what happened to country music?

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why has contry music been on a downward spiral from the fourties to the present? People always say " oh I HATE country music." - but it used to be good - Hank WIlliams, Patys CLine, Johhny Cash, Eddy ARnold . wtf!

― Mike Hanle y 3000 (hanle y 3000), Sunday, 14 August 2005 23:46 (twenty years ago)

hi hanle y! you're opening up a big can of worms here, i'm afraid. i agree with you though.

― sittin here la la waitin for my ya ya (Jody Beth Rosen), Sunday, 14 August 2005 23:49 (twenty years ago)

others might disagree:

Rolling 2005 Country Thread
rolling 2004 country thread

― my name is john. i reside in chicago. (frankE), Monday, 15 August 2005 00:21 (twenty years ago)

People always say " oh I HATE country music." - but it used to be good

Pick your examples from the top of one basket, and the bottom of the other, and you can prove anything you want. See also: Sturgeon's Law.

― j.lu (j.lu), Monday, 15 August 2005 00:31 (twenty years ago)

I tend to agree, but then I also like classic rock better than hair metal. I try to watch CMT sometimes but basically the only stuff I like is the more girl-power stuff- Deana Carter or Sara Evans, for example, or things about older artists- Waylon Jennings,etc. Other than that, I like one or two of the smarter, less sanctimonious alt-country acts, Robbie Fulks or Old 97s. I realize this keeps me far from the cutting edge of country music criticism.

― k/l (Ken L), Monday, 15 August 2005 14:31 (twenty years ago)

me three.

luckily you didn't post this to ILM. I'm still smarting from the brickbats tossed when I tried to articulate something similiar a few months ago. Take Deanna Carter: her 1996 album Did I Shave My Legs For This was smart & funny mainstream country, striking a nice balance between Nashville tradtion and post-Garth Brooks crossover. Saw her on the Today show last week and it was depressing -- watered down Sheryl Crow lite rock. But Xhuxk Eddy and his crew think this stuff is the real deal and woe to those who respctfully differ.

― m coleman (lovebug starski), Monday, 15 August 2005 15:51 (twenty years ago)

i think "what happened to country music" was that some folks realized that you could sell a LOT more albums by phasing in some pop-crossover elements. But hasn't that been going on since at least the 70's?

― kingfish completely hatstand (Kingfish), Monday, 15 August 2005 15:56 (twenty years ago)

yeah but in the 70s the crossover elements were old fashioned pop: string sections, vocal choruses, etc the dread Countrypolitan sound (some of which is utterly fantastic BTW). At the dawn of the 90s Garth Brooks revolutionized country crossover by updating it w/AOR elements: Styx, Journey, Billy Joel etc. But this has been an arguement in country since the 50s at least, Patsy Cline was criticized for her string arrangements and many of the Nashville Sound records of the 60s that are revered by alt-country fans today were derided as sellouts by purists of that time.

― m coleman (lovebug starski), Monday, 15 August 2005 16:03 (twenty years ago)

everything sure
used to be better in the
good old olden times!

― Haikunym (Haikunym), Monday, 15 August 2005 16:11 (twenty years ago)

Take This Thread and Shove It

― Juice Newton, Monday, 15 August 2005 16:12 (twenty years ago)

At the dawn of the 90s Garth Brooks revolutionized country crossover by updating it w/AOR elements: Styx, Journey, Billy Joel etc.

this is true. that was even a joke on the Onion a few years back; how late-'90s country videos looked like bad late-'80s videos

suffice it to say, i was not happy growing up in a household which LOVED Young Country.

― kingfish completely hatstand (Kingfish), Monday, 15 August 2005 16:15 (twenty years ago)

Matt, what are you doing on this thread? Did you follow a trackback from the other threads?

― k/l (Ken L), Monday, 15 August 2005 16:19 (twenty years ago)

k/l, writing on Deana Carter is the cutting edge of country music criticism.

