Theres no doubt in my mind that modern country music has hit an all-time rock-bottom low. Its mostly all hype, all cookie-cutter product, with interchangeable pretty performers in country gear, yelling at you about how redneck they are, or gooey, diabetes-inducing slow songs. Its all overproduced, with slashing Lynyrd Skynyrd guitars and the worst excesses of 80s arena rock. It sucks. Modern country fans are so attention-challenged that the career of country music stars are much shorter than your average boy band. Overnight sensations get a song played to death, appear on an awards show or two, then disappear forever after a few months, to be replaced by someone identical singing the same type of song. Only the names change. The only current country artist who has ridden the trends and managed to have a multi-decade career and produce a real body of work is George Strait. And hes retiring. The problem is, I think, modern country radio. Stations always jump on the latest generic product from Nashville, and theres very little sense of connection with the past. The country music establishment has always paid lip service to classic country performers like Merle Haggard, George Jones, Buck Owens and Loretta Lynn, but all these performers are ignored by radio. Haggard and Lynn have put out albums in recent years and Johnny Cash, George Jones and Owens kept putting out albums to the ends of their lives. Cashs critically-acclaimed work was played by alternative rock stations due to its connection with Trent Reznor, and ditto for Loretta Lynns album, while they received zilch attention from country radio and awards shows. Country music has been here before, of course. The 80s and 90s were the era of the breakout of country into a mass market, and with it came attempts to expand its appeal by reining in its affinities with folk music, with blues, mountain string music and Western swing. The 90s were the era of the execrable line dance craze and the politicization of country music. But as a reaction to this it also produced neo-traditionalists like Dwight Yoakam, Rodney Crowell, Marty Stuart, Alan Jackson and Alison Krauss, artists who played country in their own way while staying close to countrys roots. So maybe there is hope for country music. Maybe theres a country music savior out there waiting to be discovered. But we are now further removed in time and space from countrys rural folk roots than we have ever been, more attention-span challenged, more inculcated by electronic media to consume whatever crap is fed to us by the corporations. As for me, Im going to put on Waylon and Willie, George and Buck, Merle, Loretta and Patsy and Johnny. And the Stanley brothers, Bob Wills and Hank Williams Sr. And artists who have influenced and been influenced by country, like Bob Dylan and Robert Johnson. When I want to listen to the real thing.
Posted on: Wed, 06 Aug 2014 16:28:16 +0000
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