Country Music?

[rippinlyricist]

Okay folks, I've been out of the scene for a while. My hey day of writing was in the 90s. What the **** (you fill in the blank) has happened to country music? I mean, from what I can tell, it's not really country music anymore. I can understand how country music needed to integrate with rock 'n' roll to stay relevant. I was jiggy with that transition - as a matter of fact, a lot of my songs are on the rockin' side. But what I'm hearing today doesn't even sound anything like what I would identify as country. It sounds more like pop. Maybe I'm just an old farm boy (no, really, I'm "old" and I was raised on a farm).

So, again, I reiterate, what the blank happened? And is there any chance something can stop the adultration of what I know as country music?

By the way, I'm sorry if this is posted in the wrong place - wasn't sure where to put it, but I thought some songwriters would be up on this kinda stuff. So let me know what's going on.

Thanks.

[MikeRobinson]

That's "Nashville Country" as it grinds out today, where the number-one instrument that is played is Auto-Tuner.

[rippinlyricist]

It makes me so mad... I think I'll write a song about it (lol).

[LemonCrush]

To a great extent, I agree! Most of what I hear doesn't even resemble what I'd consider "country" music.

Case-in-point....This past Saturday, my wife and I were flippin' channels on TV and stopped for just a moment on a locally broadcast country dance show that's filmed live each week at a local venue. We didn't stay long, but guess what they were playing? A Katy Perry song dance tune!!!!! Someone would have to explain to me exactly how & when Katy Perry techno dance began to qualify as country.

Anyway....I feel your pain-LOL

Tom

Maybe it wasn't a country show?

[Dkaudio]

I think what country music needs is a few "new" artists to emerge And their music be based in actual country music.... almost everything country now is like you said... its more pop based but with acoustic guitars and hints of banjos... its getting sad.... its time for a "Johnny Cash" to come out with just a 3-4 piece band and kick some tail!

[edison]

Luke Bryan is the best country male artist now.

Little Big Town is the best group.

 

Shania Twain, Faith Hill, and Sara Evans were the women of the 90s.

Carrie Underwood, Miranda Lambert, and Taylor Swift are the women now.

 

It's changing even as I type!

I am huge fan of Luke Bryan and Sara Evans ...always try to grab their live concert and music.Please let me know if any live concert orgnize in London...

[fanal]

yeah they are great

[raheelbs]

Yes i just love country music

[Guest]

Let's see... You're wondering what happened to your country from the Nineties?

 

I remember thinking that Shania Twain was ---except for a steel guitar's twang here 'n' there--- not stylistically distant from much of what was on the Pop charts of the day. And the same could be said of Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers in the Seventies 'n' Eighties.

 

Does the music of today's other "genres" sound more unchanged that today's "country" music? Does Beyonce's music sound the same as Chaka Khan? Adam Levine's like Rick Springfield's?

My hey day of writing was in the 90s. What the **** (you fill in the blank) has happened to country music? I mean, from what I can tell, it's not really country music anymore. I can understand how country music needed to integrate with rock 'n' roll to stay relevant. I was jiggy with that transition - as a matter of fact, a lot of my songs are on the rockin' side. But what I'm hearing today doesn't even sound anything like what I would identify as country. It sounds more like pop. Maybe I'm just an old farm boy (no, really, I'm "old" and I was raised on a farm).

So, again, I reiterate, what the blank happened? And is there any chance something can stop the adultration of what I know as country music?

[scotsman89]

there is always new artists and music coming out and changing what we think is something unchangeable who would have thought the beatles or the stones would be yesterdays (no pun intended) music but just as my parents said what is that cr@p , we the older generation feel the same . the new stuff is not like the old stuff, and our new stuff was not our parents old stuff , was it better back then yes to us .  the oldies

just my opinion .

[Kel]

Interesting discussion. 

 

I went to a festival the other night where there was 10 hours of country music in one venue. Had an incredible night, and loved every act, and they were all different. However, none of them played what might be called "traditional" country, and that got me thinking, what is "traditional" country? 

 

Like most things, traditions evolve too. Once I looked back to Hank Williams, Tammy Wynette, Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn, and their contemporaries as "traditional". Probably because they were at their peaks before I came along, or at least began to appreciate music. These days when I think "traditional" I think Glenn Campbell, Tom T Hall, Johnny Cash, Kenny Rogers, Dolly Parton etc.  A generational shift I'm sure. 

 

I am sure one day, they'll remember back to the good ol' traditional players like Shania Twain and Taylor Swift, but not yet. I think most of us think back around 20 years as being the golden age of music, like us, that 20 years ago just keeps moving forward, evolving, and finding new styles, new beats, and new fans.

 

Cheers,

Kel

[TomT]

Well, look. I understand totally where you are coming from given that I'm a Rock guy.  Rock music as far as I can tell is semi-dead and unrecognisable at the moment, which gives me my "in". 

