The appeal of New Country music?

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Johnny Action, Sep 9, 2019.

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  1. KJTC

    KJTC Forum Resident

    Location:
    NYC
    Both genres are open to criticism for it and I’ve seen a lot more meaningful criticism for hip-hop and rap, particularly from black female music journalists.

    What’s changed with country music, at least with what’s on the radio, is that the genre is completely dominated right now by the songs that present women as little more than window dressing. I’ve been a country music fan for thirty years, and been writing about it for fifteen, and it’s been remarkably bad this past decade. There was a stretch there where only three women were regularly played on country radio, one of whom has since gone pop. It’s gotten a bit better in quantity, if not quality, with a couple more ladies breaking through. I don’t think that the bro country songs would be as polarizing if there were more women singing about their own experiences to balance them out.
     
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  2. President_dudley

    President_dudley Forum Resident

    Can I put on some real clothes now?
     
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  3. Evethingandnothing

    Evethingandnothing Forum Resident

    Location:
    Devon
    I feel sorry for white folk with brown eyes. They got not home. Lol.
     
  4. Wombat Reynolds

    Wombat Reynolds Jimmy Page stole all my best riffs.

    Location:
    Atlanta, GA, USA
    but none here on this thread.

    which was my point.

    its only really bad because white guys are doing it.

    I hear just as many love songs as "objectification" songs on my station.

    the last gig I played with a modern country band, there were LOTS of females who clearly were loving getting objectified.. or perhaps thats how you might describe lifting their tops off, getting into a OMG how short are those shorts daisy duke contest, dry humping each other all over the floor, etc etc.

    All OK with me. If thats what they want to do, whatever. If they want the boys (or the girls) to ogle and drool, and be sex objects, its their life. Perhaps in some small way some of these objectifier artists are simply seeing the same things I am.

    perhaps after writing about it for 15 years, instead, you should just write MUSIC and see what happens. Get into a band. Do a solo act at a coffeehouse. Take it to the audience. All you;'re getting here are nods from the Hoffman forum millie man-bun moral majority.

    I have a completely different point of view than people who just sit back, dont participate, and then pontificate from afar. Like the "article" in question.
     
  5. BradOlson

    BradOlson Country/Christian Music Maven

    Bluesman Mark, you ought to discover the MGM years of Hank, Jr.
     
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  6. Bluesman Mark

    Bluesman Mark I'm supposed to put something witty here....

    Location:
    Iowa
    If you're talking in the mid 70s, that's the era I was referring to. There are 2-3 albums from that era I like. Once he released Family Tradition in 1979, his style began to ossify into the formula he followed from then on.
     
  7. BradOlson

    BradOlson Country/Christian Music Maven

    Not only the mid 1970s, but also the stuff from 1964-1974 (Eleven Roses, All For The Love of Sunshine, Standing In The Shadows, Cajun Baby, etc.). From 1975, the Hank Williams, Jr. and Friends album is not only a classic country album but one of the great Southern Rock albums as well.
     
  8. Terrapin Station

    Terrapin Station Master Guns

    Location:
    NYC Man/Joy-Z City
    I was going to read through more of this thread but I decided my time would be better used enjoying some Luke Combs

     
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  9. Johnny Action

    Johnny Action Forum President Thread Starter

    Location:
    Kailua, Hawai’i
    What’s wrong with social justice? And What’s so funny about peace love and understanding?
     
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  10. zen

    zen Senior Member

    Anyone I've come across that likes new country isn't someone I want to hang out with. They never seem to be into the musicianship side of things....for starters.
     
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  11. Johnny Action

    Johnny Action Forum President Thread Starter

    Location:
    Kailua, Hawai’i
    To clarify, my intention in starting this thread was not to start a culture war or even (gasp) a race war. My main interest was to get peoples’ opinions on how the musicality of country music appears to have evolved (devolved?) from earlier decades to where it is now. I probably failed to explain that clearly in the OP.

    I can only comment about what I hear on the FM radio of about four radio stations to which I am exposed during my travels up and down interstate 5 here in the state of Washington. I only remember the call letters of one of them: KAYO. But I’ve been paying close attention and I would say that 90% of the songs I hear appear to be re-worked rock music, soul/funk music, even 40s and 50s crooner ballads. The difference being is that the singer has a very very heavy southern drawl (often times excessive to the point of comical, and I grew up in south Texas) and there’s a lot reverb and twang on the guitars. Obviously the rhythm is a bit different as well but only sometimes. It often strikes me that these artists have merely taken main stream MOR rock music and just slightly tampered with it so as to rebrand it as country. And I find this not only unpleasant to listen to (aesthetically) all but also simply lazy.

    I have no doubt that there are many other modern country artists that do not fit this mold, but I just don’t hear them on the radio stations that I can capture. And I have a little reason to believe that this part of the country (the Pacific Northwest) much different from the rest of the country as far as the types of country music to be found on commercial FM radio stations. Maybe around Nashville or Dallas there’s a wider selection and probably a couple of stations that play only classic or traditional or older artist, but overall I’m willing to bet that what i hear up here is what pretty much anyone in the US hears on FM radio.
     
