Screw the CMA's

Worst of all: FGL, aka the country version of Nickelback. They’re all traveling roads first laid down by Big & Rich, though.

Too many contenders for stupidest song. I wrote off Nashville for quite a while after “Country Girl (Shake It For Me)” first rolled in, and I probably should’ve done that earlier.

 

What bugs me in the case of at least Adkins and Brooks & Dunn, they put out good records when they were first starting out - then they just got dumb. As much as I hate country songs that talk about a "pick up TRUUUUCK!" Country songs that mention minvans are even worse. As I've said before though, the music is still good - but the lyrics are insipid for the most part.

 

I feel like something broke down in country music after 9-11. Maybe it was just reflecting the ugly nationalistic edge the country writ large took on, but angry xenophobia started to become the price of admission, and the other main option was the truly insipid shit @DanOregon mentioned above.

 

I heard the main driving force was that artists and labels saw what happened to the Dixie Chicks and have done their best not to offend (or challenge) the views of local country radio programmers. Hell, Martina McBride had to fight to get country stations to play Independence Day, one of the best country songs (and meaningful) put down in the last 30 years. Forgot that it came out just weeks ahead the Simpson/Goldman murders.

"“They were like, ‘I don’t think this needs to be on my radio station. I don’t think people need to be hearing this,’” McBride recalled. “And I’m like, ‘Well, it’s on your news every hour. This is topical.’ And then I had one music director who said, ‘You know, if that [music] video is on, and my young daughter walks through the room, I have to have a discussion with her and explain it to her.’ And I thought to myself, ‘Well, maybe that’s not such a bad idea. What’s wrong with that?‘”

Because of limited airplay the song never rose above 10th on the charts. Country music is as dumb (or smart) as fans want it to be. If I was in a market with multiple country stations, you could do worse than play nothing but "good country" where you play some of the old stuff, play five female artists back to back, and play the hell out of Chris Stapleton (who still doesn't get the airplay someone with his track record should).

 

By 2001, country music was just a small part of my musical mix, but it was still in the mix. But the “Love it or leave it” conformity quickly drove me away. Looking back, it was maybe the first sign I wasn’t going to last the decade as a Republican.

The big period for me to get hooked on country music was the early 90s, during high school. One of the radio stations in my hometown flipped formats to become “The Country Giant” and cranked up to 100,000 watts so that it became ubiquitous throughout the region. More importantly it cranked up the production values so that it sounded as professional and polished as any of the Nashville stations elsewhere on the dial. Suddenly you had a station that everyone from the preppies to the FFA members all listened to.

 

Early '90s country was everything. Vince Gill, Yearwood, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Suzy Boggus. Reba and Garth were pretty corporate, but dang they had some good singer-songwriters back then.

 

That was also the time when CMT was cranking up (and music videos still mattered). Alan Jackson, Clint Black, Dwight Yoakum, Kathy Mattea, Brooks & Dunn were just a few more that should be mentioned. Even some of the giant acts of the 80s like Alabama and Randy Travis were still holding their own on the charts.

 

Early 90s country was fun, but that's also when Achy Breaky Heart but the charts, and that may have been a watershed moment in the transition to pop country taking over. v

The decade or so before, starting with the amazing three debut albums of Storms of Life, Guitars Cadillacs and Guitar Town was really fun. The Highwaymen were still pretty active, as a group of individually. You could turn on TNN any night and you might catch George Jones, Nanci Griffith and some up and comer.

There had also been the cowpunk scene in LA, which have rose to some great music and some of what today would be alt country.

To my memory, people like Garth, Jackson and even Trisha Yearwood trended more toward pop with each album.

 

Common story though, you dominate the country charts, what is left to do - start making inroads on other charts. It's not exclusive to country music. Miami Sound Machine became Gloria Estefan "and" and then not even that, Selena,

 

Southern Culture on the Skids punctured more than a few Southern country balloons, but boy, can they play. Watch Mary Huff massage the neck of her bass guitar.

Ain't this country??

 

Great song. Great video. First I've heard of them.
I guess B-53s lost out in the Name Our Band discussion?

 

I saw Bobby Bones and Morgan Wallen trending and said that something bad and dumb must’ve happened.

I was right.