Opinion: Modern country is the worst musical genre of all time
I seriously can’t think of anything worse. I grew up listening to country music in the late 80s and early 90s, and a lot of that was pretty bad. But this new stuff, yikes.
Who sees some pretty boy on a stage with a badly exaggerated generic southern accent and a 600 dollar denim jacket shoehorning the words “ice cold beer” into every third line of a song and says “Ooh I like this, this music is for me!”
I would literally rather listen to anything else.Seriously, there’s nothing I can think of, at least not in my lifetime or the hundred or so years of recorded music I own, that seems worse.
Though not a "modern" Country album, it is one I think some may find of interest.
After Creedence Clearwater Revival disbanded (unintentional ;-), John Fogerty recorded and released his first solo album. But you may not have heard it, or even OF it. The reason for that is the fact that it came out not under his own name, but rather as The Blue Ridge Rangers (which is just him, playing every instrument, singing every part). And the music is pure, unadulterated Classic Country music, as Hillbilly as all get out ;-) .
I didn’t like Creedence (still don’t), but loved this album the instant I heard it in 1973. But then my father grew up on a farm in South Dakoda, his father a sharecropper. I grew up in the suburbs of various cities in California, but came to love Country music when I first heard it done by Bob Dylan, The Byrds, The Band, The Flying Burrito Brothers, Commander Cody & His Lost Planet Airmen, Asleep At The Wheel, and Poco. Well, that’s not quite true; my mom had Johnny Cash’s Ring Of Fire album, which I played a lot. And I loved The Everly Brothers long before I heard John & Paul imitating them ;-) .
The songs on the Fogerty Country album:
Side 1:
"Blue Ridge Mountain Blues".
"Somewhere Listening (For My Name)".
"You’re The Reason".
"Jambalaya (On The Bayou)", by the Hillbilly genius Hank Williams.
"She Thinks I Still Care", a hit song by the favorite male singer of Gram Parsons and Elvis Costello: George Jones.
"California Blues (Blue Yodel #4)", by the Father Of Country music, Jimmie Rogers.
Side 2:
"Workin’ On A Building", a Country Gospel song.
"Please Help Me I’m Falling", the fantastic original recording was by Hank Locklin.
"Have Thine Own Way, Lord", a Gospel obviously.
"I Ain’t Never", written by Mel Tillis & Webb Pierce, a hit for the latter. Dave Edmunds also did a great version of the song on his superb second album Subtle As A Flying Mallet.
"Hearts Of Stone".
"Today I started Loving You Again", one of Merle Haggard’s best songs.
As you can see, Fogerty has great taste in Hillbilly/Country music. And his recorded instrumental and vocal performances are top notch. A good candidate for a Rocker’s first Country album.
For anyone who wants to hear current Country music that will appeal to his or her Rock ears, try Larry Campbell and his wife and musical partner Teresa Williams.
Larry was in Dylan’s road band for eight or nine years, then lead the band at the Midnight Rambles shows held in Levon Helm’s barn in Woodstock for about the same length of time. Teresa was a regular singer at the Rambles, and she and Larry have two fantastic albums available on LP and CD.
Jim Lauderdale is another, a fantastic singer and songwriter (a lot of the 80’s-90’s Country singers recorded his songs). Jim wrote the song "The King Of Broken Hearts" after reading about Gram Parsons characterizing George Jones thusly. For female vocals, Patty Loveless is highly recommended.
All the above are real/traditional/"hard" Country artists, not Rock guys who decided to jump on the Country bandwagon (no offense intended to Robert Plant ;-) . No songs about pickup trucks or drinkin’ beer down at the river.
For those who like Iggy Pop and dislike "modern" Country music, here’s a quote from IP about an old-timer with a new album: " ’London Too’ will break your heart if you’ve got one".
The song is on Tommy McLain’s new album I Ran Down Every Dream, his his first in forty years (!). Collaborators with Tommy on the album are Elvis Costello, Nick Lowe, Van Dyke Parks, Ivan Neville, Denny Freeman, and some others less well known. The album was released on LP and CD by Yep Rock Records (a very hip label) last year, and Tommy has been on the road promoting it (at the age of 82!), on some nights sharing the stage with Nick Lowe.
