Southern accents have always played a huge role in American music. This is best exemplified by Johnny Cash's song "Southern Accent". In the song Cash, a highly influential musician, talks about his pride in his accent and the general perception of this accent. It may seem weird to sing about something as simple as the way one talks, but there is more to it than simple pronunciation. The way one speaks is very telling about who they are because accents are generally burned into someone from an early age, ingrained in their psyche, and make up who they are. From someone's accent you can generally tell where they were raised and how they were brought up. Now this is a very powerful thing, because it means from the moment you open your mouth people have already judged you based on your accent. They know, or at least the pretend to know, these very intimate "facts" about you just based on a sentence at most.
In the song Cash tackle's this perception of his accent. One particular line that stands out is the very beginning of the song is still very poignant even today.
The young'uns call it country The Yankees call it dumb I got my own way of talkin' But everything is done, with a southern accent Where I come from.
The perception in the Northern states that a Southern accent means someone is dumb still holds true today. Cash even calls the non-Southerners "Yankees" which implies a great divide between the South and North by labeling them as something other than Americans. Nonetheless Cash is still proud of his heritage and proudly proclaims that his accent shows pride in his Southern upbringing.
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