Schparky

I gotta vent here...

Has anyone else here listened to country music lately? It was bad before, but now it's really starting to suck serious ass. The particular thing that's pissing me off lately is the fact that you can't avoid hearing damned simple-minded, jingoistic crap that passes for patriotism these days.

Here's a snippet of what I consider to be the most egregious example:

(In case anyone's interested, the song is "Have You Forgotten?" by Darryl Worley; the rest of the lyrics can be found here

In answer to Mr. Worley's query: yes, I seem to have forgotten seeing the hard evidence that Sadaam was behind the 9/11 attacks. I was also unaware that we're at war because of 9/11 -- I seem to remember hearing something about "weapons of mass destruction"...

While we're at it, I have a question for him: who in bloody hell told you not to worry about Bin Laden?

Sorry for the rant, but I have to listen to country music when my wife's in the car with me, and having to hear this mindless drivel over and over again is about to drive me nuts. And this is coming from someone who supports the US efforts to disarm Sadaam (assuming that's really why we're there). However, I object to the constant suggestions that anyone who questions the war is a freedom-hatin' traitor.

I guess I feel like the big media outlets (Clear Channel in particular, which owns all the country music FM stations where I live) are shoving this nonsense down our throats.

And don't even get me started about
"Iraq and I Roll"...

KoopaFanatic

You know, I've always held that patriotism was no excuse for bad music. Usually in reference to "God Bless America." But country crap is just annoying. I live in the relative middle of nowhere, and going up the dial the lineup is:

Country
NPR
Country
Jesus
Classic Rock
Country
Pop
Oldies
Jesus
Country
Country
Pop
Country
Lite Rock
Country

That's just FM. And sadly this is not hyperbole.

I skipped my senior prom cuz I didn't want to dance all evening to country "music." And that was before the jingocrap.

Buddrow_Wilson

I don't have a problem with country music as a genre. I actually enjoy a little bit of it. Mostly older stuff. The problem is that popular country music is incredibly lacking in both talent and originality. I'm convinced that the entire country music industry is designed around and marketed to morons.

Megatron

I had the severe misfortune of living in southern Arkansas for several years. Almost everyone I knew listened to that shit. It was fucking agony.

However, every now and then I did pay attention to some of the stuff... because once upon a time country used to have some creativity and wit to it (even if only once every few hundred songs...)

Nowadays, it seems like they have some ridiculous redneck catchphrase for everything, and most of the songs these idiots write just take one of those phrases and repeat it for three and a half minutes over music (I guess they call it music anyway...) that sounds like Britney Spears with added twang and drawl.

*vomit*

mecca777

Oh, that's just nasty.Ick.

I like the folk-country/field recording stuff, like Gillian Welch, Boxharp or Drunk, but as far as mainstream country goes, it makes me ill. At the moment, it's either jingoistic chest-beating about "kicking raghead ass" or pseudo-AOR unoriginal pop crap such as Shania Twain, like Abba without the gritty realism and dark soul.

Daggah

Well, to answer the question you pose in the topic, if I were in your situation, that'd be grounds for divorce.

Let's dissect the song real quick.

True that. This isn't one of them.

Again true, however irrelevant. Our freedom and this piece of ground aren't at stake here.

I'm not your friend, and who's preaching?

No, I haven't. I imagine the innocent Iraqis know how it feels now, too.

As has already been pointed out, 9/11 has {0} to do with the war in Iraq. And also as has already been pointed out, who's saying that we shouldn't worry about bin Laden? Tell that to our 'president,' who seems to be abandoning the search for the real criminal so he can tackle his personal family vendetta against Hussein...

Spooky

Oh my gosh Koopa, you sound like you're smack dab in the middle of Manhattan, Kansas. It alternates at work between country and oldies and crap like Celene Dion. { they listen to, or chat about country mostly tho. We even have a fella that dj's on the side for one of Topeka's country stations. We have one saving grace in that we also have a non-corperate owned college station that is alternative rock mostly. Of course I'm outnumbered at work so at least they allow me to listen to my walkman.
What IS it about that f#$%ing country ??

Oh, I almost forgot??, we also are famous because of the Country Stampede. Perhaps a few have heard of this event?

Godot

And this is different from top 40 shite how????

Psycho Economist

Oh, it's not. But there are other alternatives.

When I find myself driving I head straight for the hard / classic rock stations. No Brittney, no Kenny and no Usher... A little too much Ozzie now that he's on T.V. all the time, but that's why I'm glad that I always have at least two good rock stations to choose from all the way back to my hometown.

lisarea

Oh, man! I heard that song somewhere, and it was the funniest thing EVER.

I especially like this part:

Wow. Infrared and GPS? Pretty high tech. I'll bet them Iraqis don't have access to such state of the art technologies.

Aside, of course, from the fact that the song is written as though Clint Black is personally going to go to Iraq and kick someone's ass. What a Geraldo.

That said, I am pissed that they call that shit country music in the first place. It's just a jingoistic conservative pop music sung by guys in cowboy hats.

Real country music is Hank Williams and Johnny Cash, and it thorougly pisses me off to see people equating the whole genre with garbage like this. Real country music is a rich and uniquely American genre that most people seem to completely misunderstand. (Sort of like how they misunderstand patriotism and politics and the war. I mean, in what universe are US military forces in Iraq fighting for the Bill of Rights here? This is one of those damned confuserpating quantum mechanics things, isn't it?)

I despair for people, I do.

They make me ramble on and sputter disjointedly.