Country music has gotten progressively worse over the years

[RichSZ]

Sturgill Simpson. Very, very good.

 

[27sauce]

I was in a band that opened for Lone Star, would have been in '99, I can't remember where, it was either the Wildhorse in Orlando or at the Dallas Cattle Baron's ball. I wonder if he was in it then?

He was gone by then, according to Wiki he was in the band from 92-98. He was at Cowboys from 96-99.

 

[ripgtr]

He was gone by then, according to Wiki he was in the band from 92-98. He was at Cowboys from 96-99.

Yea, I played at Cowboys a couple times in 2000. The band I was in lost a couple people right at the time the Coupland dance hall house band was disbanding, so we grabbed a couple of them guys, they were playing with us at the time we played there.

 

[olimassaquoi]

Define innovation and impact. And, the acceptable proportion of the two to qualify.

Something could be a big thing fifty years ago but if new generations of listeners aren't consuming it, then the "timelessness" isn't really apparent.

Is Bing Crosby "timeless"? Is anyone listening to Bing these days who was born in the last half-century?

When I'm out and about these days I hear the music of my high school and college years (MTV hits, alt-rock) in stores. It's not because it was "timeless"--it's because people my age are programming Muzak and stores want to cater to folks in my demographic. I do not hear Hank Williams when I'm at the grocery store. I do hear Fastball.

Blake Shelton, Luke Bryan, and Thomas Rhett are the opposite of innovation and impact. I doubt if their fans will be listening to their music 50 years from because it's so here today/gone tomorrow. The bandwidth has gotten smaller. Bing Crosby is timeless they still play his Christmas album.

 

[27sauce]

Blake Shelton, Luke Bryan, and Thomas Rhett are the opposite of innovation and impact. I doubt if their fans will be listening to their music 50 years from because it's so here today/gone tomorrow. The bandwidth has gotten smaller. Bing Crosby is timeless they still play his Christmas album.

Why do you say that? Is that based on how you feel about the music, or any kind of measurable data?

 

[boo radley]

Old people tend to overestimate the timelessness of the music of their youth.

I know, right? And they embrace a fantasy in which the big name bands they loved in their youth are still touring! Oh, wait....

 

[HesNot]

Way Out West - Marty Stuart (2017)

I'd add Randy Travis Storms of Life and Always & Forever for that matter.

 

[olimassaquoi]

Why do you say that? Is that based on how you feel about the music, or any kind of measurable data?

Their music is commercialized, calculated, and void of any meaning. Music like that doesn't last.

 

[tiktok]

I know, right? And they embrace a fantasy in which the big name bands they loved in their youth are still touring! Oh, wait....

Bands of that era rose to prominence under a set of economic factors which no longer exist. Their particular success is essentially, un-repeatable in today's ecosystem. They are bands running on fossil fuel, and that fuel is not available to new bands the way it was 20-50 years ago.

 

[REDFISH1]

Whitey Morgan & The 78's. Great old school sound. Great songs. Of course they are not played on radio.

 

[TFR]

I think "modern" country is the output of a Super Computer in an industrial park on the outskirts of Nashville. It takes all the data variables and concocts a hit song.

I refer to it as Facebook songwriting. Instead of communicating something thoughtful it's just a play by play account of someone's day:

I woke up this mornin' and I took a s***
Then I went outside and I gotta admit
It's a pretty day, gotta get away
Got my 4 wheel drive and I'm gonna play

I pick up my girl and she's mighty fine
With her Daisy Dukes on she drives me out my mind
We're gonna get wet, watch the sun set
We'll have a hot summer night that we'll never forget

Now add a chorus about it being a typical <insert name of Southern state> Saturday and a verse mentioning Dixie cups and you're about 99% there.

 

[Boris Bubbanov]

Old people tend to overestimate the timelessness of the music of their youth.

Hank died the year before I was born, and I was only 9 when Patsy's plane went down.

And yet I'd be most pleased to listen to these folks, over most of what is coming out of the Nashville Pop Machine.

How many of the "Country" songs of 2018 will still be remembered in 2065?

 

[27sauce]

Their music is commercialized, calculated, and void of any meaning. Music like that doesn't last.

At some point will the millions of people who have been listening to them for the past 15 or so years realize this and stop listening?

Commercialized, calculated, and void of meaning doesn’t stop people from listening to Waylon Jennings.

 

[27sauce]

Hank died the year before I was born, and I was only 9 when Patsy's plane went down.

And yet I'd be most pleased to listen to these folks, over most of what is coming out of the Nashville Pop Machine.

How many of the "Country" songs of 2018 will still be remembered in 2065?

Patsy was the original queen of the Nashville Pop Machine. Syrupy strings, and over production for the pop masses.

 

[TFR]

I think Brad Paisley has done a decent job of bridging the gap between old and new. He can sometimes lean towards bro country (though usually there's some tongue in cheek twist) and he sometimes gets carried away with his sense of humor but then there are songs like "Cloud of Dust" and "Whiskey Lullaby".

 

[bobcs71]

Patsy was the original queen of the Nashville Pop Machine. Syrupy strings, and over production for the pop masses.

True, I like her stuff but it doesn't sound much like the Carter family to me.

 

[Endr_rpm]

Old people tend to overestimate the timelessness of the music of their youth.

While this is fair....

I do wonder how much of the music contemporary to these artists that is FORGOTTEN would weigh down the "its getting worse" argument. Lord knows people idolize 70s rock, but when you look at what actually moved units, it wasn't Zepplin, it was Donnie and Marie.

 

[27sauce]

True, I like her stuff but it doesn't sound much like the Carter family to me.

That was an interesting time. I mean, not only her, but there were flat out, no denying pop/rock acts on country radio/charts in the late ‘50’s/early ‘60’s.

Elvis
Every bros
Orbison
Buddy

Those records were a far cry from Lwcty Frizell.

But the old days were pure country...right...
This was a number 1 country record. TGP’s stickler ancestors are rolling in their graves.

 

[stratovarius]

It could be worse. Rock is completely dead.

 

[Boris Bubbanov]

its just pop rock with southern accents.

Anyone remember discussions at the time: "Why don't the Beatles sing with Accents?" They spoke with them, sometimes tried to tone that down but the vocals were not fouled up with fake UK accents.

Listening to Jim Reeves (a previous post), does anyone feel they can say what region he was from? I'd suggest, until you get to George Jones, you really don't hear conspicuous, self conscious regional vocalisms. And now, it has metasticized into the crudest, overbearing parody of Southern Speech. It is a mockery, and the fact that Keith Urban can nail it as well as anyone else ought to tell us something.

Meanwhile, you turn on the TV set in the region and many of the local speaking voices are only mildly Southern. Some of the boys hawking Chevys and Fords and Kias turn on the twang in their commercial spots, but more and more, it may as well be St. Louis. So. Why the way over the top, fakey-twang in the vocals? Is this to cover up the lack of twang in the music?