About the Country Music of this decade->

[PM Martin]

http://www.roughstock.com/reviews/justin-moore-outlaws-like-me

"Why are (some) country folks so darn defensive? If Justin Moore is any cultural weathervane for the South, these modern day outlaws sure act like musical defense lawyers. However, if Southerners are so overtly proud of their lifestyle -- which they express with Confederate flags, among other symbols -- why do they work so hard to justify their way of life? It just doesn’t make sense.

Moore’s first single from Outlaws Like Me, “If Heaven Wasn’t So Far Away,” is a beautiful meditation on man’s innate desire to get back in touch with friends and loved ones that die too soon. Unfortunately, this classy and sincere track is an exception to an otherwise classless effort.

One track called “Guns” even gets defensive about self-defense. It makes a weak sauce case for gun ownership. Instead of presenting examples of why having a gun might make some sense, Moore merely defends owning guns simply because he wants to have one. On “Bait A Hook,” Moore looks down his nose at anyone that doesn’t know how to bait a hook or skin a buck. [Uh, when it comes to skinning bucks, that would make most of us unqualified, Justin. I don’t think we’re all idiots merely because we don’t hunt beautiful defenseless creatures with high-powered weaponry.] Then on “Beer Time,” Moore has recorded a song readymade for a beer commercial. It’s as though he’s replaced the word “Miller” with the word “beer.”

It seems since 9/11, the country music community has become very jingoisitic, and worse since Obama won in 2008.

[sadbear]

1. "Blue-collar" comedy didn't help either.

There's pride in being a redneck idiot.

[Ken Burch]

45. Especially as practiced by "Larry The Cable Guy"...who ISN'T blue-collar(or Southern)

He's a wannaBubbabee.

[Puzzledtraveller]

2. There's nothing country about country music anymore.

I have read some opinions and several of them point the finger at Garth Brooks as the beginning of the end.

[tularetom]

3. It ain't country and I'm not so sure it's music either

[riqster]

4. Remember "Man, I Feel Like a Woman"?

It was a straight ripoff of Aerosmith's "Uncle Salty".

Country Music has become classic rock with nasal vocals.

[Puzzledtraveller]

5. Boot Scootin Boogie! are you serious!?

The bar was on the ground after this.

[Volaris]

12. That, and Garth Brooks made it culturally ok to be a redneck idiot in America.

Small Towns don't HAVE to be populated with Small Minds. Modern Country Music isn't doing those people a whole lot of favors.

The song Merry-Go-Round ESPECIALLY pisses me off...even though I GET the message that it's trying to send (don't be as dumb as your parents, you CAN be smarter than that, but you have to WANT it. You have to SACRIFICE for it. Life won't GIVE it to you.)

The song pisses me off because, do you REALLY need to be told these things? Well, after the advent of Garth Brooks "it's cool to be a redneck" philosophy, yeah, you probably DO. The message it sends is REALLY good, it's like "HERE is your Problem. Right there, in your Face. What are you now going to do about it? OH. NOTHING? Well, then FUCK YOU.

And as a caveat, some of the lyrics could almost pass as folk-style pop-rock. It's just the STYLE that aggravates me I guess.

[pamela]

38. Garth Brooks is a Democrat

I know that's not really relevant to what you were saying, I just like to remind folks here from time-to-time that there are quite a few Dems in country music, like Garth, Trisha Yearwood, Faith Hill and Tim McGraw, Kathy Mateo, Roseanne Cash, Dixie Chicks...quite a few more. I especially like pointing that out to country music loving right-wingers. They are always shocked.

[TlalocW]

53. Garth is okay

I never thought of his as a redneck. I met the man, and he's very approachable and humble about his success. I helped program his first ever website (he's moving on to something different now). In an initial meeting with him and a couple of his people (in which I had been ordered by my boss not to say anything), I told him he needed to have video of him from, "Muppets Tonight," on the site. He smiled (while my boss face-palmed) and said that was the most fun he ever had on a tv show. That makes him okay in my book.

TlalocW

[Tempest]

28. Country went commercial and that was the beginning of the end.

Now it seems to be about whatever rage the hicks feel about the government.

[lastlib]

44. When they started doing what rock-n-roll had done thirty years before....

...they lost me. (not that they ever really had me........)

[Tsiyu]

6. "New Country" is just bad Pop

with third grade level lyrics and a twang once or twice thrown in.

Trained monkeys could write "New Country" songs...and probably do.

[Skidmore]

11. Word! AND there are no radio stations which play the real stuff anymore either.

[Tsiyu]

18. I am spoiled

we have WSM, 650AM, which plays the Grand Ol Opry.

