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Country Music Is ‘Dead’: Icon Loretta Lynn Trashes Modern Hits
Lexington Herald Leader ^ | JANUARY 31, 2020 | Mike Stunston

Posted on 02/02/2020 10:28:04 AM PST by nickcarraway

Loretta Lynn voiced her displeasure with current country music during a recent podcast, and she didn’t hold back.

The 87-year-old country music pioneer told Martina McBride that she thinks country music is “dead.”

“I think it’s a shame,” she said on the ‘Vocal Point with Martina McBride’ podcast, according to WhiskeyRiff.com. “I think it’s a shame to let a type of music die. I don’t care what any kind of music it is. Rock, country, whatever. I think it’s a shame to let it die, and I’m here to start feeding it.”

She later told McBride, who is also a country singer most famous for her work in the 1990s and 2000s, that it’s “a sad situation because we should never let country music die.”

She continued: “I’m getting mad about it. I am. Because it’s ridiculous,” as reported by PEOPLE Magazine.

The full podcast with Lynn is available at luminarypodcasts.com.

Lynn, who rose to fame in the 1960s and remains one of the most popular artists of her genre, later took to Facebook to follow up on her comments to McBride.

The Kentucky native said she loves country music and is proud of its heritage, but feels the “hard push to crossover” is ruining the genre. Many current country acts are incorporating pop or rap into their songs.

“I like it country — pure and simple and real,” she said on Facebook. “I am so proud of all the artists out there, especially the younger ones, who know what I mean and are still keeping it country. When you love something, you can’t just stand by quietly if you think it’s in danger.”

It’s not the first time Lynn sounded off on the country music genre. In 2010 she wrote in the introduction to her biography about the blurred lines between country and pop.

“Some of these country singers aren’t really country ... I think some of them should be singing pop music and leave country alone,” she wrote, according to TheBoot.com.

Lynn suffered a stroke in 2017 and broke her hip a year later. She made her first public appearance in nearly two years last April for an all-star tribute birthday concert in her honor. Music legends from every generation were in attendance for the event.

Earlier this week, Lynn may have just won the viral “Dolly Parton Challenge.” In her social media post, she wrote “Y’all wish” for where a Tinder photo would have gone.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; History; Music/Entertainment
KEYWORDS: countrymusic; hickhop; lorettalynn; music
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To: nickcarraway

Listen to Real Roots Radio - WBZI 1500 - on line. Real Country Music. Saturday afternoon Chubby Howard is still going at age 94 with his weekly show.


81 posted on 02/02/2020 12:27:05 PM PST by EC Washington
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To: nickcarraway

I grew up in the Town That Buck Owens Owned and where Merle Haggard lost his wife to a river (which most would call a creek).

It’s where The Bakersfield Sound was started because, well, it was Bakersfield and it was a sound.

I did not like country or country/western while growing up. At. All.

But now days I really enjoy a lot of Blues Saraceno, Nick Ammar and Nick Nolan type music.

But I doubt that qualifies as “country” or “country/western”.

Examples:

Nick Ammar - The Burning
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPK8UaggDOY

Nick Nolan - Shackles Ropes and Chains
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RX3t7dLUxY8

Blues Saraceno - The River
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncic96eYXRE


82 posted on 02/02/2020 12:44:46 PM PST by Grimmy (equivocation is but the first step along the road to capitulation)
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To: niteowl77

If you want to know what happened to country music, the story about Mike Huckabee getting kicked off a Nashville board because a powerful country music exec and his “husband” were offended by Mike’s politics should explain a lot.


83 posted on 02/02/2020 12:52:35 PM PST by Rastus
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To: newfreep

Try Colter Wall. Different style, but come from the heart.


84 posted on 02/02/2020 12:53:30 PM PST by Parmy
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To: Grimmy
I grew up in the Town That Buck Owens Owned and where Merle Haggard lost his wife to a river (which most would call a creek). It’s where The Bakersfield Sound was started because, well, it was Bakersfield and it was a sound.

Partner, for some reason the folks in Nashville controlled the air waves and the Bakersfield sound was very, very good.

Merle Haggard, Buck Owens, Dwight Yoakum and some of the ole groups in Bakersfield was not popular in Nashville but out West they were and we know that. Since the Bakersfield sound is very popular.

We know the Bakersfield sound introduced electric and steel guitars.

My father used to listen to C&W music and I tried to change the channel one time and got I got chastised by my father.

85 posted on 02/02/2020 1:00:19 PM PST by TheConservativeTejano (God Bless Texas...)
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To: Grimmy
I grew up in the Town That Buck Owens Owned and where Merle Haggard lost his wife to a river (which most would call a creek). It’s where The Bakersfield Sound was started because, well, it was Bakersfield and it was a sound.

Partner, for some reason the folks in Nashville controlled the air waves and the Bakersfield sound was very, very good.

Merle Haggard, Buck Owens, Dwight Yoakum and some of the ole groups in Bakersfield was not popular in Nashville but out West they were and we know that. Since the Bakersfield sound is very popular.

We know the Bakersfield sound introduced electric and steel guitars.

My father used to listen to C&W music and I tried to change the channel one time and got I got chastised by my father.

86 posted on 02/02/2020 1:01:18 PM PST by TheConservativeTejano (God Bless Texas...)
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To: TheConservativeTejano

My father used to listen to C&W music and I tried to change the channel one time and got I got chastised by my father.

