what happened to country music?

[scoots]

just looked at that post of Telarkaster's "waylon's guitar" by hank jr and once again got me to thinking-what the @#%$ happened to country music? don't get me wrong, i like alot of the pop country actually, it just doen't seem country to me, and i'm willing to bet i'm not alone on this. i like the gap that bands like montgomery gentry are bridging between the hard rock and country,(in fact, i love these guys!) but why don't i hear things like "waylons guitar" on the radio? or is it just my area? it seems like nashville has a "mould" that they stick to. if you ask me, country music needs to quit shaving for a while, country music's dog needs to die again, country music's woman needs to leave it, and it needs to go on an all night drinking binge again!!! at home, i have xm radio on the satellite, and this offers a variety of country i would have never heard before. to the bands that are on here that don't have the major record contracts, please keep playing, i need something to listen to. to nashville---grow some kahuna's, you're gonna loose your fan base. i think i've seen posts similar to this on the tdpri before, just needed to vent i guess...

[Telakaster]

Just wait till they start outsourcing country music to China.

[woodman]

you're preaching to the choir here -- i've been beefing about that since the '80s!

[GoldieLocks]

The more I delve into the history of Country music...the more I learn about all the lame-cheesy music that has been part of the industry for over 50 years. Alot of mainstream country from the 60-70's sounded like Pat Boone.

But we always had the OUTLAWS. "whew, thank goodness". Of course even Willie Nelson has made some horrendously wussy music over the years. As has Vince Gill, Chet Atkins, George Jones, Alabama. But Country keeps goin' on.

I'm more happy with country music right now than I ever have been. Probably more variety than ever (Except Keith Urban/Emerson drive ). If you ever get a chance to listen to the OUTLAW channel on Sirius satellite radio you'll be blown away with all the Amazing country music they crank out.

[markinlondon]

Why should country music be immune to Ted Sturgeon's statement that "90% of everything is crap"?

[Tim73]

I've just been reloading my Ipod & reckon it's about 80% country related music. My favourites are probably Waylon & Cash but I think there is a lot of good stuff about now. I like a lot of the trendy alt.country acts as well as some of the pop country. Maybe it's not as good as Waylon but there's a lot of stuff out there that's very enjoyable. I guess I'd agree with Markinlondon's post.

[fierce_carrot]

these kind of threads appear every couple of weeks...country music is very much alive and healthy....I saw Brad Paisley last week with 15K enthusiastic fans...

[5E3 For Me]

It all went to Austin Texas.

5E3 For Me

[Tim Armstrong]

Here on the Delmarva Peninsula, it's about as dead as Johnny Cash, Porter Wagoner, Buck Owens and Waylon Jennings.

Imagine my delighted shock a year and a half ago when I visited Texas and found (relatively) lots of real live country being played by folks who didn't seem to think they were doing anything unusual!

Cheers, Tim

[Just-Jim]

It all went to Austin Texas.

Completley agree. Mainstream country stinks right now. Fortunately, Julio Iglasius Jr will save it by winning John Rich's show "Gone Country". Although I am not so sure that Bobby Brown or Marcia Brady wasn't more deserving.

[ibobunot]

We should put country's picture on a milk carton....

[gtrman911]

I just listened to Jason Michael Carroll.....

...uh.........

sounds like every other song come out nowadays.

and, whatever happened to ugly cowboys?

in prison, they'd use him as currency

[tweedtone]

Keep in mind that at one time, drums weren't allowed on the Opry stage. Point being, "it's all gone to sh*t" is relative to the observer.

[ron jeffreys]

Originally Posted by ibobunot

We should put country's picture on a milk carton....

Thats a HELL OF AN IDEA !!!!

[Murphy Slaw]

Jerry Jeff Walker.

I so miss those days.

It was cool to be a bad assed redneck. Buck knife. Shotgun. See ya.

.357 Ruger.

I really hate the new World.

Murph.