 

Any established form of music I would imagine needs to take a break every once in awhile before it can be brought back again brand-spanking new.  Rock, Rap, hip hop and now country music doesn't seem to make a lot of sense nowadays, does it?  It's over-produced in many cases and more than a little hard to follow the tempo.  So do what I do.  Redefine the roots of the music from a fresh perspective and go from there.  The question for you however is if it's time yet?  Rock music has been in limbo for a loooooooong time and due for a rebound.  Country not so much from what I can tell.  Still, if you're going to be the lone voice trying to bring it back to where it was, I would imagine it shouldn't be too hard to find a following in both new and old audiences.

 

Going back to the basics when everyone else is trying to outdo one another is a call for oppertunity, not dispair.

[Kel]

 

Going back to the basics when everyone else is trying to outdo one another is a call for oppertunity, not dispair.

 

Well said.

 

And I agree with what you say about rock music too. I was a teenager during the 70s, and was heavily influenced by the Bristish bands, Deep Purple, Status Quo and to a lesser extent Led Zeppelin, and the Aussie bands like AC/DC, Flowers (later Icehouse), The Angels (known in US as Angel City) and Cold Chisel who were starting to make themselves noticed. I was never a "disco" fan, and was loyally following rock acts as they performed around the various pubs and clubs. I never really got into the American acts, with the exception of Bon Jovi and Bruce Springsteen who were vastly different, and have both gone on to be hugely successful. Other than those acts though, to me the 80s, 90s and so far the 0's (naughties?) have been abysmally short of attention grabbing acts, for me.

 

I never got into the grunge movement, though I respect what Mr Cobain did to singlehandedly (it seems) develop a genre. As rock continued to slide in my esteem, country (who was always in my mind due to family preference) has risen and I rarely listen to anything else these days.

 

Anyway, my opinions, right or wrong, good or bad. It's my radio and I'll listen to what I want, dammit! LOL

 

Cheers,

Kel

[scotsman89]

on bbc 4(a tv channel in uk) the last week had a documentary the history of country music if you can access it it is very good .Go's from the hillbilly music right up to modern day tells of how first it was the peoples music then bluegrass- honkytonk- then the rhinestones and on to taylor swift , well worth a watch if you can

Scotsman 

Edited May 14, 2013 by scotsman89

[amiyafoster]

Hi,

 

Great post. I love country music very much. country music originated in the rural regions of the Southern United States in the 1920s

[scotsman89]

sorry   amiya

country music came from Scotland  and Ireland, by the people who were forced out of there homes , the crofters as they were. it was just music played on fiddles and banjo's and the voice it then blossomed and grew into the original country sound , the peoples music sung by the farmers . the truck drivers . people having a party at there house . as it became more popular and money came into it it evolved into what we know as country music today

scotsman

[Kel]

That's a fairly narrow view of the roots of country music, a parochial view I am sure. While I agree displaced Scots and Irish had their influences, so did French, German, English, Welsh and Scandinavian immigrants to America who settled in the Appalachian mountains and took their music with them. Music is often a common bond between folks of different cultures and therein lay the roots of country music. 

Kel

Edited August 28, 2013 by Kel

[James Anderson]

i am scottish i would have thought that scotland and ireland were more responsible for celtic music  but i could be wrong 

[RodChandler]

Actually Scotsman is pretty close to right, as is Kel in his observation. It did originate mainly in Appalachia, however there were very few settlers there that weren't from Ireland, Scotland, Wales and to a lesser extent England. Where I'm from also was settled by Germans and Poles, and Czechs, so you find that country music from Texas in the earlier days contained more brass instruments and waltzes as well as the influence from those from the British Isles.

 

But country music as we know it, the music from Nashville derived mainly from the bluegrass styles of the Virginias, Kentucky, and Tennessee which were primarily Scot and Irish and Welsh. As time as gone by, and other regions of the country where settlers from other parts of the world hailed from moved into the country music business, you got more of an amalgamation of influence.

 

That was a long way to simply say that I agree with both Scotsman and Kel!

[midnighthowler]

I live in Nashville Tenn .... and I'm supposed to be a country music writer ........ I guess I've just accepted the fact that there's no country music anymore .... I love the Dottie West, Conway Twitty, Loretta Lynn , George Jones music , and I miss it .. to ME that was country music ..... but I think the people who would buy it. And That grew up in that era are mostly gone now , and if they are not gone, there 80/90 yrs old , and there's very few of them compared to the young people that are buying whatever they tell them country is nowadays .... in my opinion IF they did release a new "country" album by Conway Twitty, I doubt the young people would buy it because that's NOT what they were taught country music is ..... so here we are, stuck with s bunch of mostly rap / 60s rock/ s h I t ,they call vountry , on country radio .... but you know what ..... dinners ready, and I'm stopping here before I say too much ...lol