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It’s never been great. Nasal and basic, with real zingers like “my love burns like a hot stove”.
Rockabilly, now we’re getting somewhere good. Music with a little soul. Other various fusion efforts can be good too.
I won’t wax poetic on it, but top 40 country has been rather banal for decades.
Psychobilly is even better imo. Tiger Army is the shit and Nick13’s solo stuff is great too.
I will wax a little poetic, then. ;-)
Nashville has had a machine since at least the late 60s for harvesting songs basically provided for free by writers desperate for a break, and routing them them through overproduced studios full of controllable singers even more desperate than the songwriters. Now, to be fair, the occasional gem slips through, more when the model was less refined, and then there’s folks like Dolly Parton who infiltrated it like a virus and then took it over to explode with decent music.
Still, other than what Steve Earle called “The Great Credibility Scare of the 80s” when he, Dwight Yoakam, Lyle Lovett, KD Lang, and Melissa Etheridge (among others) were allowed to bubble to the top of the scene, there’s always been a grifter business mindset that’s somehow worse in country because, as a direct outgrowth and expansion of certain varieties of folk music, audiences ask for authenticity when all they really want is cultural validation (hint: for country-adjacent music, authenticity usually looks a lot like it does in other genres). Bubblegum country therefore somehow feels dirtier than bubblegum pop, and it gets even worse as product categories ossify and Nashville country gets targeted to a more and more specific segment of the public.
I’m fully aware that even the stuff I like, the “Rockabilly [and] other various fusion efforts” broadly called “Americana,” is subject to its own tropes and business pressures, but being smaller and targeting a different niche, there’s at least room in the conversation for artistry and risk, and thankfully good music isn’t as hard to get made as some other forms of entertainment, so there’s a lot of it out there waiting to be found.
Also, nothing wrong with some nasal vocals in the right context, LOL. I do grow weary of “High and Lonesome” bluegrass vocals after about two songs, though.
Kinda depends on how far you go back/what genre of country you are talking about. But John Hartford has some of my favorite lyrics that still carry weight today. I probably think about the song In Tall Building everyday on my drive to work.
The thing I hate the most about modern country is that there’s nothing that really connects it to country/bluegrass other than the poor use of steel string guitar and fake accents. I live in Oklahoma… Nobody talks like that, and even if they did you would usually lose it when you’re singing.
Someone like reba mcentire has a fairly common Oklahoman accent if you talk to older people in the boonies, but she doesn’t really sing with a heavy accent. It’s all performative affectations from rich kids from suburbs pretending like they’re from the country side.
YT fed me Rick Beats at one point, this feels like a discussion he has on repeat re the fall of modern music.
The ones where their voice cracks on purpose to make them sound more amateur bother the hell out of me.
I was shocked when a friend told me he was into early country music some years ago. Then he explained the difference between the country he was listening to and the country music of today. It was actually pretty cool before it got watered down.
country music can be really good
i think the decline in quality is mostly because music producers try to appeal to a broader audience, which necessarily makes it dumber
If you gave me modern country music and the AI slop version, I wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.
No worries, neither can the people who like it.
An AI-Generated Country Song Is Currently Topping Charts in America
What about bro country AI slop? l https://youtu.be/CORANvT8l9A
(great username BTW, with no less than two references!)
And it’s AI generated.
It’s all they need…
Country music draws it’s origins from southern blues music. Blues originated from religious black musicians and often why it was singing about struggles or over coming demons.
New country is just a racist pop singler that wants to fuck their tractor.
You can definitely hear its blues roots. I suppose you are right about the religious origins, but the songs they later copied were not about the same subject matter
Zandi Holup is a pretty “new” artist who sings a lot about “struggles or over coming demons”. My favorite song of hers is “Gas Station Flowers”, the official video for that song is intense. She releases pretty much nothing but bangers, IMO (not a fan of “Mary Jane” personally, she kinda missed the mark on that one). “Go Find Less” is another great one, straight up feminist anthem. “Dirty Wings” is a good song as well.
NPR had some good bits about this.