[pottedmeat42]

My theory, for better or worse:

I think everything took a big shift (perhaps eliminate the 'f'!) around the late-80's when hip-hop started hitting mainstream. As it took over top-40, the average joe found himself assulted by music he didn't understand. Right about that time, the Eagles had a massive resurgence on record, radio & touring. I think country (w/the eaglets in tow) took in the huge swath of former rock-oriented folks who were passed-over in the hip-hop era. Of course, country changed in the process (perhaps this is why you see more Les Pauls than teles on the CMAs). Of course, the whole No Depression/alt.country movement started hitting right about the same time, allowing a vent for those folks who found the overblown country scene a bit nauseating (sounds a lot like the Outlaw movement in the 70's to me!).

It's still rock & roll to me! =jason

[sultan59]

Hank III

[ibobunot]

Originally Posted by pottedmeat42

the Eagles had a massive resurgence on record, radio & touring. I think country (w/the eaglets in tow) took in the huge swath of former rock-oriented folks

(Nashville Thinking) Hey guys if we take this country rock idea and take the country out of it we'll all get rich...

[scoots]

take a pop song, add a fiddle, a country guitar solo and bam!!!-a country song

[Acephspades]

Originally Posted by Just-Jim

Completley agree. Mainstream country stinks right now. Fortunately, Julio Iglasius Jr will save it by winning John Rich's show "Gone Country". Although I am not so sure that Bobby Brown or Marcia Brady wasn't more deserving.

Lol!!! But truthfully with a little work I think ole "Marsha Brady" really did seem like the real deal and for those of you that saw the show I really didn't appreciate John Rich's comment about the crowd not wanting to hear a simple 3 chord country song for his critique of her song, granted he gave her props for her song but the bottomline was it's nothing he wanted to be associated with. At that point he put himself on the same plane as Dee Snider. I expect that comment from Dee but John is so country you know?

To me the outcome with Julio winning is a no brainer. He is easier to mold and easier to sell. He really is basically an unknown in the states with only an older audience knowing his father. All the others have such a history of events that it would be extremely difficult not to "typecast". I mean it would be extremely difficult for the listening audience to give Cisco, Bobby, Dee, Marsha, etc doing country music a fair chance. Talk about artists selling out...
I could only imagine the heat a person would take for blasting a Marsha Brady CD at a family and friends backyard BBQ.

Right now modern country has a much larger listening audience than it ever has and I'd be willing to bet they are selling more records than any other genre. I'll give modern country props for being upbeat and harder hitting than it ever has but that's because it's doing in sense what people have been missing from rock music for God knows how long. It's too bad rock radio doesn't embrace this and let real country music have it's stage back. And John Rich is probably right, the audience isn't ready for that simple 3 chord country song yet and unfortunately when it is alot of that audience will be looking for something else. But someday country's version of "Nirvana" will come along and totally change the concept again.

[musicalmartin]

its probably followed its fan base and disappeared. Blue collar white folks suddenly are not a commercially viable market any more .Same in UK .no-one is interested in working class white people .

[Ethical]

It got "monetized"


Ted

[Kid Muddy]

Scoots, at least you're in Sandstone and can go to the Midwest Country Music Theater for old-time, honest country music.

As far as hearing it on the radio I guess XM or Sirius is the only choice.

The radio station at work can only get one station, a New Country one. I would rather suffer in silence than hear "Honky Tonk Badonkydonk(sp)" one more time.

[bowlfreshener]

Video killed the country music store...Unless you look good in tight jeans, you won't be getting a deal these days it seems...

Also its highly formulated and standardized pop music at times where the hook of the song will be around 19-30 seconds into a song. I used to head a call-out research department for a country music station, and when we had to get new soundclips, you could always just fast forward about 19 seconds into the song, and somewhere within 19-30 seconds in you would find the hook on almost 80% of the songs...

[Guitarzan]

Originally Posted by Ethical

It got "monetized"


Ted

Yup. Back in the good old days acts like George, Merle, Waylon, Willie, etc. had a big record if it sold the gold level. Then Randy Travis and some others went platinum, and the financial bar was raised. Acts that could generate 200k or 500k record sales were not enough (and are not enough). Old geezers don't buy recordings, youngsters do. The labels therefore push what they can sell to youngsters.

[Leon Grizzard]

Originally Posted by Tim Armstrong