A Pop Stand Playlist: Class Conflict
Songs about upward mobility, or the lack thereof
Welcome to the poor — or po’, as it’s often sung — side of town.
It’s a theme that runs like a crippled creek through American popular music, especially in the rock ’n roll era but arguably all the way back to Stephen Foster, who implored hard times to loiter no more by his cabin door.
Country songwriters in particular have expressed their distrust of the wealthy. They’ve expressed poverty snobbery even as they consider getting even by making it big themselves.
Here’s a Pop Stand playlist filled with songs about our love-hate relationship with wealth and social standing. Please add to my list if you can.
AND PLEASE clap for this post if you like it and add a comment. Medium pays us writers by the amount of applause we get from readers, and I am just as eager to improve me fiscal well-being as Billy Joe Royal was.
Poor Side of Town — Johnny Rivers
That rich guy you’ve been seein’/Must have put you down
Down in the Boondocks — Billy Joe Royal
People put me down ’cause that’s the side of town I was born in
