Labour & Pop Culture: Hard Hat and a Hammer

This week’s intallment of Labour & Pop Culture is “Hard Hat and a Hammer” by Alan Jackson. This is a typical valourization of the (blue collar) worker that we see a fair bit of in country music. This song has two notable parts.

First, while the lyrics approve of hard work (presumably in support of a family), the lyrics recognize the interchangeability of workers in advanced capitalism. That is to say, at some level, there is an awareness workers get used and discarded.

He gives his life then fades away
Another young man takes his place

While I expect most workers would at some level recognize this dynamic, it was striking to hear it normalized in a song.

Second, this song constructs (blue-collar) work as the preserve of men (and mostly white men). Sure, at the end of the song Jackson sings “Oh, the working man and… woman” but this is clearly an after-thought: the lyrics and the images in the video are highly gendered and clearly message that workers are men.

Further, workers are mostly white men. There were about 40 or 45 different workers pictured in the video. All but one (at the end) were men and only about 5 or 6 were non-white. The effect of the song and the lyrics is to define blue collar workers as mostly white guys.

I’m reading a very interesting ethnography written by a woman who spent three years in the construction industry (I will blog about it in the future) and a central theme in her experience was the construction of work as the preserve of white males. And the social norms on construction sites are often designed to maintain this position of privilege.



Lace-up boots and faded jeans
A homemade sandwich, a half jug of tea
Average Joe, average pay
Same ol' end and same ol' day

[CHORUS]
But there's nothing wrong with a hard hat and a hammer
Kind of glue that sticks this world together
Hands of steel and cradle of the Promised Land
God bless the working man

All week long making a living
Life keeps takin', he keeps giving
Behind the scene, below the grade
Hardly noticed but part of everything

[CHORUS]

He gives his life then fades away
Another young man takes his place
Average Joe, average pay
Same ol end, same old' day

But there's nothing wrong with a hard hat and a hammer
Kind of glue that sticks this world together
Hands of steel and cradle of the Promised Land

No, there's nothing wrong with a hard hat and a hammer
Kind of glue that sticks this world together
Hands of steel and cradle of the Promised Land
God bless the working man

The working man

Oh, the working man and woman

-- Bob Barnetson