Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2017/02/02/bo-burnham-parodies-stadium-co.html
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There’s a container of foam ear plugs in one of the areas here at work. Written on that container (by some wag) : COUNTRY MUSIC FILTERS
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Righteous!
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@mark i recommend both of his full-length shows. They’re both excellent.
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Just from seeing what I saw, I knew who must have written on the container. Later I walked up to him, nodding my head up and down, and all I had to say was “About those ear plugs…” when the culprit busted out laughing. He was proud.
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I’m not a country person but old school country is more interesting to me. Dolly Parton and earlier. Also a big fan of bluegrass, i don’t listen to it often but i do have a Pandora station set up for it on the odd day that i’m in the mood for it.
Also Bo Burnham is pretty excellent 
also highly recommend him
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My favorite Bo Burnham video is New Math, from 2008.
How do you trace a scatter plot? You give the pencil to Michael J. Fox…
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So very agreed.
Here’s a conceptually equivalent comment on rap: Reggie Watts’ “Fuck Shit Stack”.
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Not surprisingly it’s called “bro country music”, written by a handful of songwriters:
It’s basically a bunch of guys singing about trucks, headlights, rolled-down windows, jeans, alcohol, moonlit makeouts, and sex on river beds beside old dirt roads. There’s also a weirdly pervasive trend of calling female subjects “girl” over and over — and not in the same way The Temptations sang “My Girl”
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Thanks for sharing the Reggie Watts clip. First of all, it’s pretty catchy. I can see someone missing the parody, or choosing to ignore it for sake of the catchiness. Kind of like how Blues Traveler’s Hook helped propel the album it was on to 6x Platinum sales despite it’s clear lyrics mocking the kind of music it was; for the record, I liked it from the first listen and still enjoy it.
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I just love Reggie Watts. I saw him in concert in France a few years back and it was incredible!
Also, I never noticed that Kumail Nanjiani was in that video.
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If you know nothing about Bo I stringly urge you to check out ‘Make Happy’ on Netflix. Its incredible. So accomplished for one his age.
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I guess he never heard of Rudy Terwilliger…but he totally stole his gag.
Pretty great, that sent me down a very entertaining Reggie Watts focussed rabbit hole.
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How come no one brought this to my attention before today?
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I love country music, I just think it lost its way sometime in the 1970’s; when George Jones sang “He Stopped Loving Her Today” with a wall of 101 strings behind him it stopped being country. The stuff they call “country” nowadays is like some kind of parody, like they took all the subtlety out of the genre-- same beat, same hooks and chord changes, same lyrical content, slick production-- in that sense it’s not much different than modern R&B-based pop music.
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There’s still good country out there, it’s just not the stuff that gets airplay.
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That song makes me weepy tho…
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Sheet metal worker here. Lots of country music fans in our shop but apparently there’s a glaring age-related difference in taste. Fifty-plus guys are all about Cash, Nelson, American roots, bluegrass, that kind of thing. Twenty and thirtysomethings are the ones listening to the plastic stuff spackled with superficial drawl and twangs.
I’m considering getting my own boom box just to bring some aural justice back to the shop because, as @Auld_Lang_Syne shares above, there is plenty of good country that doesn’t get much airplay on the major stations.
ETA: Here’s some more:
Lindi Ortega, ‘Murder of Crows’
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The ones that drive me absolutely batshit crazy and make me want to throw up are Florida Georgia Line. At least half their songs are about getting drunk and screwing “girls”. I haven’t listened to the lyrics close enough to know if it’s rapey, but I assume so. Anyway, what really drives me nuts about that is every time they win an award (which is basically at every country awards show) they always, always, always, walk on stage, receive the award, step up to the mic, point and look up, and say “First, we’d like to thank our lord and savior Jesus Christ.” They’re so full of shit, and it’s so obvious to me, but country music fans eat that crap up.
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