(Lovebug, Deana is more into the Beatles, while Sheryl is more into the Stones.)

― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Monday, 15 August 2005 16:31 (twenty years ago)

Did I shave my face for this?

― k/l (Ken L), Monday, 15 August 2005 16:39 (twenty years ago)

I've been disillusioned ever since the Carter Family sold out and started using microphones.

― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Monday, 15 August 2005 16:45 (twenty years ago)

Now all we need is for xhucx to show up and then Amateurist to bait him and it's the same thread all over again.

― k/l (Ken L), Monday, 15 August 2005 16:47 (twenty years ago)

Lurleen (big hit: No One Understands You, But I Do)and Col. H.J. Simpson to thread!

― Aimless (Aimless), Monday, 15 August 2005 16:47 (twenty years ago)

Actually what I originally thought of posting before the classic accusations of know-nothing-ism started flying was that, although I usually like what a lot of the people on those threads usually have to say on other topics- particularly haikunym, gypsy mothra, don a, and edd s hurt, whenever there is a thread with "country" in the title in it, if I actually open it and read it and post on it, I feel like Geir going on about the Beatles and insulting James Brown.

― k/l (Ken L), Monday, 15 August 2005 16:52 (twenty years ago)

best album this year
(country-wise): marty stuart,
total throwback stuff

when I say that on
other "scary" country threads
everyone yawns

― Haikunym (Haikunym), Monday, 15 August 2005 17:18 (twenty years ago)

There once were some favorites of Chuck's,
country crossed with hair metal redux.
A contrarian sort
Might softly retort
That Big and Rick suck.
Then one ducks.

― M. V. (M.V.), Monday, 15 August 2005 17:22 (twenty years ago)

Count Chuc-ula- so scary!

― k/l (Ken L), Monday, 15 August 2005 17:22 (twenty years ago)

"big and rich"

fuch

― M. V. (M.V.), Monday, 15 August 2005 17:23 (twenty years ago)

Well, I think most punk and postpunk made after 1980 sucks, so I don't see any reason in principle to disallow you from believing that most country made after 1980 sucks (other than that you're WRONG, that is).

― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Monday, 15 August 2005 17:31 (twenty years ago)

Well, actually, I think that most country made after 1980 sucks, but that's because I don't like country all that much. Most of it sucked before 1980, too. (By the way, Deana Carter, whose new record is wonderful, is having trouble keeping her feet [much less her legs] in the business. She's on an independent label now.)

― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Monday, 15 August 2005 17:37 (twenty years ago)

I've gotta lsiten to her new one some more. Obviously an AM TV appearance isn't the best time to judge. And Sheryl=Stones totally adds up (it was Deanna's band that bummed me out anyway).

― m coleman (lovebug starski), Monday, 15 August 2005 18:06 (twenty years ago)

I am a corny bluegrass fuck.

― M. V. (M.V.), Monday, 15 August 2005 18:12 (twenty years ago)

marissa don't like the BLUEGRASS GIRLS

― kingfish completely hatstand (Kingfish), Monday, 15 August 2005 18:41 (twenty years ago)

and meanwhile The BossHoss appeared...

― t\'\'t (t\'\'t), Monday, 15 August 2005 18:42 (twenty years ago)

fwiw, I get as annoyed by the knee-jerk anti-alt-country "it's so boring and unfun" positioning as by the "pop country sux" positioning. It's like the specious undie-vs.-bling-bling hip-hop fites. The obvious but dull answer is that a good bit of most of these things suck, and there's good stuff scattered here and there throughout them too. Why can't I like Shania, Deanna, Lucinda and Kelly Hogan too? I can!

― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Monday, 15 August 2005 19:15 (twenty years ago)

re: "90 percent of everything always sucks," how come we never hear any of the pre-1950 country music that sucks? was there any?

