Country Music Lowers Your Kid’s IQ

A Prestigous Weekly Journal ^ | 9/21/01 | DENNISD'ANTONIO

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NEW BEDFORD, Mass. - Young children exposed to country music score lower on IQ tests than kids raised on rock 'n' roll, declares controversial music professor Dr. Roger Solett - and he bases his startling claim on the results of a study of 1,000 kids!

"Country music makes kids stupid," he said. "It's the mind- warping lyrics." And he cited a few examples drawn from what he called "some of the most popular country songs of the past two decades." On the list:

"I'd Rather Have a Bottle in Front of Me Than a Frontal Lobotomy."

"Get Your Tongue Outta My Mouth 'Cause I'm Kissin' You Goodbye."

"If You Wanna Keep Your Beer Cold, Put It Next to My Ex-wife's Heart."

Dr. Solett is the former director of the prestigious Chopin Symphony and a professor of music. He said he and his research team gave IQ tests to 500 6-year-olds whose parents played country music in the house or car daily.

"They're Billy Ray Cyrus, Faith Hill, Clint Black, Randy Travis, Garth Brooks fans - and their children scored, on average, 10 points lower on standard IQ tests than 500 6-year-olds whose parents are rock 'n' roll junkies," said Dr. Solett.

"Now what's the difference between rock and country? It's just wild people banging on drums and strumming guitars in both cases. Lots of howling. Lots of noise. The only difference between rock and country is that country is stupid - the lyrics, I mean.

" 'I wanna whip your cow . . . I fell on a pile of you and got love all over me . . . Drop-kick me, Jesus, through the goalposts of life' . . . I mean, c'mon, this kinda stuff'll warp your mind."

But Dr. Solett's controversial study, and particularly his views, are not shared by many, if any, of his peers. And a member of his own research team, who asked to remain anonymous, told Weekly World News, "He hates hick music with a passion."

[maxwell]

"they were angels in waiting, waiting for wings, to fly from this earth, away from their pain... Angels in waiting, waiting for wings to fly..." or something like that. It's about her, looking back on her childhood with her two young brothers who weren't going to live long.

[riley1992]

Ah ha. I think that's Tammy Cochran.

[riley1992]

A lot of that is true but The Dixie Chicks have some very hard core country.

[maxwell]

magnificent contributions by the "Rap Artists" who're *infesting* the airwaves today.

Hmmmmm... Somehow, I think that the results might turn out to be unpublishable in today's sociopolitical environment. If you get my general drift.

[maxwell]

Haha, you just like the Earl song.

That song always disturbed me...

[riley1992]

LOL. No, they really do have some pretty hard country tunes. "Sin Wagon" is rougher than anything on the radio by far. However, I will admit to liking "Goodbye Earl". Of course, I am a little twisted.

[MarMema]

My children love country music and my oldest son has an IQ well into the genius level. When he is tested yearly for our homeschooling program I have to listen to all the same expressions of incredulous amazement.
In part I think IQ is greatly over-rated anyway. Country music has lots of good "family" themes and many very patriotic themes as well.
In 10-15 years I'll put my kids up against the ones raised listening to rap and rock any day, as well as against the kids of the pyschologists who did this study.:-)

[tristero]

Most people have less grace and wit than Kinky Friedman and the Texas Jewboys.

[Cvengr]

Circa 1990, Rolling Stone conducted a survey amongst aging acid rockers and Grateful Dead afficianados (poor choice of words?) to determine what 'classical' rock music they had matured to devote their avid attention.

The survey concluded overwhelmingly that they preferred older country-western.

I just listened to The PatsyCline Story CD for the last two weeks and prefer Hank WIlliams Sr. Granted most of those artists recorded the themebook songs from others, they nevertheless displayed artistry and communicated their feelings and mood better than today's 'rappers' and curse sophistry.

[parsifal]

Have you ever heard the Irish Chieftain's country music CD, with Ricky Skaggs??? Darn good and you can hear the fit between old and new.

[parsifal]

Poetry is also good. I have Alec Guiness reads TS Eliots poetry cassettes. Can listen to Wasteland over and over. Also books on tape make the time pass. Joseph Campbell sets are sehr interessant. I was on the road yesterday and 19 minutes into Wasteland I was thinking how nice it was to hear the whole poem without interruption when BLAMPATHOOEY!!!, the water pump busted. 75 miles in a tow truck back to Little Rock and all I could think was "Between the idea and the reality falls the Shadow."

[parsifal]

I'll try to get a CD of them. Haven't heard too much of them. PS- Have you heard the "O Brother Where Art Thou" soundtrack? Its to die for.

[linn37]

Does this mean I should take my honor roll student Cletus T Judd CD's away from him?

[riley1992]

Have you heard the "O Brother Where Art Thou" soundtrack? Its to die for.

