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.
Nowadays all the radio stations are owned by Clear Channel, anyway.
Can't stand people who complain about music - ANY MUSIC- who've never tried to write songs professionally. Same thing I'd say to anyone complaining about the state of rock, R&B or Opera - go and do it better yourself or quit whining. FWIW I've written hundreds of songs over the last 35 years. They all mostly suck and none has sold for anything other than a local commercial or two.
BTW- not directing this *at* you, Seek and Find - just at any and all who whine. Can’t stand armchair quaterbacks or keyboard commandos either :-)
Most of them. It was the natural evolution, once most of the stations were buying the same computers that were getting updates from the same central server to put together the same play list with the same canned DJ there wasn’t much reason for them not to have the same owner.
Modern country music has become so formulaic...
Popular Recorded music has become an ephemeral commodity. There is some good stuff out there, kinda like there is a good plant there in your garden hidden in a mound of weeds. But to find it, the search has to be worth it to you. For most, it no longer is. Their iPod is full and the music is “good enough” for what they use it for.
I say this as a person that, on the rare occasion I sit down to listen to music, only listens on vinyl.
Thanks to the Internet, I’ve discovered music from all over the globe, getting out of the Anglosphere musically, opens up a whole new world.
I hadn’t noticed. I listen to Golden Oldies and Classic Country when I’m not listening to classical music.
Or head over to 95.9 The Ranch and stream it live. Hayes Carll, Ryan Bingham, Turnpike Troubadors, and on and on. Great music! No bro country.
Modern music of every genre, not just country, music that is pushed via the old passive means, has been focus grouped, digitized and auto-tuned to death in order to please people who don’t know good music and are not literate or culturally aware enough to be able to discern good lyrical content.
If you want good music, country or anything else, stop being lazy and complaining and go find it. It’s there, now more than ever. Just not on the radio or television, which are push media.
It used to be music was something people had in common. Everyone listened to the Beatles, or Led Zeppelin in the 70s, there just weren’t many alternatives. Then came: Punk, New Wave, Prog, Heavy Metal, Death Metal, Industrial, etc., and now it’s so segmented.
“Write a better song, or songs, or shut up.”
What a stupid response. I can’t criticize a song without the ability to write a better one? Can I not criticize a book, or car, or dentist, or mayonnaise, or anything else unless I can do it better?
I think of the Jason Aldean, Luke Bryan, Eric church, etc as bro country, more than Florida Georgia line. To me, they are more of a party band feel. I don’t totally dislike any of these guys, but these three and a couple dozen others combined have created a watered down genre. It’s ball caps, pickup trucks and beer. Not heartbreak, hardwork and heartfelt lyrics. You could take most any song plug another guy in and it would be the same damn thing.
I wasn’t a country fan for most of my life so I wasn’t around for the old-timers, but even over the past two or three years it’s taken a serious decline.
In a sense it could be argued that it’s a lack of money killing music, which is to say that young artists are no longer carried by a record label while they develop. The Beatles’ first album was not good, but “Meet the Beatles” was a significant improvement. You simply won’t find a label willing or able to carry a Springsteen for a year for “Asbury Park” as these companies once could-—the impact of free/pirated music has gotten so destructive.
Modern country is on the same path that ruined Rock, big money and MBAs. “When the money gets big, people(music fans) get hurt”; Corb Lund.
It’s pretty much back to the days before Sgt. Pepper, where albums are irrelevant, it’s all about singles, that can be downloaded from iTunes.
The late Frank Zappa pretty much sums it up here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=KZazEM8cgt0
MBA infestation kills creativity, originality and artistic talent in general wherever it occurs. It’s all “metrics” to them, to be measured and controlled. “Consumer” response is tested and queried, constantly. So, what you end up getting is an ever more constrained version of what you’ve always got, because “consumers” are not visionary. They know what they know and won’t know something original until exposed to it, which does not occur where metrics and focus groups are concerned.
The world is bigger and smaller at the same time.
I remember as a kid in the 60’s I knew “every” car on the American road. There are just too many now.
Everything is segmented, yet homogenized at the same time. Television brought the country together to the point that you can be plunked down in the middle of downtown anywhere and it all looks the same. Drive 20 miles on surface streets in Orange county CA and it’s like you are on a treadmill: you seem to keep passing the same businesses every few blocks.
But choice has also caused us to segment like crazy. Some watch TV, some sports, some play Wii, some xBox, some none. And it used to be some liked Chinese. Now, some like Thai, some Mandarin, some Schezuan, etc...
Too much to say. I could turn this cultural review into a book....
“It used to be music was something people had in common. Everyone listened to the Beatles, or Led Zeppelin in the 70s”
Not everyone.
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