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Monday, 15 August 2005 22:18 (twenty years ago)

correct.

you know, a lot of "vintage" rockabilly is terrible! the 90 percent rule again.

― sittin here la la waitin for my ya ya (Jody Beth Rosen), Monday, 15 August 2005 22:24 (twenty years ago)

JD, it takes some effort to make music available 50 years and more later, so it's stuff that some people think is the best that survives - the sample isn't random.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Monday, 15 August 2005 22:33 (twenty years ago)

i think he was being rhetorical.

― sittin here la la waitin for my ya ya (Jody Beth Rosen), Monday, 15 August 2005 22:36 (twenty years ago)

but the point being that most of us only ever hear "the best" of it, and with that insularity it's easy to assume that that's all there was -- nothing else can exist if WE don't hear it (typical sense-of-entitlement bullshit).

― sittin here la la waitin for my ya ya (Jody Beth Rosen), Monday, 15 August 2005 22:39 (twenty years ago)

we need a new word.

― hstencil (hstencil), Monday, 15 August 2005 22:50 (twenty years ago)

Rock'n'yall.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 15 August 2005 22:55 (twenty years ago)

Incidentally, can anyone recommend any Patsy Cline recordings minus the strings? They do actually get on my nerves.

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Tuesday, 16 August 2005 00:26 (twenty years ago)

i'm sure there are some unearthed demos or radio performances or something.

― s/c (Jody Beth Rosen), Tuesday, 16 August 2005 00:40 (twenty years ago)

I've heard about radio performances with a string section, but I've never been able to find details. Maybe I've just been lazy about it. There has to be someone here who knows, sooner or later.

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Tuesday, 16 August 2005 00:41 (twenty years ago)

My father-in-law has some kind of recording of Patsy on the-wait for it- Arthur Godfrey show, but I only listened to out of one ear once a few years ago.

― k/l (Ken L), Tuesday, 16 August 2005 00:46 (twenty years ago)

Of coarse its somewhat asinine for me to make a sweeping general statement like "all country now bad , all country then ,good" - but I just wanted to discuss it. I guess there' sbands like wilco now that are pretty good. I guess ALL pop /american music has gotten somewhat craPPY AS the country moves away from people proving their musical worth and making it and more towards the industry making the stars whether their good or not. (shania twain? good ass, bad music).

― Mike Hanle y 3000 (hanle y 3000), Wednesday, 17 August 2005 00:05 (twenty years ago)

(shania twain? good ass, bad music).

i respectfully disagree. about her music. i can't remember if her ass is any good or not.

― s/c (Jody Beth Rosen), Wednesday, 17 August 2005 00:15 (twenty years ago)

and anyway, saying shania twain is country is like saying lee hazlewood is country.

― s/c (Jody Beth Rosen), Wednesday, 17 August 2005 00:16 (twenty years ago)

Incidentally, can anyone recommend any Patsy Cline recordings minus the strings?

Patsy Cline Live At The Cimmaron Ballroom released in 1997

― m coleman (lovebug starski), Wednesday, 17 August 2005 00:59 (twenty years ago)

Thanks very much! I will look into that.

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Wednesday, 17 August 2005 01:08 (twenty years ago)

This is on the right track, except I was looking for slower, quieter things done without strings (=I just want every song to sound like "Crazy"). I might get this though.

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Wednesday, 17 August 2005 01:15 (twenty years ago)

Did she do anything with the Kronos Quartet?

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Wednesday, 17 August 2005 01:46 (twenty years ago)

No but you might enjoy her work with the Theatre of Eternal Music.

― walter kranz (walterkranz), Wednesday, 17 August 2005 01:53 (twenty years ago)

Thanks! (I really am interested in hearing her without one of those string sections, and preferably without a choir. It didn't occur to me that that would result in swinging, rocking, rollicking honky-tonk (?) stuff like what's on that live recording mentioned above. I don't know why.)

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Wednesday, 17 August 2005 01:56 (twenty years ago)

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