car tunes \u2013 whether in reference to music emanating from the car or about the car itself &#8211;&nbsp;&nbsp;bring back particular memories of an automobile and the life experiences surrounding it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I recently came across such an article by car blogger Jim Van Orden on the popular automotive website <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hemmings.com\/blog\/2019\/12\/15\/car-tunes-of-my-youth\/\">hemmings.com<\/a>. In \u201cCar Tunes of My Youth,\u201d Van Orden intertwines stories of the songs that accompanied family road trips, car advertising tunes on the radio and television, popular car songs of the day, and the memories each of these car tunes evoked. The article is followed by a substantive comment section in which others passionately and often humorously contribute their own car tune memories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What is notable about the proliferation of online articles devoted to the car song is that they are all written by \u2013 and addressed to \u2013 drivers of the male persuasion. Although young women during the 50s and 60s may not have owned their own vehicles, they certainly spent a good amount of time in automobiles with car songs and advertisements playing on the radio. So why are women less inclined to call upon the car song as a link to the past? Is it because they were not all that interested in cars? Or was it because, as written from a male perspective, the songs did not reflect women\u2019s unique automotive experiences?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I addressed the second part of this question a few years ago in a journal article focusing on the woman\u2019s car song. In \u201cBorn to Take the Highway: Women, the Automobile, and Rock \u2018n Roll,\u201d I argue that once women became more accepted as singer\/songwriters in the music industry, they began writing a very different kind of car song. While the car songs of the 50s and 60s were almost exclusively focused on the automobile as an important contributor to the male teenager\u2019s rite of passage \u2013 promoting good times, adventure, liberation from restrictive home environments, and sex \u2013 the women\u2019s car song of the 70s and beyond called upon the automobile as a vehicle of freedom, escape, recollection, rebellion, and empowerment. While the singular male focus of the classic car song may be responsible for women\u2019s indifference to it, the rise of the women\u2019s car song suggests not only that the automobile serves as musical inspiration for women as well as men, but that cars have an importance to women\u2019s lives that is different from, but no less legitimate than, that of the male driver.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Which leads back to the first question regarding whether women, in fact, have an interest in cars. As I have discovered in my own research, a good many women \u2013 more than is commonly believed \u2013 have an interest, if not a passion, for the automobile. The ability to write and sing about it provides an opportunity for women\u2019s car songs \u2013 and women\u2019s voices \u2013 to be heard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Lezotte, Chris. \u201cBorn to Take the Highway: Women, the Automobile, and Rock \u2018n\u2019 Roll.\u201d&nbsp;<em>The Journal of American Culture&nbsp;<\/em>36.3 (2013): 161-176.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-background has-pale-cyan-blue-background-color\"><strong>Do you have a favorite car song?<\/strong> What is it and what do you like about it? Feel free to comment below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A topic that often finds its way into car journals, blogs, and online automotive publications is the &#8220;car song.&#8221; Auto journalists and enthusiasts of a certain age frequently call upon the classic car song as a way to reminisce about the past. As popular music is often referred to as the song track of one\u2019s&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[40,17,12,13],"class_list":["post-441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-carculture","tag-automotive-journalism","tag-car-advertising","tag-car-songs","tag-woman-driver"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Old Car Songs and the New Woman Driver - Women &amp; Cars<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/chrislezotte.net\/wordpress\/carculture\/old-car-songs-and-the-new-woman-driver\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Old Car Songs and the New Woman Driver - Women &amp; Cars\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A topic that often finds its way into car journals, blogs, and online automotive publications is the &#8220;car song.&#8221; Auto journalists and enthusiasts of a certain age frequently call upon the classic car song as a way to reminisce about the past. 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