Posted on 09/21/2001 9:46:20 AM PDT by dead
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."
I prefer these classic phrases:
I Fall to Pieces, each time I see you again, ..how can I just be your friend, you want me to pretend we never met, You walk by and I fall to pieces.Harland Howard-Hank Cochran, '60
If you got leavin on your mind, hurt me now and get it over,..Don't leave me here waitin,..I may learn to love again,...If there's a new love in your heart,....Wayne Walker, '62
Heard that lonesome whistle ... drinkin fancy coffee and smokin big cigars, (sort of reminds me of Starbucks and Macanudos in San Francisco)Johnny Cash
I'd prefer some Po' Mans Roses over a Rich Man's Gold (Bob Hilliard, Milton Delugg, sung by Patsy Cline)pre-61
I dig 16 tons (of #9 coal), and whatta I get?..Another day older and deeper in debt! St Peter, don't call me cuz I can't go, I sold my soul to the company store...(actor from Green Acres,...Eddie Arnold p>I go on Walkin, after midnight, out in the moonlight, searchin for you,...Don Hecht, Alan Block sung by Patsy Cline, '61
Heartaches, my lovin you, meant only heartaches,..what does it matter how my heart breaks, I should be looking for somebody else, but my heartaches for you!..Al Hoffman, John Klenner
I've got your picture, that you gave to me, the only thing different, is I've got your picture, and she's(he's) got you. Hank Cochran-She's Got You, pre'61
Strange,...how you stopped lovin me, when she came along,....Mel Tillis, Fred Burch, pre '61
South of the Border down Mexico Way, a love ballad
I knew you've been foolin around on me just from the start, now take your ring and I'll take back my heart. And when you get tired with foolin around with a 2 or three then come back home and fool around with me.---Foolin Around, Harlan Howard, Buck Owens, '61
True Love, Cole Porter, '61
Imagine That, Justin Tubb, '62
Back In Baby's Arms, Bob Montgomery, '62
Crazy for feelin so lonely, ...for feelin so blue, Willie Nelson, pre '60.
7 Lonely days make one lonely week, 7 lonely nights makes one lonely me,..Earl & Aldin Shuman, Marshall Brown, '61
Your Cheatin Heart will make you weak,...Hank Williams, '62
Why Can't He be you,...Hank Cochran, '62
I've been ..So Wrong...that I could live without the love of you,... Carl Perkins, '62
I love you so much it hurts me, darlin that's why I'm so blue,..Floyd Tilman, '61
See the Pyramids, the marketplace in ol Algiers,,..just remember,..You Belong to Me, Pee Wee King, Redd Stewart, Chilton Price, '62
Many of these classics were compiled in notebooks by live performers at small dance halls and repeated from act to act or on-call as an audience member would request a particular song they knew. Very few of these classical performers of CW wrote their own tunes, but performed much older tunes. The words were frequently written by one songwriter lyricist while the tune, and melody composed by the songwriter. Lots of the CW sounds the same because they have a basic arpeggio styled background theme in bass and tenor tunes emphasizing different keyed scales and migrating between keys in a fairly rote pattern. Variation was added by a periodic 4x4 synchopation or change in chord emphasis on the downbeat. This was the background band basic emphasis. The soloist would frequently focus on the melody, in rhythm and emphasis of pitch. An art not found in many of today's 'artists'.
Even though methinks one'd be drilling into nothing more than rock, as it were.
The fact of the matter is that if the truth of what really lay between the ears of said *rap* fan ever got out?
It'd surely cause wide-spread & very serious bouts of constipation among our nation's youth.
That'd be irresponsible, eh.
Doesn't anyone find it even a little bit curious this guy's going after the benign genre of country & bypassing the real feces??
"It ain't cheatin' because she reminds me of you."
Don't it make you wanna dance...???
Remember Bell Curve? Remember all the sh$t those guys got? Same fundamental concept.
known is some circles as 'Eyes are red'...
all the best.
Martin
"Doesn't anyone find it even a little bit curious this guy's going after the benign genre of country & bypassing the real feces??"
Anyway...yea, t'was a fun thread; as it always is & especially when an imbucile from the world of acadamia opens its mouth using a "study" like this one, as the foundation for a conclusion.
What could be more sporting?
Used to be into modern rock but it was missing something, failing desperately to fill a void... And I realized that that's the whole point of modern rock. It revels in the fact that it has no soul. My brother got me into country on a road trip to GA, the motherland, and I haven't looked back. Sure I still enjoy the good stuff, AC/DC, Pink Floyd, Eagles, Aerosmith (when they're not cavorting with blonde bimbos and candy@ss boy bands as in that shameful display last Super Bowl), G&R, ZZ Top, Metallica, Lynnard Skynard... Can still get into a little REM now and then, for old times' sake (used to be big fan)... Even dig a little of the newer stuff once in a while-- Bloodhound Boys, Blink 182, Creed... But I always have the country station on. And when they resort to Lilith Fair fluff stuff (i.e., most of the chicks), I stick in the George Strait tape. Now that's soul. I think I'll go buy that HW Jr. cd today. "Do ya wanna drink, do ya wanna party!"
But I'll also tell you the shocker of the musical year for me was hearing John Kay's Steppenwolf live, this past Friday evening.
Naturally, the guy did all the work which had made him legendary, & performed it ALL extremely well; given the years we're talking about here?
This man JKay has taken very good care of himself over the years working in a business where doing-so was the exception to the rule.
What really blew me away were the works he performed from his new CD.
The nation hasn't heard this kind of passion & clarity in writing in many, many years.
The way he synopsizes, articulates, actually mocks the PC world today totally stole our breath.
I'll tell you this, too; it'll be interesting seeing if the "kids" pick-up on this guy because we thought he'd very effectively reinvented R&R with this new CD of his.
Interesting sidebar here: There were quite a few youngsters (18-21...) at his performance Friday night with vinyl copies of his late 60s, early 70s albums they wanted [to get] signed.
I even made a crack to one guy wearing an earring that he hadn't been born when the album [he held] was pressed. (wife kicked me under the cocktail table...)
I'm telling you, check out Steppenwolf's newest work, "Feed The Fire"; & especially the song having the CDs name.
Maybe it's available asMPEG or something.
You'll be pleasantly surprised; I know I was.
I bought the CD right there & then.
Texas has its own cuisine. And its own music.
The Cajun/zydeco sound of the East Texas woods...the blues breeder known as Houston's 5th ward...Central Texas Czech and German polka bands...the Mexican influence throughout south and far west Texas...plus honky tonk C&W.
What with all the cross-pollination, we got Texas Swing, Tejano, outlaw country, Bob Wills, Hudie Ledbetter, Albert Collins and Gatemouth Brown, plus Floyd Tillman, Freddie Fender, Waylon and Willie.
In music, as in all things, God blessed Texas.
The lady is unfamiliar to me, as my earliest recollection of the genre would be Kitty Wells. But I bet I know where her nightclub would've been -- on the Jacksboro Highway at the northwest edge of Fort Worth.
'Twas a veritable den of inequity during the late forties/early fifties -- drinkin', dancin', gamblin' and ladies of easy virtue. The kind of place where a rancher or an oilman could have a good time, if ya knowhaddayemean...
But I guess the operative question for the country music thing would be, "Which came first, the chicken or the egg?" Are kids stupid BECAUSE they listen to country music, or do they listen to country music because they are STUPID? LOL!!
Please don't flame me! I'm only kidding; this guy sounds like he's trying to impress some academics who DO think that anyone who would listen to Shania, Garth, or JoDee must have something wrong with them. As a matter of fact, one of my FM presets is a country station in Boston (of all places).
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