Country Music Lowers Your Kid’s IQ

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

[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."

[avg_freeper]

Bumpin for the greatest philosopher of our time.

Johnny Cash

The man is simply a Genius.

[Aurelius]

I recently had to drive 1200 miles from southwestern Pennsylvania to southern Louisiana. I had to do the same thing a few years ago but my cassete player was working then. That was a piece of cake. When you can listen to music of your own choice, driving all day is painless. My first choice would be Hayden string quartets, after that Gregorian chants. With the player not working , and forced to depend on radio I found only two acceptable choices: country music or conservative talk radio. What appalled me about the country music was the lyrics - you don't hear Roy Acuff or even Willy Nelson but all these modern country songs. The music is fine but the lyrics are inane. A friend of mine once said: "The catholic mass and italian opera are alike in this: their beauty can be most appreciated by those who don't know the language in which thet are sung. The same goes for contemporary country music. I would have been quite happy listening to those country music stations on my drive south if only the songs had been sung in Italian.

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

And a member of his own research team, who asked to remain anonymous, told Weekly World News, "He hates hick music with a passion."

Been there, done that. By that, I mean I once studied music at the college level and all the professors were music SNOBS. They hated anything newer than Stravinsky (i.e. almost all 20th century music)..... or so they said - in class. I, however, found out that the head of the Choral Dept. had played backup guitar in an Elvis movie in the late 1960's, so I used it as blackmail to get good grades for the last two years of my undergrad studies (sort of kidding, sort of not :-).

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

HAWHAWHAW...... or should I have laughed this way?

HEE HAW!

[rightisright]

And at this point it's time to revive one of my favorite threads on Free Republic (even bookmarked it):

Top 25 Country Song Titles of All Time

In these times, a little laugh really helps.

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

I've got another one to add:

If They String Me Up, I'll Never Live It Down

[nmh]

LOL! I'm not sure which is worse for kids, rock n roll or country music. One emphasizes sex, cheating and sorrow and the other emphasizes drugs, free love, no values ... heck neither one is good. We stay with classical music and avoid the pitfalls of both.

[nmh]

#8, too funny! Good post.

[MayflowerMadam]

This reminds me of the story about drummer Buddy Rich. When he was being wheeled into the operating room for heart surgery, the nurse asked him, "Mr. Rich, are you allergic to anything?" Rich leaned his head forward and replied, "Yeah, country music."

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

The titles are the best part...

I do too; I'll admit my ears have a really hard time dealing with the old-style country twangy singing :-). But I really love the titles.

I also should mention PDQ Bach's poking fun of country music:

Oedipus Tex, conducted by Wayland Newton, featuring the Okay Chorale.

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

With the player not working , and forced to depend on radio I found only two acceptable choices: country music or conservative talk radio.

I think I have that one beat. I had the same experience (nothing but radio) but was driving all the way from SE Wisconsin to NW Wisconsin. Guess what was all I could find, after passing, say, Madison, WI?

Nothing but........

SOLID GOLD POLKA

When I stopped for gas, the first thing I did was to call my dad, who'd studied CLASSICAL accordion and let him know of my musical predicament and harmonic torture (grin). He really hates "3-chord polka".

[Aurelius]

Other than country and talk radio, I came briefly on blue grass which formerly I wouldn't have been able to distinguish from country - that was great for driving, every bit as good as Hayden.

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

Yeah - great story. I've heard that one before, but it still makes me laugh.

Other music quotes found here.

"You ain't goin' nowhere, son. You ought to go back to driving a truck."
Jim Denny (Manager of the "Grand Ole Opry"), firing Elvis Presley after one performance, September 25, 1954

"All the good music has already been written by people with wigs and stuff."
Frank Zappa

[Aurelius]

As for lowering your child's IQ, I think you should be far more concerned about their attendance at government schools than about their listening to country music.

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

Blue grass is simply Irish/Scottish music gone "Deliverance" (the Appalachians are where the poor Scotch-Irish immigrants settled in the 1700's, and lo and behold they brought their fiddles with them). It's really pretty good stuff, musically-speaking. And it's lively enough to keep you awake behind the steering wheel :-).

[Tribune7]

Who had that song with the lyrics "If you see Kay. . ."

[KillTime]

I thought sure this was a piece from The Onion mag.

[Lady GOP]

Roughstock

Countdown

[Random Access]

Something this overbearing twerp doesn't have the wit to recognize and would never dream of doing to himself. To think that a "professor of music" would have less grace and wit than Kinky Friedman and the Texas Jewboys.

Not long ago, I went into one of those large chain music stores, walked up to this sweet young thing and asked her if they had anything by "Kinky Friedman and the Texas Jewboys". The already slack jawed sweetie dropped her cute little jaw an additional 4 inches. I got a full view of the $12,000 braces her daddy paid for AND her tuesday glob of chewing gum.

"Like, huh?", the articulate dearie said.
"Kinky Friedman and the Texas Jewboys", I repeted.
"Well, like, for sure we don't carry any racist or kinky, like, sex stuff, ya know".

And this is in Texas, not far from where he lives. To quote the Kinkshah.."God bless John Wayne".

[justlurking]

The only version I've ever heard is Jimmy Buffett's If The Phone Doesn't Ring, It's Me on his Last Mango in Paris album.

Looks like this one has made the rounds. The one I heard was definitely not Jimmy Buffett.