This album is just one of the many Country albums which you do not hear on the radio or TV, with songs that do not talk about going down to the river in a pickup truck to drink beer, are not sung with an exaggerated Texas accent, and are not played as Rock music. Would those of you who keep repeating the lie that THAT is what all modern Country music sounds like please stop doing so? There are dozens and dozens of currently-active Country artists who DON’T sound like that. Expecting to hear music you like on radio or TV is rather silly. ;-)
By the way, Iris DeMent’s new album is now available (sorry LP purists, at the moment only on CD), and her tour in support of the album is commencing. I’ve seen her live on stage three times, and she is a fantastic live performer. A startlingly-great singer, a powerful pianist (she plays a grand piano on stage), and a delightful entertainer. I saw her on her last trip through Portland, but this time she’s not coming up from San Francisco.
@thespeakerdude, I would agree, to some point, about culture/enviroment influence. But, medias plays enormous role, now more than ever and it is almost dystopian to observe results of its influences. Perhaps it was like that before, but it took us more time to get 'influenced' without internet. Today, I would guess, that there are very few music forms (except perhaps some archaic or particular folk music ) that are not known to very wide and very different type of people or nations...so is that means that all 'culture' is becoming the same, or that our present 'culture' is not build on very solid foundations ? On the other hand, classical and jazz music stand for about only 4% of all sold music, so, not sure if wide spread flow of information has brought us anything good in that regard (call me judgemental ) I share your opinion on midlle 3 examples, but that 'turbo folk' is very high on my list. Must add that techno music has made heroin (in my country) very unpopular at the time when it first started to be played in the clubs. So,not all bad there, ha,ha. As for me, most of my posts are in Jazzaffc.thread and I have not bought more than 10 albums of other genres in last 25 years. In my next life I plan to listen classical music much more..and sometimes I am surprised how the music I enjoyed younger now seems unlistanable or at least not interesting....
Angry gangsta rap. If there is any musical value, I can't get past the anger / violence
Free jazz and/or highly improvised. I appreciate the musical talent, but cannot connect emotionally
House music - the stuff that was in the dance clubs late 80's/90's into the 2000's. No real songs, just a stream of bass beat.
I would have formerly put older twangy country in there too, but I think I have softened to it.
I think culture/environment is huge on our influence. What you posted reminds me of dance club stuff during my formative teens and 20's. Not always high art, but catchy and fun. I am influenced by parents into popular country and folk, but a general love of music, older siblings heavy into what is now classic rock, and my own rock/pop/dance influences. I think my love of classical comes from movies. I think jazz grew out of that.
@thespeakerdude, thats interesting, meaning, the whole mind process behind someone's taste in music. Often I wonder what is more important,regarding our choices,our cultural upbringing, or perhaps some inclination toward specific expression that we are born with, including our present state of mind and soul. If I may ask, what are the other four examples of 'bad' music that you had in mind? I liked that clip you posted, not something that I would listen generally, but nonetheless it seems to be 'feelgood' music. By the way, the clip I posted, is a from very (unfortunately) prevalent 'music genre' among younger people in region where I live, called 'turbo folk'...but we have some others as well, almost bad as that one,ha,ha...
@alexatpos, I thought it was catchy, with a good beat. It would not even make it into my top-5. If I had to vote, I would probably say that brief period of what came across as highly manufactured music from the 60s, like this:
At the risk of beating a dead horse (no relation to a broken down pickup truck ;-), I must reiterate that there are many current Country artists making music that is deeply rooted in the music’s Hillbilly origins, not in Rock music, Southern Rock, or Garth Brooks and his ilk. No, you don’t hear it on radio or see it on TV, but so what? They’re out there, you just have to care enough to look for them.
Speaking of which, Robbie Fulks has a new album entitled Bluegass Vacation coming out on April 7th. Providing Robbie with musical accompaniment are a who’s who of Bluegrass practitioners: Jerry Douglas (the master of the dobro), Sam Bush, Tim O’Brien, Ronnie McCoury, Alison Brown, and John Cohen. All these musicians are virtuosos on their instruments, many of them also playing Bluegrass-Jazz Fusion music.
I mean, Jerry Douglas is heard on all of Alison Krausses albums, for God’s sake. Just pick up a copy of No Depression Magazine for an intro into the world of Americana/Alt-Country.
@alexatposThank you so much, Kurt Elling's voice inflections in the song are a great segue back to the great Country music artists who use only their voice and acoustic guitar to make a statement. And yes the original composition by Donald Byrd played in Dextar Gordon's "One Flight up" is a work of art...
