What the hell happened to country music?

a reply to: TrueBrit

My old man had lots of CM albums and I always liken Glen Campbell to those days, in fact any CM artists from that era (mid 70's) brings back some seriously nostalgic and vivid memories for me.

Unfortunately, in recent times, they have taken the Rhinestone away from the Cowboy, and it's gone rapidly downhill ever since.

a reply to: TrueBrit
ok i had never heard about this song Take my drunk ass home, as #1 i hate country modern music as its just a cheese fest.
So i checked it out, and oh my god i was not dissapointed in this guys cheesyness. i mean i literally had to scrub my mind and body with bleach, this is the evidence, the evidence we have been searching for to prove society has been dumbed down. i give to you the Luke Bryan discography:-

On March 10, 2009, he released an EP titled Spring Break with All My Friends that featured two new songs, "Sorority Girls" and "Take My Drunk Ass Home,"

. On February 26, 2010, Bryan released a second EP, titled Spring Break 2...Hangover Edition, which featured three new songs: "Wild Weekend", "Cold Beer Drinker", and "I'm Hungover".[citation needed] While Bryan is mainly known as a country singer, he has explored other genres like alternative music with his cover of "Apologize".

Bryan released his third EP, Spring Break 3...It's a Shore Thing, on February 25, 2011, featuring four new songs—"In Love With the Girl," "If You Ain't Here to Party," "Shore Thing," and "Love In a College Town."

March 6, 2012, Bryan released his fourth Spring Break EP entitled Spring Break 4...Suntan City. Along with the title track, which Bryan co-wrote with Dallas Davidson, Rhett Akins and Ben Hayslip, the EP includes "Spring Break-Up", "Little Bit Later On", and "Shake the Sand"

January 30, 2013, Bryan announced his first compilation album, Spring Break...Here to Party, which includes fourteen songs — twelve from his previous Spring Break EPs and two new tracks. It was released on March 5.[29] The album debuted at number 1 on both the Billboard Top Country Albums chart and the Billboard 200, becoming the first album of his career to top the all-genre album chart. One of the new Spring Break songs, "Buzzkill", reached the top 20 on the Hot Country chart.

March 11, 2014, Bryan began his sixth year of spring performances at Spinnaker Beach Club in Panama City Beach, Florida.[34] On the same day, he also released his sixth spring break EP, Spring Break 6...Like We Ain't Ever.

His last spring break album, Spring Break...Checkin' Out, was released on March 10, 2015. It includes the six songs from last year's EP and five original brand new songs.
honestly to tap a market such as this is a cheese ball manoeuvre and for it take 4, yes thats FOUR people to come up with lyrics as mentaly demanding as to conquor the emotional highs and lows of the listener as this
"Hey there cutie with a Kentuky coozie,
Have you ever hung with a Georgia boy?
And why don't you and your friends,
Ease on over here and chug a beer with Miss Illinois?"

While not generally know as a "country" band, Ween can lay it down.

Being from Tennessee you get your fkin ears pumped full of this modern pop country bullsh!t so much so that you just learn to tune it out early. I really want go into a Bill Hicks style vulgar rant about this very topic but, it's early and I'm tired.

Townes Van Zandt is top of the list in my book...

And my favorite song in which I took my username from...


Can't forget Jerry Reed & Chet Atkins though, especially Jerry...

WTF is this crap?

This is what country has fallen to?

I will stick with my metal too TrueBrit.

a reply to: TrueBrit

It's all pop/country now and most of the bands sound like cross over than pure country and that's why I don't like most of it. You could put a boy band and a "country" band on stage and be hard pressed to tell the difference.

Real country music died on April 26 - 2013



He did have a part in a song that I think describes me quite well. Even my ex wife says it sounds just like me.

Check out sturgill simpson and sunday valley. This guy is from my neck of the woods. He makes authentic country music with some of the best musicians around.

a reply to: TrueBrit

Country isn't the same nowadays without the fiddle and the steel guitar.

originally posted by: TrueBrit
a reply to: Azureblue

Ok... Compare Time To Take My Drunk Ass Home, with any of the works of Led Zeppelin, or Deep Purple, or Rainbow for that matter.

