I tried. I gave it more than a chance. (modern country radio content)

I know there has to be good country music being made today. I think my problem is with radio.

I set my car radio to a couple of country stations. I was going to give it a good chance. Well, it's been over a month. I didn't like it.

Some songs would start off OK but then I'd want to change stations about the first chorus.

I'd say most of the songs had the same themes:
1) Being a trouble maker or a rebel.
2) Going to church, praying or some reference to God.
3) Loving America, USA or simply "this country".
4) Being about old fashioned family kind of person.
(some singers claimed to be 1 and also be 2,3 and 4.)
5) Driving a truck
6) The men usually mention a woman being a "pretty little thing"
7) Some mention of country music or a specific singer.
8) Some reference to the military.

I know these are staples of country music and there's nothing wrong with any of the above. My problem is nearly every song seemed to have at least 5 or 6 of the above. I'm sure there were several songs that had all 8, and sometimes played back to back.

Of course, the other complaint is the usual about how it's just pop music with fiddles and banjos.

Back to looking online for the good stuff. I know it's out there. Keep in mind, my complaint is radio or at least the country radio stations in my area.

Rant over, thanks for listening. You can get off my lawn now.

Hmm.

I don't disagree with the content of the Nashville Pop lyrics observations. But that's not why the music fails. Neil Young writes about the same sorts of things, at this point.

The problem is in the "processing" of the content. Like when a housewife takes mostly wholesome ingredients and turns it into something disgusting. The family dare not complain, because the chip on her shoulder will just get bigger. Or perfectly good meats and spices turned into a hot dog, for goodness' sake.

Modern "country" music reminds me of a certain small town's reaction to this elderly German man who kinda got stranded there. He'd come to the USA to be with his daughter for the last years of her life (she'd emigrated here with a fellah who then divorced her when she was diagnosed) and when she died, this old guy didn't have the means to get back home. He was pretty deaf and had a heck of a time trying to learn English but he wasn't stupid. But people sure talked down to him, treating him like he had dementia at the very least. I get that same vibe from the way these Nashville Pop songs present themselves to the listener. The singer has no respect for the consumers of his or her music, and in most cases these performers have very little self respect, best I can tell.

We look at stories like Peter Green (Fleetwood Mac) and others, who leave a band and seemingly leaving behind an opportunity of a lifetime. Doesn't happen anymore. Stardom in Nashville seems to be such an incredibly difficult thing to achieve, that people will destroy everything they stand for to reach out for it and hang onto it, even if the process turns the performer into an empty shell. And some of those who are not changed, were never the stuff of heroes to begin with.

But I don't know. Against the backdrop of all this Toxicity, we have the pure and joyful example of Marty Stuart and Company, who somehow dodge all of the schidt and do great songs and seem as strong as ever, as unspoiled as you could be. How can he do what he does so well, while so many other people fail so miserably?

I don't like country, or Western, or what passes for R&B these days, or hip hop, or rap**. I've never needed to try to like them. I find that by not listening to the genres my days are untroubled by unnecessary angst.

It also means that I don't have to post threads that explain my dislikes.

Win/win for everyone, I reckon.




**I may have missed a few out...

the lyric content of the modern nashville stuff is often not great; however, instrumentally, most of it is usually pretty incredible so I try and focus on that.

Its the converse of most modern rock stuff. Better lyrics but usually the instrumentals are often really average or worse.

different strokes and all that you know

As long as I am standing on your lawn, one other thing:

You would assume, given where The Cabin is 100 miles from nowhere, smack in the middle of the Appalachian Mountains in the last, westernmost County in North Carolina, that I'd be full up to the brim with cloying Nashville Pop radio. Actually, nope.

See, between WUTC and WFIV and a bunch of other stations that play variations or blends of this Nashville Pop in their playlists, along with gospel, outlaw country and genuine bluegrass, and lots of oldies from various genres, I don't have to work all that hard to keep my consumption of Nashville Pop down at a very manageable level. I am beginning to suspect, that once you leave The South proper, the Nashville Pop playlist stations are an overstated mockery of this type of musical product, a sort of an Amos N' Andy, over the top parody which emphasizes all the most embarrassing and undesirable aspects of Nashville Pop and de-emphasizes all the cool stuff.

I mean, one would think that everyone in Eastern Tennessee or Western North Carolina has none of their teeth left, and subsists on 'Possum, Moonpies and Moonshine Liquor, if you consulted with persons from Guam, Portugal, and Manitoba. While we probably consume more Mountain Dew than we should, once you get in close enough to the subject under observation you discover complexity you might not expect. I must grudgingly confess that the issue is not necessarily the songwriters, or the lead recording artists, or even the producers of the CDs and other releases. There's a son of a gun radio station executive somewhere (probably out of state) who probably is stinking things up way more than any of the others in the chain, and maybe it is time we started calling them out.

Finally, while it isn't as prolific or dense as the New Orleans music scene, we get a lot of local performers, various sorts of "country music" all over the place in the Southern Appalachians and frankly, many people have a pretty sophisticated palette of "country music" tastes developed over generations. The big Combine radio stations are not so dominant here; the locals sometimes don't know who the best Salsa performers are or don't know who Sebelius is, but many know their roots music and they sometimes just will not put up with a yucky "Nashville Pop" playlist that you could get away with in Albuquerque.

I think processed Nashville pop country is WAY more popular in Chicago than in Kentucky or Missouri (I've lived in all three and have family in all three).

I am beginning to suspect, that once you leave The South proper, the Nashville Pop playlist stations are an overstated mockery of this type of musical product.

+1 to the above, and also to BB's general praise of WNC.

I think processed Nashville pop country is WAY more popular in Chicago than in Kentucky or Missouri (I've lived in all three and have family in all three).
+1

+1 to the above, and also to BB's general praise of WNC.

Something about being in the mountains, where people have less access to big market media, means more reliance on local media and means that media has a chance to be better, much better.

I'll be driving through WNC with the car FM radio on and hear a bunch of recordings from people headed to Merlefest to perform live, and then next I'll hear an interview of Winton Marsalis' brother, Delfeayo. When you get out into the flatter terrain, you get pounced on by the giant, low rent radio stations and they overwhelm the special pockets of goodness it seems.