Grand Ole Opry Rebranded Itself to Hillbilly Chic
The Grand Ole Opry was a respected radio program that featured country music from prominent musicians. Its roots trace back to 1925, when WSM, Nashville’s new radio station debut. In November of that year, WSM broadcast the Barn Dance, which would evolve into the Grand Ole Opry. Musicians of the Grand Ole Opry, respected acts with a sophisticated stage presence were reintroduced to fit the hillbilly stereotype. Dr. Bate and his Augmented Orchestra and the Binkley Brothers were renamed The Possum Hunters and the Dixie Clodhoppers, taken out of their fine dress clothes, and put in tattered overalls. Skilled musicians were deliberately playing the hillbilly stereotype to sell tickets for the Grand Ole Opry. But as the hillbilly stereotype became more widespread, musicians abandoned the “hillbilly” label for the more heroic “cowboy” and “country” identity.