Why I Don't Listen To Country Music.

[DHopkins]

I think it was one of the Geezinslaw Brothers who said country music isn't music anymore. It's just poor rock and roll. I've always said it all sounds the same now. Some enterprising person has proven that point using audio editing software. It amazed me how well everything blended together. Check this out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FY8SwIvxj8o

[OldSausage]

Fair enough, although you can do the same thing with just about any 3 minute song genre with similarly laughable results. Here's Axis of Awesome explaining how it works:



This is why I don't listen to any music.

[Timbofood]

Homogenized, pasteurized, passified, lobotomized, certainly make one think about the common theory of the formulaic state of country music doesn't it.
Interesting way to show it though.
Have not listened to much country music since the early '70's, it was headed to the toilet or at least to the door even then.

[LongBlackVeil]

further, you can take the worst examples of any genre and say "this is why i dont listen to x genre". Kind of silly really, country is a broad term and there are alot of great country artists even today. But you wont find them on the radio, similar to all types of music.

But yes thats pretty crazy, especially when all the songs were running at once and it still sounded like one cohesive track

[William Smith]

Country music was Buck Owens, Haggard, Cash not that commersialized pop crap today"O look at pretty me, aint I Stud, that MUST sell records,sure aint talent!"

[DavidKOS]

" Why I Don't Listen To MODERN COMMERCIAL Country Music"

I'd rather put on my old 70's Southern Rock records than hear bad versions of the same music.

[Mandoplumb]

Everything on commercial radio is what I call commercial music. I get a kick out of hearing people disagree on what kind of music is best, when what they are discussing is just music ( i use the term loosely) made to make money. I have no problem with music making money, but it should be music first.

[mandocrucian]

country music isn't music anymore. It's just poor rock and roll.

Redneck rock...for the morlocks!


click pic to enlarge

[fatt-dad]

I like the three chords in old-time music better!

f-d

[Loretta Callahan]

This is the country music that works for me. Music is great. There's a lid for every pot.

[jaycat]

Never underestimate the ongoing influence of "Groove Me" . . .

[Rob Zamites]

Amazing.

[Bigtuna]

Sturgill Simpson will save country music!

[Denny Gies]

Like Larry Cordel says, "There's been an awful murder, down on Music Row".

[sgarrity]

I haven't listened to FM radio in YEARS. Thank goodness for satellite radio and a great cd collection. There's a LOT of good music out there. But you have to hunt a little bit for it.

[Jstring]

Thanks for posting- that video was pretty amazing...

I play bluegrass...classical....jazz... I generally hate soulless commercial crap as much as anyone here...

Yet, ya gotta admit, those six songs in the video are perfect for ridin' around on a warm summer evening with your girl... I guess I consider those songs "guilty pleasures"- like watching a formulaic Hollywood shoot-Em-up instead of something cerebral with subtitles...

All music has a time+ place where it's just right, I 'spose....

[Perry Babasin]

The funny thing about this mash-up song is that the individual songs absolutely sound the same, individually. I am a fan of just about any sincere, eclectic, artistically creative and well played music. My wife is as well, however she does like to listen to commercial Country music in the car. If you are in the car for any length of time (lately) most of these "Bro" songs will show up just about every hour and they are even more alike than most of the Nashville hit-mill. Besides being insanely repetitive you start to realize that many of these songs, particularly the "Bro" songs are pretty much exactly the same construction. Same melody, same chorus, same hook, same verse... This is sooo funny because I have been jiving her about these songs complaining "...didn't they just play this?" or "This song sounds just like the last one", before hearing this clip. We both cracked up at how "commercially viable" the fake mash-up is.

[JEStanek]

They explored this on NPR last week.

Jamie

PS, I hope he writes the song he doesn't like to pay the bills.

[yankees1]

country music was buck owens, haggard, cash not that commersialized pop crap today"o look at pretty me, aint i stud, that must sell records,sure aint talent!"

amen brother !

[Perry Babasin]

Hey Jamie! I heard that piece on NPR the other night and started laughing because I was already familiar with the particular songs and their clone-like-qualities. I was wondering if anyone here at the cafe would post something about it.

[allenhopkins]

If you listen to bluegrass, old-time, Carter Family, Hank Williams, Louvin Brothers, Byrds' Sweetheart Of the Rodeo, Gillian Welch, Townes Van Zandt, the Oh Brother Where Art Thou? soundtrack, Carolina Chocolate Drops, Dock Boggs -- whatever -- then you're listening to "country music."

What's on "country radio" today is just the latest fad. Rock survived the Archies, jazz survives Yanni, classical piano survived Liberace. Hang in there; the wheel will turn again and something with a bit more "roots," a harder edge, more authenticity will emerge. There was a time when "countrypolitan" was the big word, and the Nashville orchestral string section spread the syrup behind every country croon. Now we have crummy rock songs with a pedal steel whining somewhere in the background.

In the meantime, hey, that's why we have recordings. Country music's bigger than any trend that comes along. It'll be here for a long long time.

[JEStanek]

I don't spend time bemoaning how the genre I loved a while back is no longer like it was. I would rather spend time pondering what I do still like, the new and the old.

Jamie

[Ellen T]

Okay, any mention of Carolina Chocolate Drops erases any negative vibe that may have been running through the thread. Damn, they are superb and can play ANYTHING.

[journeybear]

Here it is, for easy self-torture:



Someone did a similar mash-up of a bunch of this century's pop songs a few years back, all with the same I-V-VIm-IV chord structure. I had noticed its prevalence before, but putting them all together like that was mind-blowing and disheartening at the same time. I haven't been able to come up with the right search parameters to find it again. The Axis Of Awesome video includes some of those songs.

I think of it as the current popular chord progression. There have been similar periods before. The doo-wop era was overrun with songs using I-Vm-IV-V. The ragtime/Tin Pan Alley era produced hundreds of songs using I-VI7-II7-V7, though many variations were used, too. Still, it's amazing how many still used a III7-VI7-II7-V7 bridge. Of course, I-IV-V has been popular throughout. I feel fortunate to have been coming of age during the 1960s, when a lot of the formulaic approaches were tossed out as being square, and an unpredictable creativity in songwriting ruled the day.

It would be nice to see something like that return to the forefront. But I wouldn't count on it.The general public cares a lot less about musical creativity and originality than people seriously involved in music (like us) do. Also, the creativity if the 1960s was at least partially fueled by some other things and ideas, and that has changed as well. It looks pretty grim from this viewpoint.

[Astro]

Well, at least its gluten free.