The familiarity factor, or perhaps even the nostalgia factor may indeed have caused the notably higher positivity in responses.
Obviously this statement I’m about to make is entirely subjective, but I would posit that the music of the artists I listed is 20x better than that of Kenny Chesny, Brothers Osbourne, Eric Church, and music of that ilk.
That may also contribute to more positive responses.
The “iteration of genre” point you made is moot.
Every musical thing is a “new iteration” of what preceded it.
It just so happens that this new iteration really, really, really sucks.
@tylermunnsAgreed, but also they're two completely different iterations of the genre: one steeped in the traditions of bluegrass and frontier folk, while modern country is a cousin of contemporary rock, specifically southern rock and Americana.
Having played in an alt-country band for many years, it was interesting to see the audience reaction when we covered much of the canon of those you named versus when we would throw in a Kenny Chesney, Brothers Osbourne, Eric Church, or similar modern artists. The former always elicited a lot more smiles and applause than the latter. Usualy because the audience was older.
It’s really irrelevant to bring up canonical songs by Carter Family (very nebulous attribution of ‘authorship’ here, but I think it’s fair to say a mixture of originality and traditional-recitation occurred here, and the profundity of the influence of these versions remains difficult to dispute), Jimmie Rodgers, Red Foley, Bill Monroe, The Stanley Brothers, Roy Acuff, Ernest Tubb, Hank Williams, Eddy Arnold, Lefty Frizzel, Bob Wills, Hank Thompson, Bill Anderson, Johnny Cash, George Jones, Willie Nelson, Patsy Cline, Merle Haggard, Loretta Lynn, Mickey Newbury, Dolly Parton, Jerry Jeff Walker, Townes Van Zandt, Kris Kristofferson, and Billy Joe Shaver.
That is completely separate from this current stuff.
There should be no more conflations of this current stuff with the above stuff.
As for the subject and aldo I am not the fan, the country is definetely not the worst music genre of all time...op is simply not aware of all the music genres out there...
Here is my contribution for the ’worst musical genre of all time’...note the 42 mil. clicks! and the song is not even on english language...(I could translate it to you, but there is no use, trust me) Prepare for the worst...here is the link...
I’m a die hard Jazz listener, who was raised on Motown and Philly soul. But growing up I listened to Rock too. You couldn’t escape it, for that is what was played on the radio 24/7.
Jazz, for me, has never been the same since Bob Parlocha passed away David Basse took over with his own Jazz night time radio show here in the Midwest, thankfully, but it is not quite the same. Quick question, Bob regularly played a song that contained the lyrics "Dust under Tonya’s feet" any clue to who wrote and recorded?
It is Merican Pop music. (or, as I like to call it, redneck, pop, music)
most pop music (since the advent of corporate record labels) is devoid of any substance. That’s not to say that some music that becomes popular fits that category but pop music and music that is popular can be two different things.
Here’s a fact that may come as a surprise to those of you who are Neil Young lovers and Country music haters:
Neil likes Hank Williams so much he bought Hank’s Martin acoustic guitar, the one upon which the latter wrote all his classic Country songs. And it wasn’t cheap.
I listen mostly to Classical Music, but when I pick up one of my several musical instruments what usually comes out is Folk or C&W. It doesn't help that one of those instruments is a banjo.
I’m a die hard Jazz listener, who was raised on Motown and Philly soul. But growing up I listened to Rock too. You couldn’t escape it, for that is what was played on the radio 24/7. And there were great rock bands, Chicago, The Beach Boys, heck I even got into The Doors. The problem is, the 60’s were the era of hits. Hits were all over AM radio, every day, from every group. For 15 years. Outside of Chris Stapleton, whose a bonafide player, songwriter, with a gifted voice, I couldn’t name another country artist. Because in my ear Stapleton’s artistry crosses the boundaries beyond simply being a good country artist.
I could give a hoot n’ heck about “genre.”
In regards to terrible music, I know it when I hear it.
The stuff that hits my ears after emanating from speakers, stuff that is sourced from “contemporary country” stations, is ceaselessly, almost savagely, terrible.
It's totally cool to have your own opinion on music genres, and I respect that. I can understand how modern country might not be your cup of tea, especially if you're not into the exaggerated southern accents and cliches that seem to be everywhere. But hey, there are always different strokes for different folks, and I know there are plenty of people out there who love modern country. Personally, I think it's great that there's such a wide variety of music out there, so everyone can find something that speaks to them. Maybe you'll come across a modern country song that surprises you and changes your mind!
