Country music is perhaps the dominant genre of the 19th, 20th and 21st century, drawing audiences from rock, contemporary and even 'easy listening'. But from behind the facade of big hair and bad frocks emerges this probing look at the birth of a separate women's tradition, in which women become the agents of their own destiny. Wical suggests that the rise of feminism and the shift of culture from rural to city contributed to this emergence. As the sensibilities of their core audiences have changed, country singers no longer have to Stand Still and Look Pretty.