Last night they did a retrospective on Hank Williams - 60 years since his death - and it was wonderful listening to old broadcasts of Hank playing live for hours.

There's another FM station that plays classic country, and they have a great mix, out of Chattanooga, but can't remember the name.

The New Country makes me want to call drone strikes on my own radio.

[WCGreen]

19. go after the Internet Radio Shows and search for Americana...

Good stuff from Steve Earle, Bonnie Ryatt, Nanci Griffith, Ryan Adams....

[Tsiyu]

21. True..hard to stream on dialup

But I love Americana stations and shows when I can find them.

They are still making good independent country and bluegrass music in Americanaland, but the big labels are just selling High Floofy Corny Syrup, and destroying the reputations of many a radio station.

[WCGreen]

24. Broadcast radio is there to bring as many people as they can to that spot on the dial...

The way to do that is to appeal to the lowest common denominator.

That's why all Pop Deva's sound the same, all baritone Cowboy Hat wearing dudes sound the same and all the boy bands that never seem to die all sound the same.

[Tsiyu]

26. I'm so old, I remember

when there were tons of independent stations playing great songs no matter what you liked.

There are about three music stations now, mass produced and blaring crap nationwide.

Everything's a racket, but there are more options if you don't need free, so radio stations suffer from their own lack of vision and creativity and local flavor.

I just hear New Country and want to cry for all the dollars wasted on that crap. The consumers are just buying garbage without seeming to care that there are "real goods" out there for sale...

[Boomerproud]

16. We have a winner.

Even the old school icons (Parton, Jones, Lynn etc) think today's music sucks.

[Tsiyu]

22. Welcome to DU

I waver between setting my clock radio with bad country or right wing talk shows. That way, I HAVE to get up to turn the crap off or I risk throwing up. Wakes me straight up with the awefulness and vapidity.

[reformist2]

31. Links? I'd love to read more about what they think. :)

[DollarBillHines]

29. Taylor Swift made $25M last year

Singing oatmeal songs.

"Country Music" disgusts me.

I grew up listening to the X out of Piedras Mexico - Louisiana Hayride, Grand Ol' Opry and on and on.

This new stuff is so bad.

[Tsiyu]

36. A fool and his or her money and all that

Swift has a few decent songs, but she's a baby. And she's a Pop artist, not a country star, no matter what they say.

It really is so bad....

[TM99]

55. Thank you!

I have been telling my girlfriend that for years now. It started in the 70's and 80's being more 'pop' oriented but there was still a lot of old-timer's making some great country music during those decades. When the neotraditionalists movement started, I was quite pleased. But by the 1990's, I was moving away from what was on the radio to what was only being played locally.

I have been the most appalled by the rise of such 'country' stars (really pop singers!) like Kelly Clarkson & Taylor Swift. Swift was born in PA and moved to Nashville to be a 'star'. They now refer to her as a Tennessean, when she was not born there. Yeah, having been born in Knoxville, that chafes me a bit. Her bubblegum pop country is horrible.

I actually heard some out-takes and demos of one of her songs. Her voice had no, and I do mean, no twang whatsoever. Then I heard the album version. The engineers literally 'added' twang to her singing. Damn disgusting.

Give me the bluegrass and classic country now any day - Bill Monroe, Stanley Brothers, Tony Rice, Jerry Douglas, Ernest Tubb, Johnny Cash, Hank Williams Sr., Bob Willis, etc. I even like a lot of the Outlaw Country. Today I am enjoying the fusion of jazz and bluegrass going on in Nashville by such musicians as Victor Wooten and Bela Fleck, Doc Watson, and Sam Bush.

[HughBeaumont]

7. "Nashville Music Factory" Country is SHITE.

Most of it has absolutely nothing in common with old C/W. Bunch of wingdings with twangs and a flag. They lost the mullets, but the mulletude never left.

[RC]

8. How 'bout this home grown guy?

(I much prefer Oldies -50/60's, to Country)

[WCGreen]

17. Blah Blah Blah....

[RC]

41. Well, OK.

The only reason I know about him, is he is from Missouri and I liked the song Pontoon.

Feel better now?

[Go Vols]

9. .

They are nothing like Johnny Cash anymore.

[Aristus]

10. Modern country music exists so untalented people can have careers, too.

Yes, Toby (Kick Their Ass 'N' Take Their Gas) Keith, I'm looking at you.

You can kiss my ass, and suck the gas out of my anus, but that's about it...

[hughee99]

47. Yes, unlike hip-hop and pop

where all the artists are talented musicians that sing about important issues.

[maxsolomon]

13. Rural defensiveness against Urban snobbishness

or southern defensiveness against northern snobbishness.

except there's not as much urban snobbishness as they think, at least not enough to justify the defensiveness & pride in willful ignorance.

