Posted on 05/20/2014 8:58:16 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
I’ve complained about the state of modern mainstream country music for a long time now. And clearly, I’m not alone. Singer-songwriter Collin Raye, one of the top country artists throughout the ’90s, recently took to Fox News to air his grievances at the state of country music today.
As a platinum-selling country music artist and, more importantly, a lifelong fan of the genre, I’d like to send out this heartfelt plea to the gatekeepers of the industry:
Enough already.
I’d like to think that I am expressing what nearly every artist, musician and songwriter (with perhaps a few exceptions) is thinking when I contend that the Bro’ Country phenomenon must cease.
It has had its run for better or worse and it’s time for Nashville to get back to producing, and more importantly promoting, good singers singing real songs. It’s time for country music to find its identity again before it is lost forever.
[...]
Disposable, forgettable music has been the order of the day for quite a while now and it’s time for that to stop.
Our beautiful, time-honored genre, has devolved from lines like, “I’d trade all of my tomorrows for one single yesterday … holding Bobby’s body next to mine,” and “a canvas covered cabin, in a crowded labor camp stand out in this memory I revive. Cause my Daddy raised a family there with two hard working hands….and tried to feed my Momma’s hungry eyes,” down to “Can I get a Yee Haw?”
And the aforementioned Truck! “Come on slide them jeans on up in my truck! Let’s get down and dirty in muh truck, doggone it I just get off riding in muh truck, I love ya honey, but not as much as muh truck!” Oh and we can’t leave out the beautiful prose about partying in a field or pasture.
He goes on to lay the blame at the feet of the label honchos rather than at the artists or songwriters. “They have the power and ability to make a commitment to make records that keep the legacy of country music alive, and reclaim a great genre’s identity.”
Raye has a point. Here’s Exhibit A: “Cruise,” by Florida-Georgia Line, which spent an astounding 21 weeks at #1 on Billboards Hot Country Songs chart.
Modern country music has become so formulaic that some wags devised a web-based Bro Country Song Inspiration Generator. For the most part, the poetry and beauty that have been hallmarks of the genre for so long are missing from mainstream country today, with a handful of exceptions, such as Zac Brown Band, The Band Perry, and Miranda Lambert.
The real Nashville could take a cue or two from the fictional Nashville. Most of the songs on the hit ABC series fit the mold of the country songwriting tradition - heartfelt and often poetic. And, though actors who just happen to sing populate the cast (with some of the best Southern accents in the business, I might add), these folks know how to interpret a song well.
Take Sam Palladio, who plays up-and-coming songwriter Gunnar Scott. The British actor/singer wraps his amazing voice around “It Ain’t Yours To Throw Away,” a beautiful tune co-written (in real life) by the great Pam Tillis:
In another clip from a concert special, members of the cast perform “A Life That’s Good,” which has become an unofficial anthem for the show, along with the songwriters:
Collin Raye has a point. If industry executives treated their talent as artists rather than as commodities and their music as art rather than as products, country music would improve. The next Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, and Dolly Parton are out there for discovery, but they’re taking a backseat to the “Bro Country” movement. I’m afraid one day we’ll look back at these last couple of years as a low point in country music.
Be fair, as long as rock music had been around by the time MTV started, it was definitely already reaching the point of diminishing returns.
RE: “Rock n Roll’s been going downhill ever since Buddy Holly died.”
That’s what Don McLean seems to be saying when he wrote the hit song, “American Pie” (The Day the Music Died).
“good singers singing real songs”
As a pedal steel player, I no longer listen to “Country” radio. “Watermelon Crawl” killed it for me! I did catch a couple minutes last weekend whilst driving around. I heard a song about something like “down in Mexico.” The singer was appallingly off key, and out of tune. He needed pitch correction badly! And three of the five songs I listened to all sounded the same!
I have many friends in Nashville. One is a longtime audio engineer. He says that every work order he’s gotten for several years, have all come from New York City! There’s the problem!
Bogie
It was a quote from “American Graffiti.”
I agree. I've seen several posts lamenting the death of country music. There's a point in which every art form seems to run its course. There's nothing really new in anything ("there's nothing new under the sun"). I listen to classical music and Sinatra pretty much exclusively. Even in classical, I listen to recordings by conductors who have passed on. Most of the movies I watch are older movies starring dead people.
True. The bands that propelled rock through the late 60s to mid 70s were pretty much played out by 1980 anyway. There were a few acts that followed like Dire Straits, The Cars and The Pretenders, but nobody of the stature of The Who, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones in their prime, and Zeppelin.
I’ll give credit to Dire Straits for seeing what was coming with “Money for Nothing.”
Country has been always under assault, just like Our Country.
Rock acts matriculated over to country sound, following the drugs and booze.... so now we have meth-head, bones in their nose, biker chicks listening to Jason Aldean, or some such.
You know somethings wrong when the “youngsters” call the “outlaws” of the past “old guys of standard country music”— acts like Steve Young, Waylon, Willie, Merle Haggard..... and
George Jones?
Here ya go, from my friend Larry: Murder on Music Row:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cS0cGQ6k2mQ
The biggest thing that’s happened to all popular music is that they figured out the formula to make a hit. It used to be a mystery, good producers could “feel” a hit, but nobody really could codify it, now there’s computer programs. This has taken away a lot of the exploration and experimentation. At least for the most popular backed by the big labels sections of music, they are now factory workers. Meanwhile though the there’s a large fairly unsupervised indie scene doing interesting stuff, and thanks to the power of the average computer production values can be pretty high. Get off the beaten path, find the good music.
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The FR thread.....
Maybe you can explain to me how “music” gets airplay on the radio.
Why do DJ’s choose to give regular airplay to say, Rihana’s or Miley Cyrus’ music over some other equally talented singer?
Same for me. I have about 350 music-cd’s in my collection, and I can fairly accurately say that they are comprised of artists who are now all quite dead. I love music. But it’s only that vintage fare that speaks to me, reflecting my tastes, my values, my morality.
They’ll still be listening to The Beatles a hundred years from now.
Would someone care to define?
"This is how we roll" by Florida Georgia Line. Go ahead an watch it on YouTube. One of the biggest songs on the radio right now and one that defines "bro country".
I haven't decided yet if I love it or hate it. I'm pretty certain I hate this song. Absolutely loath it. And when it comes on the radio, I turn it up so I can hate and loath it even more.
Thanks. I followed your link, which led me to another one entitled “A Spot-on-3-minute takedown-of-today’s Country Music: http://www.policymic.com/articles/77379/a-spot-on-3-minute-takedown-of-today-s-country-music
Having watched Roy Acuff play at the Grand Ol’ Opry, I would predict that ol’ Roy is rolling over in his grave.
Looks like I spent too much time looking for a picture. ;-)
Same way it always has, the labels pay for it. And these days there’s even less DJ decision involved, most big radio stations buy computers that do their programming. They tell the computer what kind of station they are and the rotation gets set by the computer, the DJs job is to talk about what the computer says they should during the times when “DJ talks” shows up on the list. Few and far between are the DJs that even a little bit of input on their playlist anymore. Assuming there even is a local DJ anymore, a lot of the computers come with “canned” DJs.
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