Monkeybot

I used to hate all coutnry before I listened to Patsy Cline; now I can give the genre a grudging respect. I like Iris DeMent too, actually.

Iamthebeerking

Patsy Cline is to Shania Twain what Janice Joplin is to Britney Spears.
I won't even dare compare the great Johnny Cash to any of these douchebags claiming to be country today.
This crap, this jingoistic bumpkin shit is an embarrassment. It only deepens the stereotype of the dumb assed redneck that drinks Coors, drives a beat up pick-up and has a "Cowboy Up" bumper sticker affixed to his rear window as a sublime form of self expression.
What did someone else say? "It makes you dumber when you hear it"? If the government was seeking a way to stupid-down the population they need look no further.

Sakpo

Ahck, I hate most country...though the television ad for a local country station has a clip of one song that makes me giggle every time I hear it (sorry, I don't who it's by, the singer just sounds like a generic male country singer).

Classic!

Seriously, that's marketable? Somebody thought of those words and thought they were good enough to be part of a sellable song? And they were right? The song is so popular it gets included in tv ads? People might actually hear that clip and check out a radio station? What?

Note: There really is some decent alternative country, and a lot of the old stuff was great.

Hot Karl

it's so easy to knock country, and when they release this garbage i just can't help it. one name in country for me...Johnny Cash. <--- he owns. and i'm a 22yr old chinese kid that likes to rave.

and they wonder why people think country and it's fans are hicks.

cjack

You know, the irony here is that everyone who holds Patsy Cline (or any other 'old country' act) as a paragon of "real" country fail to realize that she isn't that much different than the "modern" country singers.

She was a good singer, to be sure, but you couldn't exactly call her a great songwriter or musician. She was just a vehicle for other people's songs.

Truth is, Nashville has had a "hit factory" mentality for a lot longer than most people would think. For example, Willie Nelson got his start churning out hit songs for other artists, Cline included.

For that matter, some of the artists held up as "real country" on this thread couldn't write a song to save their own lives...again, they were just vehicles for the work of professional songwriters.


There are, however, exceptions to this rule, both in the realm of "old country" and today.

I'll agree that "Have You Forgotten" is a piece of crap calculated to sell records. However, the "boot in your ass" song by Toby Keith is a bit different.

He actually wrote the song shortly after 9/11, and kept it to himself for quite some time. He really didn't want to record it or release it as a single, since he thought it was too personal. At the urging of friends, he began to play the song for the troops, but still refused to record it or sell it in any way. He only did so after the commandant of the Marine Corps convinced him it would be a good morale booster for the troops.

When the song first came out, country radio was VERY reluctant to play it...they thought it was too politically incorrect and was far too "after the fact" to be a hit song.


Turns out that the Marine was right after all.


The biggest criticism leveled against modern country music is that it is insincere, impersonal, manufactured pop music with twang and redneck attitude added as an afterthought.

Yet when a straightforward, honest okie like Toby Keith (btw, I've talked to Toby, and he doesn't have an ounce of bullshit in him) comes out with a simple song that captures what he was feeling at a certain moment, that song is labeled as "jingoistic bumpkin shit."



So what's a country singer to do?

Hot Karl

^ his cousin

Daggah

Preferably, stop singing.

That he really means it doesn't prevent it from being jingoistic bumpkin shit.

HaysooChreesto!

In all fairness to Toby Keith, he has written some good songs. I've also heard him interviewed and he does seem like a genuine and sincere guy.
But the lyrics for that song... They're just so over the top, cornball, and well, really lame.
However, they're no more lame than the current wave of anti-war efforts by Lenny Kravitz and REM. At least those songs are so bad that they're not getting any radio play. Thankfully.

The Other Michael

I'm afraid the last cowboy bumpersticker I can recall was "goat ropers need love too". What does "Cowboy Up" mean?

In re "cowboys", Jerry Jeff Walker's "Up against the wall, red-neck mother" says it all.

cheers,
Michael

King Rat

First thought, best thought...