I was reading an interview with some yahoo named Jason Aldean, who is
apparently a rising star in the world of country music, which is a dumb
thing to say, because these guys aren't playing country music.
Anyway, he was asked about his musical influences growing up, and he
said “Guns N' Roses -- the '80s rock stuff. Then I was into John
Mellencamp, and Bob Seger and a lot of the Southern rock stuff. I listened
to a lot of different kinds of music.”
Well, there you go. How can a guy with a musical spectrum so broad that
he listened to both John Mellencamp AND Bob Seger grow up to be anything
but a great country artist?
Country music is dead. Well, it's not dead - there are plenty of people
out there still writing and performing actual country music. It just doesn’t get on the radio or on CMT.
“Country music” is nothing but a marketing tool now. I'm not sure who
exactly killed country music, but I suspect you'd find Garth Brooks' and Shania
Twain's fingerprints on the gun.
Have you watched a country music awards show lately? You could fire a shotgun at the stage and never hit anybody who’s actually playing country music. We live in a nation where people complain about terrorists being mistreated in jail, and yet Rascal Flatts is allowed to run free. That ain't right.
If you turn on a “country” radio station now, you’ll basically hear one of four songs:
• I’m from a small town where we all love Jesus.
• I’m a good old boy/gal and I like to have a good time and don’t care if you call me a redneck.
• I love my girl/guy and she/he loves me even though I don’t deserve it.
• I’m a redneck from a small town and I love my girl and she loves Jesus.
Look at all the artists out there now masquerading as country musicians. Kenney Chesney does a bad Jimmy Buffett impression and wins award after award. Keith Urban is basically Dan Fogelberg with a steel guitar player. I got subjected to a Keith Urban CD once and I almost went into a diabetic coma by the time it was finished.
I guess the main reason it sucks now is because it’s not sincere. Country music was always about pain and heartache and hard times, and it was sung and written by people who grew up poor and fought their demons and produced something beautiful out of misery. When George Jones sang “If Drinking Don’t Kill Me, Her Memory Will,” he meant it. Merle Haggard could sing about prison because he’d been there. Johnny Cash knew pain because his beloved brother died when he was young. Buck Owens grew up like the Joad family, moving from one California produce farm to the next.
How is popular “country” music made these days? Well, the songs are written by the same group of songwriters who actually go to work in an office and work on them. This results in songs that are calculated and soulless and full of phony emotion. The best country songs are scribbled on the back of a bar napkin with half the words blurred by spilt whiskey or tears.
Then the songs of today are recorded by a group of session musicians who play on everybody’s CD, and produced by a handful of producers who want everything to sound the same. And they succeed – it all sounds like crap.
My favorite scene in “The Blues Brothers” is when they stumble into a backwoods bar and they ask the waitress what kind of music is usually played there, and she says “We like both kinds – country AND western.” Sadly, I fear they’re both now just a memory.
5 comments:
This may be the most accurate account of country music ever written. Where's ol' Hank when you need him? (and I don't mean Hank Jr.)
I couldnt agree with you more. It is sad that America accepts this crap on the radio as country music. I am 30 and only listen to George, Merle, Waylon, Johnny, and Hank. Went to a Merle/kris concert and it saddened me that i was probably the only one under 60 there. It is just like many things in America these days...music is just a neatly packaged product for generic people and the songs playing on the radio today will be forever forgotten in 6 months. -- Pam
I agree with what you said. I first began listening to country music in the mid-1990s. I came as pop and R&B fan and didn't like the really traditional stuff. I was a teen back then. I went through a period of 7-10 years where I stopped following country music. When I came back, rummaged through my now old music and went looking for new music; I had changed and grown up.
I was more open to the traditional stuff because I had lived real life and believed that if I wanted to hear real pop or rock, I knew where to go to. I don't need to hear 3rd rate pop/rock on country radio.
I'm not sure who to listen to. However, I've to a few songs by Waylon Jennings, George Jones, Hank III and others. I forget the other great names in country as it takes time to familiarize myself, especially when one wasn't born during that era.
When I look back at the 90s in country music in particular, I do see a sad death. Yes, the artists mentioned greatly contributed to it. I also believe that the agenda was more than making a quick buck.
The farming way of life has been killed off thanks to corporations such as Monsanto. It's easy to silence these indigenous voices in country music and introduce hillbilly pop acts who do nothing to further the traditions and heritage of country music. Making music is more than picking up a guitar and singing your heart out. You're communicating a culture and traditions from your community to a greater community.
The same thing happened with the blues when blacks went from the country to the ghetto. Now, blacks don't wanna sing the blues and the elders lament the ways of hip-hop youth. Look what came out of that experiment.
Agree 100% - I couldn't have said it any better! It's crap, it's a disgrace to traditional, REAL country music!
Wonderfully Stated Mark,.....especially after watching the 2014 CMA's.
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