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What country music do you like?
- Thread starter rousseau
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Thomas II
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Thomas II
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Thomas II
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Thomas II
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Thomas II
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Thomas II
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Thomas II
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ideologyhunter
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I have tons of older country CDs...including the complete works of Jimmie Rodgers (1897-1933), which are compelling and worth hearing. I like the stuff Willie Nelson did in the 70s and 80s, when he would team up with a star of 50s country and do a duets collection. That stuff is tasty, if not totally engaging -- sooner or later, it sounds formulaic in a way that, for instance, jazz doesn't, when well-played. I lean toward more exploratory music. I do like what the Dead and Elvis did with country. When I hear current country hits, it's in diners, and then I listen for the lyrics, which are usually incredibly dumb and which strive for the 'pork cracklin' mood. (You aint worth the whiskey, etc.) The other aspects of country that turn me off: the ultra patriotic stance which is often pure belligerence...the drama queen delivery...the appeal to an earlier time when things was just durn better...the rock instrumentation. My impression is that the genre has degenerated over time, although I'm sure there are outliers who aren't getting air time.
Thomas II
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Ford
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I think it is important to remember that what gets played on country radio has always been the "top 40" of the genre. There's always been acts or songs that crossover into the mainstream and don't represent country music as a whole. I mean, you can't get much more country than Dolly Parton, but she had a huge crossover hit that was turned into a movie (which she starred in). She teamed up with Kenny Rogers for Islands in the Stream, and it is worth noting that Kenny had a hit with a Lionel Richie song. The recently departed Glen Campbell had a variety show on TV, and some slickly produced crossover hits of his own.
And the recent crop of "bro country" artists seem to be gumming up the airwaves lately, but for every Florida Georgia Line there's a Jason Isbell out there. In fact I'd go so far as to say that the outliers who aren't getting air time are doing better than they ever have. Isbell and Sturgill Simpson sell more records than some of the pop-country efforts put out by Nashville.
Nira
Member
Used to sing this to my daughters when they were crying as babies. Hypnotic. Not a man of religion, but still felt somewhat bad about singing about the devil to the little ones
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Just to be bragging. Going to an Isbell concert in November. Not often we get people like that to little ol Norway.