You will note that the bands I mention, all write much more individual music and indeed lyrics, than modern country artists do. Also, the music of seventies rock bands, and eighties rock bands, tends toward the technically impressive and awesome, as opposed to modern country which seems, as a genre, interested in nothing more than the total removal of all individuality and talent, from the process of both performance, and creation of the music in question.

Led Zeppelin literally stole half of their material from black blues musicians. Hell their whole first album has close to no original content on it.

As for your point about country music, I don't know what you are getting at. I don't listen to mainstream country, but I REALLY enjoy bluegrass music since I play the mandolin and I've heard some incredibly diverse and good stuff over the years. Have you ever heard of Del McCoury?


He's still performing by the way. His kids have a band called the Travelin McCoury's


Then we also have Yonder Mountain String Band


Greensky Bluegrass


Here's as mainstream country as I'll get


I can keep going by the way. You just aren't looking hard enough.[

PS: Your problem is with pop music. Here's the scoop. ALL pop music sucks. Country pop is no exception.

It went to the dumper when the country four cord formula was found....



After hearing this I was turned off from country realizing it was all the same stuff,

and it is formula this sir Mashalot guy made a true 7th song out of the background of the six.



So yeah the country music has died when most of the Outlaws died...

I can keep going by the way. You just aren't looking hard enough.

well, sure, if you dig you can find stuff. point is, one shouldn't have to dig. the local country station should be playing country, not redneck hip-hop. my supervisor put some on the other day and it was all I could do not to take a hammer and physically interact with the radio.
they took out the cowboy and left the rhinestone.

while we're talking about music, same thing's happened to Reggae. They used to sing. now it's all hey-batter-hey-batter-batter junk.

a reply to: ElGoobero

I stopped listening to the radio a LONG time ago. I got tired of hearing the same dumb five songs every time I'd get in the car. You should check out internet radio like Pandora. You don't have to "dig" for good artists. You just have to know one, put on a radio station for that artist and you'll get tons of them. Join the 21st century and stop letting soulless executives who don't know how to appreciate music tell you what to listen to.

a reply to: Krazysh0t

saw del mcCoury and sons last summer at a bluegrass festival outside Portland - they stole the show!!

I've never liked country but LOVE bluegrass. Greensky, stringdusters, tbt are our favs. greensky is headlining red rocks next year - just got our tickets!!

a reply to: knoxie

I've been to DelFest the last 4 years in a row. My jam has always been String Cheese Incident


But they may be pushing it as far as country is concerned since they are more a mix of a bunch of different genres. Greensky Bluegrass is my favorite actual bluegrass band. Though it's tough to say. I also like the Infamous Stringdusters. There's also Leftover Salmon or Railroad Earth



Someone tell me THAT isn't a well written country song not about booze please.

And those are just mainstream acts. I listen to a LOT of bluegrass.

a reply to: TrueBrit

Im more of a Pantera kinda guy, or maybe some southern rock like zz top. But growing up in Texas I certainly am familiar with Country music. And let me tell you...its all gone to hell. Complete hell.

Somewhere along the way rap music completely lost ny sense of what it was: a voice for a culture. Now its just musical porn. Country....it going the same way. Its either men grinding their crotch on stage while women scream, or the same ol', same ol' of women with scant talent shaking around on stage.

The days of King George (be it Strait or Jones) are almost gone. There is still Jamey Johnston, and other "outlaw" country singers that still give me hope. But a lot of that is starting to blend into southern rock now.

Everyone used to hate Garth Brooks for "killing country". It wasn't him that did it.

a reply to: Krazysh0t

my husband is about the biggest panic fan possible. cheese, too, but to a lesser extent. bluegrass is our new jam for sure!

we saw railroad earth last summer (red rocks). we were really there to see greensky, who opened, and we left a few song into railroad earth because we weren't feeling it. will have to give them another try! I think I saw greensky 7 times last year - super fan!

trampled by turtles is good too!

we live in golden Colorado where there is zero music scene. Denver is only 20 minutes away. however, there's going to be a bluegreass festival of sorts this weekend at a dive biker bar in town. head for the hills, klye Hollingsworth band, gypsy moon and others are playing - super jazzed, would love if this takes off and we see more bluegrass here!

originally posted by: knoxie
a reply to: Krazysh0t
trampled by turtles is good too!

