[Wolfstar]

I wouldn’t single out Carrie Underwood, because the girl can sing and has some decent songs. BUT I agree with Merle.

I agree with you, RK. Carrie has a lovely voice and she certainly does not deserve to be singled out like that. "Carrie Underwear, or Underwood" -- what's up with that?! Merle could have offered the same critique without the unnecessary nastiness.

I have never been much of a country music fan, but love the sound of what is now called "classic rock." Country music became the home to that style of rock when harder rock became popular, so I enjoy "country rock." I also enjoy some of the beautiful ballads that country music still produces.

Speaking as someone who hangs out a lot on music boards and absorbs hundreds of different opinions about music weekly, these days what drives urban, pop and country is a hard-to-define quality called "radio friendliness." It's a strong emphasis on catchy hooks and on often dry, pounding, rhythmic beats over melody. It's a formula that sells the most singles and albums these days. Emphasis on formula.

The most recent hot crossover country hit is Taylor Swift's 'Love Story', currently #3 on the Mediabase Top 40 radio airplay chart. It is not a true country song in any sense of what that used to mean -- and still means for a lot of people. Here's a link to the music video, for those who are interested. I don't like the song, and I think Haggard has a point with songs like this.

Taylor Swift is an example of a parallel issue with country music. So many of the younger women in country are clones. Taylor Swift, Carrie Underwood, Miranda Lambert -- they sometimes seem interchangeable. Listen to Lambert's country song 'Kerosene' and you get what I mean. She does have a mild country twang, but this isn't the kind of country music Haggard loves.

Carrie had a monster hit with 'Before He Cheats'. Here's the video. I do happen to like this song, but that's because it's pop-rock, not country.

People would have to be deaf and blind not to see and hear the formula in the three hits I linked. The formula problem is not exclusive to country.

[retrokitten]

Miranda and Carrie are similar, but Miranda, to me at least, has more of an edge to her songs that I prefer. I’d go shoe shopping with Carrie, but go out for a beer with Miranda (I’d steer clear of Gretchen Wilson, because even though I like her songs, she scares me).

Taylor Swift I just don’t get at all. She’s country’s Obama. Everyone fawns all over her and tells me she’s the second coming of Patsy Cline or Loretta Lynn, but I just don’t see it. I honestly do not see what is so great about her. Plus she always looks like she’s smelling something bad.

She reminds me of Mean Rhonda on Big Love.

[silent_jonny]

I agree with you, RK. Carrie has a lovely voice and she certainly does not deserve to be singled out like that. "Carrie Underwear, or Underwood" -- what's up with that?! Merle could have offered the same critique without the unnecessary nastiness.

Haggard is either confused about who Carrie Underwood is, or he's off his meds.

Carrie has got to be one of the most conservative singers--in any genre of music--working today. The most revealing thing I've ever seen her wear was a pair of shorts, and even those were pretty tame--certainly no reason to call her "Underwear".

Looking through all the Carrie photos I've saved (I have several, lol), in not one of them is she so much as showing a bare midriff, much less a belly ring.

None of her songs are sexual either. They mostly deal with realtionships or small town life. None of the crying-in-my-beer tunes that Haggard is known for.

Carrie has even been goaded by the press to say unflattering things about other singers, but (unlike Mr. Haggard) she refuses to go that route, preferring to keep whatever private feelings she might have private. Remember when she won at the Grammys in 2007:

In backstage press questioning, Underwood didn't wilt as she refused to be drawn into a Dixie Chicks controversy about who was giving the finger to whom. I couldn't make this up, but this is what she said when asked about the Chicks "giving the finger" to the country music establishment: "Next question, please. I don't like talking about anyone giving the finger."

Well, all right. That's refreshing in an age of increasing vulgarity. It also shows a lot more grace and class than Natalie Maines' clueless and rude invoking of the Simpson's "heh-heh" in her little country Grammy acceptance speech.

One more thing, a year after winning American Idol, with a multi-platinum album climbing the charts and a #1 song under her belt, Carrie went back to school and graduated magna cum laude from Northeastern State University with a bachelors degree in journalism.

The closest Merle Haggard got to a formal education was a prison reform school, which he was sent to twice--once for petty theft, and then again for assault and burglary.

Haggard's Wikipedia page