For those who think all current Country is crap, this may give you cause to reconsider:
On May 5th New West Records (whose artist roster is of a very high quality) is releasing (on both LP and CD) Rodney Crowell: The Chicago Sessions. I've been tellin' ya'll about Rodney for years now, but have you listened? ;-)
Well, you might now, because for this album Rodney got together with Jeff Tweedy of Wilco, both in writing the songs and recording them. I have mixed feelings about this partnership. While I'm all for Rodney attempting to widen his fan base, I consider Crowell a far better songwriter than Tweedy, and a far, far better singer (Tweedy consistently sings slightly flat). Curiously, they won't be singing in duet fashion, but merely in unison.
Why unison? Perhaps because they tried singing harmony and Tweedy couldn't do it. We know for sure Crowell can, there's plenty of evidence of that. He was for years Emmylou Harris' singing partner, and Rodney has recorded duets with Jim Lauderdale as well.
The album was recorded by Tom Schick in Wilco's Chicago loft. I'm perfectly willing to have my opinion of Tweedy's talent elevated. Are you willing to listen to one of the great Americana artists I've been tellin' ya about? No songs about driving down to the creek in a pickup truck to drink beer, I guarantee you. ;-)
Audiogon has been overrun with these bot threads for weeks now. Every time I try to point this out, I am pretty much completely ignored.
Ironically, both this thread, as well as the R.E.M. thread, stimulated some pretty intense discussion, which is great. The downside is that someone goes and clicks on one of the links, and ends up with some nasty malware.
To digress, the OP seems to be the same bot who started the REM thread. There's that same app shill in its 2nd post, just like in the REM thread. Sigh. At least we got another four page thread of dog whistles, musical one-upmanship, rap bashing, and pseudo racial stereotypes.
@macg19: Excellent! Now consider giving the album producer’s Buddy Miller a listen (if you haven’t already). He’s a mighty fine singer in his own right, an unusually interesting guitarist (he plays on the War & Treaty album, as well as those of Emmylou Harris), and though not a prolific songwriter has the songs of his wife Julie as material (they did two albums together, and he of course produced and plays and sings of her solo albums), plus he has excellent taste in the songs of others he has recorded.
I love the recorded sound Buddy gets: very "alive", with great immediacy and presence. And you often can hear the sound of the room in which his recordings are made, which I love. He sometimes manipulates the sound, to replicate that heard on old records (as did Dave Edmunds on his fantastic 1970 Rock ’n’ Roll re-imagining of the old Blues "I Hear You Knocking").
Lately I’ve been watching a lot of YouTube videos of Robben Ford discussing all things guitar. I saw and heard Robben live a lot when he moved to San Jose (during my senior year in high school I had been in a band with a bassist who was in Robben’s band for awhile), as did all the other musicians in town. I then followed his career when he moved down to L.A., where he worked first with Joni Mitchell. He went on to play with a lot of greats, including Miles Davis (who gave Robben his blessings when he tendered his resignation from Miles’ band, understanding Robben had to forge his own solo career), George Harrison, many others.
Anyway, Robben freely acknowledges that he is self taught, never took any lessons, and doesn’t read music. But if you watch his videos you will soon learn that he has a deep knowledge of music theory, which is more important than being able to read. That is, unless you intend getting into doing a lot of session work, in which reading is pretty much mandatory.
If it’s Soul music you want, there is one current "act" I can enthusiastically recommend: The War & Treaty. An unlikely name, but this husband & wife duo of Michael and Tanya Trotter are absolutely fantastic!
Listening to this now for the first time...great! Thanks for the suggestion.
@coltrane1we fell off the country music train pages ago. I don’t think anyone questions that Jazz was created by black musicians do they? I wouldn’t feel bad about it not being heralded. That is probably true of most instrumental only music today, even classical who is followed by a smaller and smaller percentage of the population every day. However, I think there are definitely influences of Jazz on R&B, Hip Hop and even Rap and those are definitely heralded by a large portion of the population and I personally believe they have within them, some of the most interesting (and complex) music compared to what else is popular today. You can’t force people to like something or appreciate something just because you do. You can personally expose them, but that is about it.
There is a long list of musical artists over the years who can’t / couldn’t read/write sheet music. Most reading this thread have probably even heard of some of them. Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Phil Collins, Aretha Franklin, Taylor Swift, Stevie Wonder, Jimi Hendrix, Prince, Elvis, Paul McCartney, John Lennon.
