Country Music is the new Hair Metal...

Amusing article from The Guardian...

http://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2015/mar/31/country-music-image-problem-bro-country-sexist

This same article has been written by music journalists since the dawn of popular music. It goes like this:

1. I like this genre of music.
2. Other people like this genre of music but have changed it in ways I don't like.
3. This now changed genre is successful much to my dismay.
4. The people that like this music are either dumb or being duped or both! There's no other explanation for this popularity!
5. Let us return to the purity of the days of yore when music was the way I liked it!
6. If we don't do that, dire things will happen!
Fin.

That being said, he's mostly right. Modern Country is overrun with bands that are Country in name only. They also have a heavier guitar sound and feature songs about drinking, girls and partying. Guess what? That used to describe Rock bands. Rock bands don't exist anymore, at least not good-time party bands. So Country was more than happy to step in and fill the void. This didn't start in the past 5 years, this started in the early 90s. See Garth Brooks for an example.

Unfortunately, this writer doesn't mention (and probably doesn't even understand) that a rising tide lifts all boats. Country is massively popular and as such, all sorts of bands get signed - even bands that sound nothing like the execrable Florida Georgia Line. It's a golden age for all Country acts - if you don't think so, then how did George Strait get 104,793 people into Dallas Stadium last year?

The last thing Country needs is their own Grunge movement. If they get something like that, the genre as a whole will be destroyed.

Sad but true. New-ish country acts that I mostly never even heard of are filling the football (70,000) and baseball (45,000) stadiums. In Philadelphia.

I'll leave work on the night of a Kenny Chesney concert and the parking lot is PACKED with tailgaters. It looks like a scene from 'Heavy Metal Parking Lot' only with more cowboy hats.

Kenny Chesney -

I had to suffer through one of his shows. I don't get his whole Country Jimmy Buffett schtick.

I heard a country song last month that had a MASSIVE beat box behind it. Vomit inducing.

Country's been the "new hair metal" for a while now...

Fat Freddy wrote:

Country's been the "new hair metal" for a while now...

I've been saying this for years!

chewie wrote:

Fat Freddy wrote:

Country's been the "new hair metal" for a while now...

I've been saying this for years!

About a dozen years ago I took my wife to an Alan Jackson/Martina McBride gig (I got free tickets from work), which was my first-ever non-rock concert. Neither artist is my particular "thang" so I spent most of the show ogling the hundreds of scantily clad wimmen folk in tight jeans and tiny t-shirts that were in attendance. I distinctly remember thinking, "Oh, so this is where all the hair metal girls went."

Witchfinder wrote:

This same article has been written by music journalists since the dawn of popular music.  It goes like this:

1. I like this genre of music.
2. Other people like this genre of music but have changed it in ways I don't like.
3. This now changed genre is successful much to my dismay.
4. The people that like this music are either dumb or being duped or both!  There's no other explanation for this popularity!
5. Let us return to the purity of the days of yore when music was the way I liked it!
6. If we don't do that, dire things will happen!
Fin.

That being said, he's mostly right. Modern Country is overrun with bands that are Country in name only.  They also have a heavier guitar sound and feature songs about drinking, girls and partying.  Guess what?  That used to describe Rock bands.  Rock bands don't exist anymore, at least not good-time party bands.  So Country was more than happy to step in and fill the void.  This didn't start in the past 5 years, this started in the early 90s.  See Garth Brooks for an example.

Unfortunately, this writer doesn't mention (and probably doesn't even understand) that a rising tide lifts all boats.  Country is massively popular and as such, all sorts of bands get signed - even bands that sound nothing like the execrable Florida Georgia Line. It's a golden age for all Country acts - if you don't think so, then how did George Strait get 104,793 people into Dallas Stadium last year?  

The last thing Country needs is their own Grunge movement.  If they get something like that, the genre as a whole will be destroyed.      

Yeah, country will eventually collapse in on it's own weight. It's just inevitable. The execs and companies believe that you can't have enough of a good thing but in truth, you can.