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  12. Johnny Action

    Johnny Action Forum President Thread Starter

    Location:
    Kailua, Hawai’i
    And just for the sake of cognitive dissonance, there was about a 15 minute segment while I was driving today from Seattle down to Aberdeen (by the way, that’s where Kurt Cobain grew up, for those that didn’t already know) during which there was a string of about four songs, all sung by women, with very strong feminist themes. Again, I was driving and didn’t really want to check Google but one of the songs went on and on about how she no longer misses him, she misses herself, and she can buy her own drinks at the bar, thank you very much, and she doesn’t need a man to make her feel complete, etc., etc. The other songs were in a similar lyrical vein . I smiled and thought to myself “I guess this New Country thing isn’t as one dimensional as I thought.” But as soon as that was over, it was back to young guys commenting on their girls tight bluejeans and long blonde hair, with a cold beer on a Friday night. And the compositions all sound like a variation on the same theme. I’ll take Dwight Yoakum and Wayne Hancock any ole day over that. And I’m looking for younger artists like them too.
     
  13. Evethingandnothing

    Evethingandnothing Forum Resident

    Location:
    Devon
    Sounds like Def Leppard to me. I'd never have figured them to be a country band. But there ya go!
     
  14. Bluesman Mark

    Bluesman Mark I'm supposed to put something witty here....

    Location:
    Iowa
    I grew up on most of those albums you mention, & I personally wasn't very fond of them myself. But, mid 60s-early 70s country is an era I haven't explored a lot, in large part because I was exposed to it daily, & didn't like it then.
     
  15. KJTC

    KJTC Forum Resident

    Location:
    NYC
    Start with Jason Isbell, Brandy Clark, Ashley McBride, Rhiannon Giddens, and Kacey Musgraves. I assume you’re already familiar with Chris Stapleton.
     
  16. BradOlson

    BradOlson Country/Christian Music Maven

    Most radio listening is on FM radio, not AM which if there are music formats, they are devoted to older country, oldies, classic hits, standards, etc. Otherwise, AM is mostly some kind of talk radio whether it is sports talk, right wing news/talk, preaching/evangelism, Hispanic, etc.
     
  17. NaturalD

    NaturalD The King of Pop

    Location:
    Boston, Mass., USA
    Interesting thread. You can always find people with a strong aversion to academic inquiry and curiosity. In earlier times they would have made excellent witch hunters.
     
  18. Raunchnroll

    Raunchnroll Senior Member

    Location:
    Seattle
    Bunk. The purpose of starting this thread was not to promote a discussion of 'musicality' whatsoever. Your own description for the thread subject used the word 'shifting themes' - and you provide a link that asserts country music 'increasingly' objectifies women and promotes whiteness.
     
  19. Terrapin Station

    Terrapin Station Master Guns

    Location:
    NYC Man/Joy-Z City
    Assuming you've paid any attention to my posts over the last couple years (which is a big assumption, I know), do you think I'm someone who is into "the musicianship side of things"?
     
  20. Johnny Action

    Johnny Action Forum President Thread Starter

    Location:
    Kailua, Hawai’i
    You’re clearly the type of person with fixed beliefs, who simply adjusts reality to fit them.
     
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  21. Terrapin Station

    Terrapin Station Master Guns

    Location:
    NYC Man/Joy-Z City
    Country has always had a lot of crossover with other types of music--swing, rock & roll (which it was also a significant influence on), pop, soul, etc. So this isn't really anything new. Has there been a ton of country lately that sounds like Hank Williams Sr., early Johnny Cash, Patsy Cline, etc.? No, but that's just like there not being a ton of rock for awhile that sounds like Little Richard, early Rolling Stones, Janis Joplin, etc.
     
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  22. Johnny Action

    Johnny Action Forum President Thread Starter

    Location:
    Kailua, Hawai’i
    Don’t forget Hawaiian music. Sometimes I hear sings where the only difference seems to be the ukelele versus guitar. It’s uncanny how similar the two genres can be.
     
  23. Wombat Reynolds

    Wombat Reynolds Jimmy Page stole all my best riffs.

    Location:
    Atlanta, GA, USA
    yeah I notice this as well. Which is crazy because honestly, nashville has the best musicians on the planet. The people in these bands are mind-boggling players.

    But the key to this is looking at how this music is image marketed and positioned. 9 out of ten times, they're marketing a SINGER. Sure we can all name a few "bands" in modern country, but the majority, maybe even the vast majority... are SINGERS. This makes the musicians even more faceless. The fact that the SINGER'S music is often written by somebody else, and recorded in Nashville by one group of A-list players, and goes out on tour with another group of faceless but incredible players -

    all of that combined with an audience that really doesnt even notice -

    you get a situation where its all about the SINGER and nobody else matters.

    I know a few guys up there, not A-listers, but guys who work in the demo factory up there - they have some amazing stories. Theres one story about a VERY famous female singer who literally spent 4 hours on her album - showed up and sang what the producer told her to - and that was the only effort she made for the music. Then went off to the photo studio for the cover and spend more time doing that -

    then they put her on the cover.

    and the audience simply does not care.

    very strange.

    but then again, look at a lot of modern rock. Lots of great but faceless players there as well. The days of the rock guitar god as household name are pretty much over.
     
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  24. Wombat Reynolds

    Wombat Reynolds Jimmy Page stole all my best riffs.

    Location:
    Atlanta, GA, USA
    and you dont do that. right.

    another one into the round file.
     
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  25. Wombat Reynolds

    Wombat Reynolds Jimmy Page stole all my best riffs.

    Location:
    Atlanta, GA, USA

    exactly.

    the premise here was a thinly veiled attempt at promoting some sort of biased, racist social justice attack, disguised as a musical conversation.
     
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