I’m black. I’m also a jazz musician as my jazz archtop photo and name suggest. I have also invested countless hours studying jazz history. I suggested that jazz was created by black people because what were the odds of the most disenfranchised creating such complex music?
That’s a remarkable fact. Not racist. It’s no different than saying Whites created country music. Whites don’t have to say that because everyone already knows that. But it is simply astounding that the most disenfranchised in a population could even create such beautiful music. And even more remarkable, many musicians couldn’t even read music, yet played beyond one’s imagination. Wes Montgomery, the greatest jazz guitarist ever, self taught, couldn’t read music. That’s a remarkable achievement. And yet, today, jazz isn’t even heralded by many of its only population. Which personally I find pathetic.
Still, there’s no answer to the improvisation aspect to jazz. You think there aren’t dynamics to jazz, and they only exist in classical music? Anyone who has studied music realizes dynamics exist in all music. It doesn’t matter what type of music you’re studying.
My apologies for contributing to this post for the focus should only be on country music.
@thespeakerdudeOne could could argue that a love of music may inspire those that share such to express dismay at powerful forces in the music industry continually, perhaps even aggressively, eschewing originality and intelligence in favor of pandering, exploitation of dubious notions of “authenticity,” and embracing wholesale unoriginality for maximized profits at the expense of high-integrity, original artists who may have otherwise enjoyed those allocations of time, energy, dollars, marketing and distribution.
These are choices the top labels make, and thusly the drivel that makes it onto the top stations and secures the highest levels of exposure is what the average kid, the average listener is most likely to be exposed to initially. Should one love music, it may be disheartening to see some kid receiving this type of thing as “the #1 thing” when it could have been something much higher-quality.
For me, “genre” thing has nothing to do with it. I think bad music is bad music. I think the excretions that ooze out of speakers when someone listens to the average modern, contemporary “country” station is aesthetically offensive. Putrid.
This criticism of mine has nothing to do with records released over the past 5 years by Colter Wall, James McMurtry, Ian Noe, and Jimmie Dale Gilmore.
Thank you for the prompt response and the apology. Accepted.
We all of us make mistakes from time to time. I have certainly done it myself. Once we click that doomed button, our contribution is indelible. We feel awful.
@clearthinker I am extremely sorry, clearthinker.
Those words of mine were NOT intended for this user, they were intended for coltrane1, it must have been the “c” thing when I fat-thumbed my response.
Big mistake.
I am very sorry.
clearthinker had nothing to do whatsoever with this conversation.
A lesson to me on careful selection when directing my forum responses.
These attacks on specific genres of music just come across as arrogant cries for attention. Why else would you go out of your way on a site, purporting to be about something related to the love of music, and tell everyone else what you hate in hopes of others jumping on the bandwagon?
You don't have to be "educated" in jazz to discuss its complexity or lack thereof. You only need to have some musical education and appreciation. Even assigning a complexity to music is probably a fools game. What makes a music complex? There is no official definition. If you just look at total variety of harmony, rhythm, melody, and dynamic structure, classical is always going to win. It is any wonder. We are talking about pieces of music crafted over months or years, for a large number of instruments.
So what makes Jazz complex and is it all jazz, or just jazz that does not follow typical musical structures in which case is it complex, or just different? Some would consider this music very complex: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LxXw2OiL6Q . Interestingly it bears similarity to some jazz music. Which came first?
All music is beautiful to those that enjoy that particular music. Jazz, old country, new country, classical, pop, rock, rap, hip-hop.
It was the Byrds' Sweetheart of the Rodeo LP that made me get beyond my hatred of Country & Western and begin to love it more than I rightly should. I might say, too, that somewhere down the line I bought a banjo. I still play it more than I ought to. I play it both Bluegrass Style and in the Old Time Frailing style. And oh yeah, Old Time frailing enthusiasts absolutely despise the boing-dee-boing-dee-boing bluegrass style. They consider it slickster sacrilege. Bluegrass banjo players, meantime, mostly consider Old Time banjo playing to be charming if a bit quaint.
@onhwy61“Musical labels are for record companies and radio stations marketing efforts.”
Thank you.
I feel people have inherited, internalized and accepted this stuff.
Music journalists don’t help. The way they describe music is just an exercise in hyphenation. Contrived balderdash to sound like they know what they’re talking about.
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