A friend of mine just sent me some of that. I loved it. It is way out so we'll never hear it on mainstream radio.

[LibWhacker]

But I thought Country Western was obsolete ever since Steve Goodman wrote the perfect Country & Western song that David Allan Coe sang about in "You Never Even Called Me By My Name":

. . . WELL, A FRIEND OF MINE NAMED STEVE GOODMAN WROTE THAT SONG
AND HE TOLD ME IT WAS THE PERFECT COUNTRY & WESTERN SONG
I WROTE HIM BACK A LETTER AND I TOLD HIM IT WAS NOT THE
PERFECT COUNTRY & WESTERN SONG BECAUSE HE HADN’T SAID ANYTHING AT ALL ABOUT MAMA,
OR TRAINS,
OR TRUCKS,
OR PRISON,
OR GETTING’ DRUNK

WELL HE SAT DOWN AND WROTE ANOTHER VERSE TO THE SONG
AND HE SENT IT TO ME,
AND AFTER READING IT,
I REALIZED THAT MY FRIEND HAD WRITTEN THE PERFECT
COUNTRY & WESTERN SONG
AND I FELT OBLIGED TO INCLUDE IT ON THIS ALBUM
THE LAST VERSE GOES LIKE THIS HERE:

WELL, I WAS DRUNK THE DAY MY MOM GOT OUT OF PRISON
AND I WENT TO PICK HER UP IN THE RAIN
BUT BEFORE I COULD GET TO THE STATION IN MY PICKUP TRUCK
SHE GOT RUNNED OVER BY A DAMNED OLD
TRAIN

How could that make you stupid? Great song.

[Cvengr]

Funny, all the 'violent' song titles you mentioned, go further to describe various states of repentence that many criminals endure.

I once knew a guard who had walked watch over Charles Manson and asked him what most of the people were like in the hardened prisons. I fiqured a guard might have had a fair amount of time on his hands to contemplate how to deal with criminals and what made them click.

He said one could generally partition them into 2 groups. One group simply made a mistake somewhere, had been caught, judged and held accountable. The other group simply were criminal without much redeeming quality, but would find any and every humanly possible method to avoid accountability or repentence.

Johnny Cash's songs seemed to speak to the former class rather than the latter class. His songs have a classic quality because there are many in society who have made mistakes, but simply didn't get caught and have repented but realize the grace afforded them. His songs relate a varied response by which many men adapt to those circumstances which thrust an awkward predicament.

I'd pick a 100 such 'violent' CW songs over one chorus of Lennon's 'Imagine' if I wanted to sincerely influence the world towards a more peaceful existence.

[parsifal]

Or ditto on Hank Williams Sr.'s "My Buckets Got a Hole In It":

Well my bucket's got a hole in it
My bucket's got a hole in it
My bucket's got a hole in it
I can't get no beer.

I have often wondered whether or not this was to be constured concretely, that is, his bucket really does have a hole in it and he is sad,or. . .is the bucket a euphemism for his girl friend and she is cheating on him and he unable to enjoy intoxicating beverages as he once could because of his great sorrow. Or does "beer" represent sexual relations with his cheating lover, and he is unable to experience sexual joy (or maybe performance)because he fears he is being cuckolded.

[LibWhacker]

Well, now, that's the correct way to approach Country & Western music! It's really very brainy stuff, full of double and triple entendre. Goes way over the heads of snobs. Lots of wildly popular rock songs were written by country western songwriters and it would shock rock and roll fans to death if they knew that.

[parsifal]

Thank you for getting me started on this. I found a Jimmy Rogers Lyric Site!

EVERYBODY DOES IT IN HAWAII

C D7
Talk about Hawaii, I didn't know it was so grand
G7 C G
I picked me out a hula-hula girl, before my boat could land
C G7 CEverybody does it in Hawaii
C G7 C
A yodel ay-hee, olay-hee, hee

E
CHORUS: She's got it here and she's got it there
A
Her lips are red and her feet are bare
D G
She's shy on clothes, but I don't care
C G7 C
'Cause everybody does it in Hawaii
C G7 C
A yodel ay-hee, olay-hee, hee

She's got two pretty legs with dimples knees
Two brown arms and they know how to squeeze
A perfect form, and I'm hard to please
But everybody does it in Hawaii
A yodel ay-hee, ay-hee, hee

F
yodel ay-hee, odle eedle ay-hee
C
yodel ay-hee, odle eedle ay-hee
C G7 C
A yodel ay-hee, olay-hee, hee

When I leave Hawaii, when I leave old Waikiki
I'm going to get my hula-hula girl, and bring her home with me
Everybody does it in Hawaii.
A yodel ay-hee, olay-hee, hee

Recorded by Jimmy Rodgers on The Short but Brilliant Life of Jimmy Rodgers