Posted on 05/16/2014 8:01:45 AM PDT by Responsibility2nd
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.
~snip~
But as someone who grew up loving and being forever affected by the true greats of country music, I simply have to offer up this plea to the Nashville country music industry to reclaim the identity and poetic greatness that once was our format. The well-written poetic word of the country song has disappeared.
~snip~
Willie Nelson once wrote in his early song, "Shotgun Willie," that “you can’t make a record if you ain’t got nothing to say.” Apparently, that’s not the case anymore.
Disposable, forgettable music has been the order of the day for quite a while now and it’s time for that to stop.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
But it's not just country....all new music today is crap....country, rock, pop, classical, jazz, you name it... there's no quality in any of it. I remember back in the '70s some people said we were eventually going to run out of melodies or ideas. Those people were correct. All new music today, whatever genre, stinks.
Most people today think of music as a commodity rather than an art form, something to flow in the background like having electricity or running water.
Moreover, most people today use music as a drug, rather than a door into their souls and/or a gateway to theophanic experience. That is why overproduced music of all pop genres, from country to dubstep, exacerbates the druglike qualities of music--incessant beat, perpetually loud dynamics, minimal melody--the same way crack exacerbates the druglike qualities of coca leaves, or RedBull exacerbates the druglike qualities of coffee beans.
I’ll listen to anything from the Reds:
Simpsom, Steagall, and Sovine.
“Garth Brooks Killed it with his Rocklike concerts in the 90s...”
Yes he did. I have even heard RAP on a country stations masquerading as country music. The starched cowboy hats, the mannequins doing karaoke on stage. The spray on tan with sparkly things <- those are the guys....
It’s not that we have run out of melodies or ideas. There are nearly infinite combinations of those to be found. I think it’s just that the music industry has decided only to cater to the lowest common denominator. They don’t want to bother trying to promote good music, because it is easier and more cost effective to promote bad music.
Will do. Thanks for the rec. I listened to Son Volt’s record one time through but I need to again.
I think it’s just that the music industry has decided only to cater to the lowest common denominator. They don’t want to bother trying to promote good music, because it is easier and more cost effective to promote bad music.
I absolutely hate their cover of Tom Cochrane's Life is a Highway.
Life in the 1950s and 60s was more real. That was before cable TV - even 24 hour broadcast TV, reality shows, MTV, the internet, portable personal communicators - all the forces that have so radically changed our society. We don't talk to each other anymore. We text and tweet. We don't discuss and debate. We just regurgitate sound bites. We have no positive role models in media or government. Just entertainers.
And there is no going back.
Interesting topic for sure. Being a child of the 60’s, I loved the Beatles and the British Invasion. Over the years I have appreciated country artists that maintained their heritage and style i.e. George Jones, Merle Haggard and Mickey Gilley. Glen Campbell was a hero of mine but was unique to be a “cross over” performer who could score on pop and country charts at the same time. Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson remained true to their genre as well. Today’s country is packaged with pretty boys and ditzy babes who look good in tights, have a twang in the voice but would not be considered country by the old standards. And yes, Charlie Rich would rank as an icon, definitely producing the most romantic country songs. The Great OZ has spoken.
That cover is a travesty... I saw Cochrane open up for the Smithereens in 1992’ish. Great show.
Unce
Tice
Fee times a mady...
_________________________
This one always was a favorite of mine.
There is still George Strait and Alan Jackson, but that’s about it.
KNBT in New Braunfels. The best station in Texas.
Before I retired I used to work in a place where the workers were allowed to have different genres on each day...one day rock, one day country. The only country song that I liked was Alan Jackson’s “The Little Man.” That song said something and with a lot of feeling. Every other country song was some cookie-cutter version about some guy taking his girl down to the creek in his pickup truck where they could go fishing or swimming or digging for worms while looking at the moon. If you could find more honest songs like Jackson’s, then I could agree with you.
Even the Red Headed Stranger.
Me too! I didn't even know Cochrane was the opening act (Huge Smithereens fan here). I lost my s--t when I heard him play 'Lunatic Fringe.'
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