In the U.K we like Johnny Cash & Dolly Parton.......Oh okay that woman who feels like a woman too.

The rest of it you are more than welcome to keep hold of 

Edit : Erm, writing this put me in the mood to hear Jolene (honestly one of my favorite songs, has been since I was about three years old) so i went to YouTube and to my absolute horror, I saw that Miley Cyrus had done a version. Morbid curiosity forced me to watch, just to see how badly she could screw it up and i have got to say that I'm amazed, that girl has actually got a beautiful voice  

I ended up listening to all three songs from that session and frankly it just makes me sad that she does the crap that she does now. Of course you could say that she's making a ton of money but she also seems like a girl who is getting horribly exploited so how much of that will be left after a few years. I'm sure that you guys will probably be aware of this side of MC  but i was completely oblivious to anything nut the horribly (and as it turns out, needlessly) autotuned garbage that vomits out of our works radio.

I've kind of fallen in love with this song. 



Now that sounds nothing like hair metal 

Fat Freddy wrote:

chewie wrote:

Fat Freddy wrote:

Country's been the "new hair metal" for a while now...

You got that right!

I've been saying this for years!

About a dozen years ago I took my wife to an Alan Jackson/Martina McBride gig (I got free tickets from work), which was my first-ever non-rock concert. Neither artist is my particular "thang" so I spent most of the show ogling the hundreds of scantily clad wimmen folk in tight jeans and tiny t-shirts that were in attendance. I distinctly remember thinking, "Oh, so this is where all the hair metal girls went."

Actually alot of people who were hair metal back in the 80s are these new country fans..of course alot of the country artist are performing the old 70s and 80s tunes on their "country" albums..for the record I love it and buy all these albums...

This thread makes me think of Drivin-n-Cryin. A damn good band that combined country and southern rock with metal and punk.

Boris2008 wrote:

In the U.K we like Johnny Cash & Dolly Parton.......Oh okay that woman who feels like a woman too.

The rest of it you are more than welcome to keep hold of 

Edit : Erm, writing this put me in the mood to hear Jolene (honestly one of my favorite songs, has been since I was about three years old) so i went to YouTube and to my absolute horror, I saw that Miley Cyrus had done a version. Morbid curiosity forced me to watch, just to see how badly she could screw it up and i have got to say that I'm amazed, that girl has actually got a beautiful voice  

I ended up listening to all three songs from that session and frankly it just makes me sad that she does the crap that she does now. Of course you could say that she's making a ton of money but she also seems like a girl who is getting horribly exploited so how much of that will be left after a few years. I'm sure that you guys will probably be aware of this side of MC  but i was completely oblivious to anything nut the horribly (and as it turns out, needlessly) autotuned garbage that vomits out of our works radio.

I've kind of fallen in love with this song. 



Now that sounds nothing like hair metal 

WOW!!! That is nice tune. I likey. Something about it reminds me of Billie Holiday... I wonder if it is one of her songs?

EDIT: I looked it up and it is an old 50's tune that a lot of folks have covered(Eartha Kitt, Nina Simone, Elkie Brooks, John Legend, Jeff Buckley, Jeff Beck,)

Even former White Lion frontman Mike Tramp has hitched his wagon to this modern country horse. Ride 'em cowboy!!



Yippee-ki-yay, motherf*ckers!!

MetalGuy71 wrote:

Even former White Lion frontman Mike Tramp has hitched his wagon to this modern country horse. Ride 'em cowboy!!



Yippee-ki-yay, motherf*ckers!!

But can he top country Baz?

Oh sweet baby Jeebus!! Where the hell did that come from?

MetalGuy71 wrote:

Oh sweet baby Jeebus!! Where the hell did that come from?

I believe that little gem was from when he was on Gone Country on CMT several years ago.

Witchfinder wrote:

MetalGuy71 wrote:

Oh sweet baby Jeebus!! Where the hell did that come from?

I believe that little gem was from when he was on Gone Country on CMT several years ago.  

Ahhh, that "I'll-Do-Anything-To-Be-On-TV" phase of his career. That makes sense.