Yes they are. They were at Delfest this past year. Greensky is coming to DC for 3 nights in early February. I'm really excited for that. I don't know if I'll be able to see all three nights but I'll definitely make one or two. Hopefully two (friday and saturday). As for Railroad Earth. Go ahead and listen to that song I just posted. It's from their live Elko album. It's one of my favorite RRE songs.

I almost saw Panic for new years btw. I was down in Augusta, Georgia and they were playing in Atlanta, but no one wanted to go because they didn't like the way the main singers voice sounds. Oh well, I've seen them before too. They are awesome.

we live in golden Colorado were there is zero music scene. Denver is only 20 minutes away. however, there's going to be a bluegreass festival of sorts this weekend at a dive biker bar in town. head for the hills, klye Hollingsworth band, gypsy moon and others are playing - super jazzed, would love if this takes off and we see more bluegrass here!

20 minutes away isn't too bad though. LOTTA Bluegrass, especially newgrass/jamgrass, out in Colorado. I'm kind of jealous.

a reply to: TrueBrit

country has always sucked balls imo.
i think there are sub genres of country that jam out.
bluegrass(think ricky skaggs) and rockabilly(think johnny cash) is fantastic. there is a lot of good stuff out there in those genres. other than that though it bites and has for as long as i can remember.

any country on the radio is a giant turd.
i remember when garth brooks was crazy popular. all his thunder rolls bull#.
terrible

there was a song a year or 2 ago all over the radio that made me want to murder people when i heard it.
something like
"i have a big ass truck with a lift kit. all the girls get up in it"
something terrible like that.

i can think of a handful of tunes that are not johnny cash that i can tolerate. the rest is pretty much the worst music ever

i like all my ex's live in texas. pretty decent

here's my theory as to what happened to Country music and how it evolved into Hick Hop.

somewhere in the mid to early 2000s many top 40 and "big 4" pop producers realized that country music was becoming more popular and was stable fan loyalty wise to the product. and looked at it as an untapped market. they found the quality of session musicians in Nashville very high and easy to work with and started taking their top 40 gimmicks and songwriting to Nashville and other hotbeds in the country recording scene. many producers and writers were writing one week songs for the next Britney spears the week after flying to Nashville and promising to write the next big hit for some struggling country artist using their big money pop /top 40 equations and tricks. and riding both sides of the fence.

second thing I saw happening was since it was becoming easier to write your own stuff every upcoming wannabe was at home writing and recording their own stuff. problem is if you can afford the hardware and the time to do this then you are probably not some hard-working blue collar type that we associate with country music. instead your probably some kid in his 20s from an affluent or well to do family. so now you got a whole slew of "country" kids as the source pool for these new round of pop top 40 producers to select from and work with. and these country kids /upcoming stars are divorced from the day to day life that makes you "country." to seem legit they talk about all the things "country" that you assume and stereotyped in your mom's house while probably listening to anything but country. now you got country boys talking like they are trust fund kids running amuck. just like when "gangsta rappers" were rapping about stuff they've mostly never done to sound legit but were probably not even from the hood. same thing with these new gen of pop country guys. it's more like wannabe redneck party music.

I think the term used these days is Hick Hop.

then on the other end of the spectrum you have the country acts that take themselves too seriously and have lost the humanity and individualism that made you want to listen to their stuff to begin with. the endless highly polished but generic can't tell which chick is singing ballads and lovesongs. clearly influenced by the prior mentioned slick producer types that know if you follow this top 40 formula you too can sell a crap ton of records. nothing noteworthy career wise in an artistic sense is being done but the artist racked in a ton of money.

so those are the two biggest reasons, as I see it, as to why country music as devolved into top 40 pop, hick hop, generic party music. most of the time when i watch those videos i notice the new thing is to talk about how "country" you are. like you're trying to convince the audience you're legit. I however stare back at the screen highly skeptical.

basically a large part of the country music industry has been taken away from actual country folk and is gentrified sitting firmly in the hands of people who arent country. so if country music doesnt sound very country these days thats because most of the people claiming to be country aren't country.

We play both kinds of music here boy, country, and western.


It does exist, you just have to look.