Which Side Are You On? An Intersectional Approach to Music in Three Films by Barbara Kopple

This chapter examines the ways in which gender, class, and race are constructed through music in several of Kopple’s films. In Harlan County USA (1976), music emanates from the setting, but also plays a role in creating the identity of the film’s primary subjects, the striking miners’ wives. In Miss Sharon Jones! (2015), Jones’ battle with cancer is at the core of the narrative, but her neo-soul music is also a primary subject of the film. In both films, the chapter argues that music drives the story and provides a rich setting for lived experience. Building on existing scholarship on race, class, and gender in Appalachian folk music and the soul revival, this chapter also explores how music resonates with popular discourses on race, class, and gender.