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From Dixie to Rocky Top: Music and Meaning in Southeastern Conference Football
The first book to explore the history of college fight songs as a culturally important phenomenon, From Dixie to Rocky Top zeroes in on the US South, where college football has forged a powerful, quasi-religious sense of meaning and identity throughout the region.
Tracing the story of Southeastern Conference (SEC) fight songs from the late nineteenth to the early twenty-first century, author Carrie Tipton places this popular repertory within the broader commercial music industry and uses fight songs to explore themes of authorship and copyright; the commodification of school spirit; and the construction of race, gender, and regional identity in Southern football culture.
This book unearths the history embedded in SEC football’s music traditions, drawing from the archives of the seventeen universities currently or formerly in the conference. Alongside rich primary sources, Tipton incorporates approaches and literature from sports history, Southern and American history, Southern and American studies, and musicology.
Chronicling iconic Southern fight songs’ origins, dissemination, meanings, and cultural reception over a turbulent century, From Dixie to Rocky Top weaves a compelling narrative around a virtually unstudied body of popular music.
Tracing the story of Southeastern Conference (SEC) fight songs from the late nineteenth to the early twenty-first century, author Carrie Tipton places this popular repertory within the broader commercial music industry and uses fight songs to explore themes of authorship and copyright; the commodification of school spirit; and the construction of race, gender, and regional identity in Southern football culture.
This book unearths the history embedded in SEC football’s music traditions, drawing from the archives of the seventeen universities currently or formerly in the conference. Alongside rich primary sources, Tipton incorporates approaches and literature from sports history, Southern and American history, Southern and American studies, and musicology.
Chronicling iconic Southern fight songs’ origins, dissemination, meanings, and cultural reception over a turbulent century, From Dixie to Rocky Top weaves a compelling narrative around a virtually unstudied body of popular music.
- GenresNonfictionHistorySports
320 pages, Paperback
Published October 15, 2023
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35 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
March 28, 2024
"These simple little songs have much to tell us if we know how to hear them."
As I have said many times before, the thing I love about studying history is learning the deeper meaning of things that we take for granted as a part of our society. Also given my affinity for college football and its marching bands, there probably may not be a better book targeted to me. In this book, Carrie Tipton does a phenomenal job chronicling the origins of the various fight songs of SEC football programs as well as highlighting the larger US history trends that we can take from those songs.
As a sports and history nerd, this book was right up my alley and I really enjoyed reading each chapter of the book and learning about different SEC programs' music. The only drawback I have for the book is that its written in a fairly academic style at points which may make it more difficult if a reader does not have experience in reading historical writing. However, there is a lot of meat on this bone and I would certainly recommend it to anyone remotely interested in the pageantry of college football Saturdays.
As I have said many times before, the thing I love about studying history is learning the deeper meaning of things that we take for granted as a part of our society. Also given my affinity for college football and its marching bands, there probably may not be a better book targeted to me. In this book, Carrie Tipton does a phenomenal job chronicling the origins of the various fight songs of SEC football programs as well as highlighting the larger US history trends that we can take from those songs.
As a sports and history nerd, this book was right up my alley and I really enjoyed reading each chapter of the book and learning about different SEC programs' music. The only drawback I have for the book is that its written in a fairly academic style at points which may make it more difficult if a reader does not have experience in reading historical writing. However, there is a lot of meat on this bone and I would certainly recommend it to anyone remotely interested in the pageantry of college football Saturdays.
July 16, 2025
Breezy and honestly a lovely read. As an SEC grad (Spurs Up! Go Gamecocks!), I had never really thought about the historical, much less the economic issues surrounding the musical culture of our beloved Saturday tradition. Now I can say I have!
December 23, 2023
Really interesting read!
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews