country music in need of a revival? - or genre clarity?

[2lane]

So Peter, lets write some lyrics...eh?
At the risk of being hung out to dry...I'll start

So... continuing... aiming for completion: then off of the Cass-man for a reality check?!

Verse)
Country music use'ta be hert in lil bars
Twernt no damn raps and fuzzy git-tars
Why... that kinda song's likely already bin writ
By some 'poke chewin tabakky an needin t' spit
The only pot there's the one ya aim for
So's line dancers don't go slippin' all ov'r th' floor...

Pre-chorus)
On Fridays... if you're out drinkin' fer Fun
Expect a hitchin' post, cuz it's 19 sumpthin'

Chorus)
Now sang-us a song, a real song, Boys
Not j'st werdz spoke ov'r bunchez a'noise
Let the mellerdee soar and th' harm'neez rang
Werdz'th no tune don't mean a dern thang!"
Uh... yeh... gimme'at twang, enda fiddle'ith flair
Not some metal riff thet caint compair
Laid-back n' nice, like weez out on th' porch
Keepin time wi'the laundry, by the light of a tiki torch...

(I don't think this is working... TGIF...)

YA THINK!!!

[2lane]

My first pro gig was playing Country music when I was 18. I'm now 53 and still playing it every once in awhile. This same discussion has been going on since I first started playing it. Back then Ronnie Milsap and Alabama were the demons cause they didn't sound like Haggard and Jones. Later in the '90s it was Restless Heart and The Kentucky Headhunters.

Country music continues to evolve just like every other style of music. Should orchestral music limited to the Baroque and Romantic periods, should Jazz be limited to the music of Benny Goodman and Count Basie, should Rock be stuck in the '50s, should all R&B sound like The Temptations or Aretha Franklin? Young people coming into the business have a right to express themselves as they choose and most of them were influenced by Rock, Pop and Hip Hop as well as Country music and all those influences are coming out in their music. And it also happens to be very popular. It's progress, the opposite would be stagnation.

Great post Jon.....I agree!

[2lane]

Good post too EJB!!
The darn thing wouldn't let me quote you for some reason?

Steve

[Kolstad]

Yeah, if there was no inclusion of contemporary elements in country, it would soon become an exclusive, elitist type of genre, that only was for a few well rounded traditionalists. I would hate that. I like country a lot, but only so far as it's fun and connected to life as lived (real). Allthough it was a great time, only one generation could have their formative yeas in the 1960'ies.

[jonnybutter]

What I find interesting is - when you sit down to try to write a country song, for example - that despite the modern mania for rigid classifying into genre, sub-genre, and sub-sub-genre, all current pop music (country, rock, pop, etc.) sounds remarkably the same from a nuts and bolts musical point of view, i.e. melody and chords. Take these 3 or 4 chords and put dobros and acoustic guitars and a drawl in the vocal, and it's 'country'; take the same melody and chords and put synths and a thick gloss of epoxy and it's 'pop', etc. Bottom line seems to be that popular music (Anglo-American anyway!) is converging even though there are more genres than ever. I wouldn't call it a 'fusion' though - they are often exactly the same stuff.

I don't think there's anything wrong with people doing anything they feel like within or around any genre, including country. Rules are made to be broken. But contemporary country doesn't sound like country to me. Give me George Jones or Ernest Tubb or Johnny Paycheck or the Outlaws.

And get off my lawn!

[Kolstad]

I'm not so sure about that, Jon. If you watch that awesome episode of Taxi TV some time back with Taxi screener Marlice Kraemer where she reviews country pitches, some of her points (as I heard them) were that country is Very lyric driven, and it's not just from a technical viewpoint. There are some attitudes and perspectives that lies deep within the country DNA of things, which is important to nail when writing, before it can pass as country, at least from her experienced a&r point of view.

You HAVE to watch that, it contains information you cannot find anywhere else on the planet.
It's my favourite Taxi TV show to date! http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/11423200

[jonnybutter]

Hi Kolstad,

Of course country is very lyric-driven - always has been. I didn't mention lyrics.

Actually, all pop music is very lyric driven, but country especially has always been about telling stories. It's just that, in this sort of pop country we're talking aobut, I think you could take the chords and melody (assuming there is one) to many of these songs and massage it into another genre with not much effort.

cheers

Jon

[funsongs]

Allthough it was a great time, not too many live in the 60'ies anymore.

We don't live in the 1700s, 1800s, etc... either... but Mozart still sounds a lot like Mozart.
I'd be pretty disappointed if I tuned into a "classical" radio station and heard 50 Cent laying down a rap over some Chopin. I wouldn't consider that an evolution of modern classical.

I have KSON "New Country" radio here... sometimes they play what sounds like Country to me, and I listen. When the rock-influenced stuff comes on, I turn it off; or flop over to a rock station that's playing... well, rock.

funny life lesson/application: I once went to a restaurant on a lunch break. I asked the waitress for a salad and some bread with butter. She replied, "ok: you want a salad and an order of toast."
I said, "no... I don't want toast: I'd like a side of bread with butter." To which she answered
(I promise this is true) "Ok... you want a side of toast... you just don't want it toasted."

"Bingo!"
Alas... our current culture is all about blurring the lines... therefore, the new genre should just be
called "Ambiguous Country"... meaning: "it's whatever you want it to be; deal with it."

Look out, Bach and Friends... they'll be coming after you next.
oy...

[funsongs]

btw: this very morning, the DJs and guests on KSON radio were having this very same discussion.
what a coinky-dink...
or, do they read Taxi forum?!

[rdance]

late to the conversation...i have enjoyed reading everyone's insights and pov's. my take is that the traditional country music funsongs is referring to, qualifies as an authentic american art form...that rare occasion when musical and lyrical elements come together from a few cultural sources, to create a sound/energy/communique that is unique and outstanding to such a degree that it affects large groups of people on an archetypal level (not just a popular level). my opinion on authentic american art forms and my guess on about when they coalesced:

folk mid 1800's
blues early 1900's
jazz mid-1920's
r&b late 1940's
country early 1950's
rock & roll late 1950's
funk late 1960's
rap late 1980's

i think much of the discussion on this thread revolves around the complexities of how art forms evolve and change and cross-pollinate over time, creating derivatives. sometimes that's a good thing, sometimes not. but it seems they always will, and the good news is, this can sometimes generate a new art form. but since we live in such a hyper-connected world via technology, there is a lot of chaos and noise present at once, as musical genres bump into each other.

we all got to grow up when one or more of the above art forms were being created. some are better at using the art forms as a foundation to create new music. it all depends on what you listen to in developing your craft, how you play, how you hear the other players in a live situation, and so on.

my experience has been, if you lean first towards the original art forms and secondly towards commercial viability--something we all face every day as composers and players--the music will sound better, and i believe, will ultimately find a more longstanding 'home'...whether that is in a commercial, a show, a film, or a performing career.

got a little off track, thanks for the indulgence