**************

LOL! I can relate.

Unfortunately, for me, I was a thoroughly modern American kid which meant I was in full blown, irrational and unthinking rebellion against *everything* the “oldsters” liked.

So it was Pink Floyd and Led Zep for me. With some Nazareth thrown in for when we were gathering up to go downtown to find a fight.


87 posted on 02/02/2020 1:05:27 PM PST by Grimmy (equivocation is but the first step along the road to capitulation)
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To: Parmy

Lately, I’ve rediscovered the singer/songwriter,Townes Van Zant...including country singers who cover his GREAT songs.


88 posted on 02/02/2020 1:08:15 PM PST by newfreep ("INSIDE EVERY PROGRESSIVE IS A TOTALITARIAN SCREAMING TO GET OUT" - DAVID HOROWITZ)
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To: VAFreedom

She must have been talking about real country, not trite, formula-driven, plastic crap country.


89 posted on 02/02/2020 1:08:16 PM PST by Romulus
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To: dfwgator

LOL. So true.


90 posted on 02/02/2020 1:16:26 PM PST by lastchance (Credo.)
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To: nickcarraway

Some of the newer stuff is OK but there are no equals to Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, Jim Reeves, Johnny Horton and Marty Robbins.

“Thunder Rolls” is OK and I liked “16th Ave” by Lacy Dalton but most of it is awful.


91 posted on 02/02/2020 1:17:25 PM PST by yarddog ( For I am persuaded.)
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To: aMorePerfectUnion

The same concept applies to rock and roll too, doesn’t it?

The rock music from the 50s was different from the rock music of the 60s, which then shifted again in the 70s and 80s.

Isn’t music always evolving, or changing, in all genres not just country?


92 posted on 02/02/2020 1:19:33 PM PST by Dilbert San Diego
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To: nickcarraway

I would like to hear what David Allan Coe has to say about this ....


93 posted on 02/02/2020 1:22:34 PM PST by bankwalker (Immigration without assimilation is an invasion.)
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To: nickcarraway

I grew up in Motown.
Grew up listening to Motown and rock.
Spent 3 1/2 years in Texas when I was in the Army in the 70’s.
Still listened to rock, soft rock and pop.

Loved the 80s music.
But in the late 80s the rock stations started playing rap.
TOTALLY sucked!

Switched to the new country artists like Garth - to me they sounded like the early rock stuff of the 50s.
Country was GREAT thru the early 90s, but by the mid 90’s it started moving to pop.... not nearly as good.

Garth’s first 2-3 albums were great, then they started sliding. Since he came out of retirement - Ugh.

Now... rap? In a “county” song? Are you kidding me?

The last several years I’ve gone to Bob Wills Days for the music festival - Western Swing at it’s finest. Guys like Jody Nix and Jake Hooker.

It all is based on good musicianship, good vocals, and a good story that you can relate to - and that the artist believes in.


94 posted on 02/02/2020 1:25:47 PM PST by NorthernTraveler
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To: dfwgator

I won’t post it here, but look up Waylon Jennings’s quote about Garth Brooks and pantyhose. Hilarious


95 posted on 02/02/2020 1:29:38 PM PST by Hardastarboard (Three most annoying words on the internet - "Watch the video")
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To: NorthernTraveler

Oh, and I saw Ned LeDoux last fall.

Saw his dad at Cheyenne in 1993 - the first time he performed there as a musician.

That’s cowboy rock kinda music.


96 posted on 02/02/2020 1:31:55 PM PST by NorthernTraveler
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To: diverteach
"More specifically it’s all “Produced” music anymore where the record producer dictates to the artist what’s they think will sell."

It's even worse than that. It's the bean counters who dictate to the producers what they want. "Hat singers are hot right now. Turn him into a hat singer". "Trios are selling. Make him a trio".

We had a fabulous kid with real talent that they turned into a "trio" and produced the life out of his music. Full disclosure.... we and 2 other guys produced the demo on him. The label needed their producer on it ('cause then they'll push it don'tchaknow ) and the bean counters said trio. That's when we bailed. Two highly mediocre albums and the kid went home to Kentucky.

97 posted on 02/02/2020 1:32:24 PM PST by Grammy (Save the earth... it's the only planet with chocolate.)
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To: VAFreedom

don’t ya know they come back if ya play it backwards


98 posted on 02/02/2020 1:39:45 PM PST by aces (and)
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To: diverteach

Yes. Produced formulaicly. Nothing organic or spontaneous.


99 posted on 02/02/2020 1:47:20 PM PST by ifinnegan (Democrats kill babies and harvest their organs to sell)
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To: nickcarraway
Happy that Loretta Lynn is still with us... She's a year older than me...
I'm still getting over the loss (in 2012) of the greatest lady country singer of them all... Kitty Wells (Ellen Deason)

Gone (from the radio waves) are the real woman country singers like:

  1. Kitty Wells
  2. Tammy Winette
  3. Loretta Lynn
  4. Tanya Tucker
  5. (Just to name my version of the top four)
It's been many years since country singing was anything other than disguised pop music, IMHO...

OTOH, I've found that "blue grass" seems to have held steady...

100 posted on 02/02/2020 1:50:55 PM PST by SuperLuminal (Where is Sam Adams now that we desperately need him)
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