Country music hasn’t always been the soundtrack of the Republican Party, according to music historian Lester Feder. He says President Nixon cemented the relationship during his years in the White House, and there’s a country album to prove it called Thank You, Mr. President.
https://www.npr.org/2007/02/18/7484160/the-conservative-evolution-of-country-music
Country music became racist when white people co-opted it. I see David Allen Coe lyrics under this like that’s an example of non-stupid, non-racist country music? DAC is as stupid and racist as they come. Had help from Shel Silverstein’s racist ass.
The good/bad news is that the old “I swear to God you bootlickers need a good ass kicking” and “Jesus is ashamed at what you do in his name” styles of country are making a comeback
And for inclusivity, there’s a sub genre devoted to the “you tried to end my people but I will not die” style which includes focuses on lgbtqia+, women in general, pagans/wiccans, indigenous groups, other, and various combinations therein
The bog witches, fae creatures, and {unknown description of Appalachian denizens} have been putting out some good stuff
What style is that?
Americana. Check out James McMurtry.
I’m really enjoying Jesse Welles atm, especially his song Masks Off
Willie Carlisle and Sierra Farrell are both phenomenal acts, as are Big Thief/Buck Meek/Adrienne Lenker
Chris Knight, Jason Isbell, Steve Earle, Turnpike Troubadours, Cody Jinks, Tyler Childers, Colter Wall, Lucero
All great Americana / Folk Rock / Outlaw artists who have meaningful music most would call country that has nothing to do with pavement princess trucks, shitty beer, racism, or military worship. Quite a few of these artists have songs with anti establishment themes or have made statements against conservativism at some point, as far as I am aware. Classic outlaw country is also full of artists who were hippie / fuck the state types before corporations co-opted the genre
I thought Colter wall was an asshole, but I’m only basing that off the fact that he sang Dixieland as a preface to one of his songs. I just kinda assumed that he was a white supremacist and stopped listening to him after that.
I’m not claiming to be an expert on the personal affairs or beliefs of any of these artists and I’ve removed other artists I didn’t mention from my library after learning some unsavory things. I do know Sleeping On The Blacktop, his most popular song, makes several literary juxtapositions about class and ideology in the south, one in particular about a rich white confederate type woman spitting on the working class people in a region of the appalachians that traditionally opposed the confederacy and slavery.
Would be a very odd to also play songs supporting confederate ideals at the same time, but some people do some real mental gymnastics with their views
There have been quite a few options in heavy music as well. Zeal and Ardor mix black metal and spiritual folk, Wayfarer have an Appalachian black metal vibe, and Bask do some really beautiful progressive metal in the style.
I’ve also been grooving some Lilith Max lately but she ventures closer to indie pop but the sentiment is the same. Add Peggy, Mollie Elizabeth, and Emei to that vibe
Oliver Anthony is a good hit of the Appalachian soul. Bryan Andrews is a hit you over the head with the calling out of the establishment. Add Jesse Welles and Tyler Childers for slightly more subtle messages
Queer Appalachian country sounds awesome. I normally go for folk punk, but I do kinda miss living surrounded by queer Appalachians like some of the places I’ve lived
Pink Williams is actually one of those people for those who dont know. His style is very anti capitalist country music. “The Devil is Real” is all about how the real devil is the capitalists who take advantage of the common folk. And “Thank God For Gay Cowboys” is as the title suggests about gay cowboys and rednecks.
Just looked him up, this guy is great!
I dumped country music when it picked political sides. The breaking point for me was the Dixie Chicks dustup with Bush Jr.
If anyone wants to hear some good country:
Yes, that is the official filmclip
Love his stuff
Surprised Jesse Welles hasn’t been mentioned. Maybe not country, more folk I suppose maybe. Not music I typically like though, and he’s my favorite artist right now.
Don’t forget the tradition of revolutionary country music!
My favorite example of this is from the Charley Daniels Band:
damn
you’re right
What kind of dates are we calling “old country” vs “new country”
I heard.a lot of commentary like this when I was in college in the 90’s
That’s around the time the swap was happening, heart felt ballads about the trials of life vs upbeat I’m the greatest and I don’t take crap.
It’s not that there’s no new country that’s good, but most of what people call country is just twangy pop. I blame twangy pop for a lot of the nationalism we see now.
