Dolly Parton moved through many genres, from disco and pop to bluegrass and metal, but she always returned to country. Her early attempt to market her high voice as pop was resisted, because country radio thought it incompatible with the genre. She still had 25 Billboard country number ones and ten Academy of Country Music Awards. She reshaped country by writing more complex songs about women, including Just Because I'm a Woman, while songs such as The Bridge and Down from Dover were banned by radio. In 9 to 5 she turned the work song tradition toward the office, and the song spent two weeks at number one in 1981.

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.