A
Anonnymoose
New member
So many correct answers here
I can't remember who said all these things, and I can't seem to get the hang of quoting multiple posts, so I'm sorry for not being able to give credit where it's due.
First off, what's your definition of country? Some would say anything after Hank Jr hit the scene isn't country. Or Waylon & Willie. Or Porter Wagoner.
And if you think 'old' country wasn't all formulaic, you're outta your tree. It was the country version of Chuck Berry, or twelve bar blues. Take a bass line that could be in a German beer drinking song, ad some weeping steel guitar, a slowly strummed acoustic guitar, and yodel something about somebody cheatin' on somebody, and there you go. Didn't David Allen Coe or somebody like that make a novelty song about the formula?
But playing along with the premise, country became institutionalized big business. Until Chet & his boys established 'the Nashville sound', country was very regionalized with lots of small independent labels. Nashville killed that. Well, Chet specifically killed it. He ran that place with an iron fist, you did it his way or the highway. And if he didn't like you, you didn't get recorded. Period. That's what begat the whole 'outlaw' movement.
The urbanization and suburbanization of America. There are fewer and fewer people living in the 'country' who can identify with traditional country themes.
Video killed the country radio star. Not only is television the great homogenizer, but in a lot of rural places where they pretty much only had local country radio, now all of a sudden they get MTV on their satellite dish. WTF? Pandora's box is open. Then the boys in Nashville saw dollar signs and said 'hey- we want a piece of that!' and thus you have CMT, GAC, etc. So now, we gotta find somebody that the kids want to watch as well as listen to. Now, male or female, you've pretty much got to look like a model to get a recording contract, let alone sell any records. (OK, Gretchen Wilson is the exception). Thank the runaway success of Shania for that. And is it really the record execs fault? They're just giving the people more of what they have demonstrated with their wallets that they clearly want. So really, blame the fans, or at least acknowledge their share of the responsibility.
Popular music, in all forms, is generally a young person's game. So when the young people making country music started being of the group that grew up with rock, as well as country, it changed. Just like when the kids who grew up post-Elvis started making rock, it was different. Same with the Beatles. And on and on. Kids always rebel against what their parents listened to. It's their job.
As Gidge pointed out, country, like all popular music, has evolved. Some people don't like change. It reminds us that we're getting older. Country changes. Rock changes. Metal changes. Soul changes. Rap changes. Jazz changes. Even 'classical' music changes. Frickin' marching band music changes.
Get over it.
I don't know why I did this. I've never liked country. Except for country-rock. And some bluegrass. And Texas swing. And Depression-era songs. OK, but I still can't stand Porter frickin' Wagoner! How 'country' is a guy in a sequined suit that looks like he just walked off the stage in Vegas?
And all that hippocritical 'we don't smoke marijuana in Muskogee' crap. The music of clean living good Americans my ass. After closing the show with that number, Merle would climb into the bus and smoke more dope than I ever would've been able to handle. And on that good, clean family-oriented programming known as 'Hee Haw' (why they even always had a gospel number), one of the stars (Lulu) was tripping her ass off on handfuls of acid and quaaludes.
But tell us Moose, how do you really feel?
I can't remember who said all these things, and I can't seem to get the hang of quoting multiple posts, so I'm sorry for not being able to give credit where it's due.
First off, what's your definition of country? Some would say anything after Hank Jr hit the scene isn't country. Or Waylon & Willie. Or Porter Wagoner.
And if you think 'old' country wasn't all formulaic, you're outta your tree. It was the country version of Chuck Berry, or twelve bar blues. Take a bass line that could be in a German beer drinking song, ad some weeping steel guitar, a slowly strummed acoustic guitar, and yodel something about somebody cheatin' on somebody, and there you go. Didn't David Allen Coe or somebody like that make a novelty song about the formula?
But playing along with the premise, country became institutionalized big business. Until Chet & his boys established 'the Nashville sound', country was very regionalized with lots of small independent labels. Nashville killed that. Well, Chet specifically killed it. He ran that place with an iron fist, you did it his way or the highway. And if he didn't like you, you didn't get recorded. Period. That's what begat the whole 'outlaw' movement.
The urbanization and suburbanization of America. There are fewer and fewer people living in the 'country' who can identify with traditional country themes.
Video killed the country radio star. Not only is television the great homogenizer, but in a lot of rural places where they pretty much only had local country radio, now all of a sudden they get MTV on their satellite dish. WTF? Pandora's box is open. Then the boys in Nashville saw dollar signs and said 'hey- we want a piece of that!' and thus you have CMT, GAC, etc. So now, we gotta find somebody that the kids want to watch as well as listen to. Now, male or female, you've pretty much got to look like a model to get a recording contract, let alone sell any records. (OK, Gretchen Wilson is the exception). Thank the runaway success of Shania for that. And is it really the record execs fault? They're just giving the people more of what they have demonstrated with their wallets that they clearly want. So really, blame the fans, or at least acknowledge their share of the responsibility.
Popular music, in all forms, is generally a young person's game. So when the young people making country music started being of the group that grew up with rock, as well as country, it changed. Just like when the kids who grew up post-Elvis started making rock, it was different. Same with the Beatles. And on and on. Kids always rebel against what their parents listened to. It's their job.
As Gidge pointed out, country, like all popular music, has evolved. Some people don't like change. It reminds us that we're getting older. Country changes. Rock changes. Metal changes. Soul changes. Rap changes. Jazz changes. Even 'classical' music changes. Frickin' marching band music changes.
Get over it.
I don't know why I did this. I've never liked country. Except for country-rock. And some bluegrass. And Texas swing. And Depression-era songs. OK, but I still can't stand Porter frickin' Wagoner! How 'country' is a guy in a sequined suit that looks like he just walked off the stage in Vegas?
And all that hippocritical 'we don't smoke marijuana in Muskogee' crap. The music of clean living good Americans my ass. After closing the show with that number, Merle would climb into the bus and smoke more dope than I ever would've been able to handle. And on that good, clean family-oriented programming known as 'Hee Haw' (why they even always had a gospel number), one of the stars (Lulu) was tripping her ass off on handfuls of acid and quaaludes.
But tell us Moose, how do you really feel?