[Tikki]

14. It must make the composer, lyricist and singer feel like they are doing protest music...

but great protest music poses a solution within...We might think of protest music as folk music..

But here is an example of non-folk protest song:

solution: "Tricky Dick, stop your shit, Tricky Dick, please quit..."


Tikki

[WCGreen]

15. Commercial Country Music is pretty formulaic just as much as pop music...

[KT2000]

20. one thing for sure -

they are more American than everyone else - or do they say.
I find the lyrics of many of those songs very elitist.

[NCTraveler]

23. Yes, the whole country genre changed after Obama won in 2008.

That is truly funny.

[onenote]

46. +1

[MightyMopar]

25. Best propaganda in the world! Glorifies working for the minumum wage, guns, toxic relationships, etc

Actually is more deadly than Faux News. I could go on for days about how evil commercial country has become.

[PM Martin]

50. +1

[alcibiades_mystery]

27. There's plenty of good alt country out there, like Old Crow Medicine Show and others

Is Big Time in the Jungle jingoistic?

[yourout]

30. About the only Country performer I can stomach is Brad Paisley.

[link:

|

[mainstreetonce]

34. Brad

He said that he is so grateful that Obama will be the first president his kids remember.


That was brave. You can get Dixie Chicked for that.

He is a great guitar player and really funny. It is on my bucket list to see him in concert.

[yourout]

35. Saw him last year with Scotty McReady and The Band Perry. Good show.

[LeftofObama]

43. I like that song of his about the kid in his parents basement

who is on the internet. I haven't heard it in a long time and I can't remember the name of it, but that song is hilarious!

[yourout]

48. This one....

[LeftofObama]

49. Yeah! That's the one!

I just crack up every time I hear that song!

[reformist2]

32. For those who don't know, here's an example of how country music *used* to sound.

[yourout]

33. Here is a little Roy Clark

[mainstreetonce]

37. If any of y'all

Don't want Zac Brown, I will take him home with me.

[yourout]

39. Zac Brown I like....saw a crossroads special with Zac and Jimmy Buffet. Pretty good.

[DearHeart]

40. Most of the "country" artists nowadays are really horrible! There are a couple who are really quite

good. The Band Perry, Josh Turner, Brad Paisley, and The Zac Brown Band, other than these, the rest are pretty much crap! Most of the artists from the "last century" are the ones with the talent, yet they cannot get airplay! They also can't get their albums promoted, so no one knows they're still making music. Unless you find them on FB or somewhere on the net. I know that they're all getting older, but come one...the Rolling Stones are still out there and they're almost 70!!

It's a shame. They throw out really talented people to give someone like Taylor Swift a career. All of her "music" sounds the same and I cannot stand her voice...makes my ears bleed!!

Guess this music is all about the tweens and teens too As if older people won't fork over any money for the CDs or downloads.

[Initech]

42. I see your Justin Moore and I raise you Toby Keith - Cold Beer Country

[tularetom]

51. There's still good music being made

But you'll never hear it on "country" radio.

Try this:

It tells a story that everybody can relate to and musically it's top drawer.

[graham4anything]

52. Johnny Cash wrote about Zimmerman when he sang he shot a man in reno, just to watch him die

btw, Taylor Swift and Toby Keith are democrats.

And Alan Jackson listened to CNN back when CNN was democratic and not Fox
and his Where were you when the world stopped is perhaps the most democratic liberal song
there could be.

It took guts to mock those that picked up guns and wish one would all just have watched
I love Lucy reruns instead. (Lucy being a female way ahead of her time, and in a mixed marriage to boot).

It wasn't coincidental he sang those exact words he wrote.

And don't forget in the 1980s, Don Williams sang "I don't believe that right is right and left is wrong" in his I believe in you song.
Again, lyrics and singing so direct, nobody got they were putting them down.

[TlalocW]

54. Whenever I visit my mom

I'm normally up late on my laptop, and she falls asleep in her easy chair tuned to a country "music" station. I swear, last visit, about 8 songs played with a male vocalist, and I couldn't tell them apart. Just the same fake overdone nasal twang. Finally, "El Paso," by Marty Robbins came on, and I exclaimed, "Oh, thank GOD!" loudly enough to wake mom.

I grew up listening to old country and not appreciating it because how many kids like what their parents do, but I've grown to appreciate Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton, Marty Robbins, etc. The one version of, "Stairway to Heaven," I can actually stand (that's not a parody like the one done by Rolf Harris) is Dolly's cover of it.

And speaking of Dolly... What the hell did Jolene look like that Dolly had to beg her not to steal her husband? Woo!

TlalocW