And to add to the list of recent country that is actually good, may I present Caitlin Rose. Although it’s possible that she’s better known here in the UK than at home, either way, she’s bloody awesome.
As country has become a bigger and bigger money machine over the years (decades, actually), it has turned into another variant of pop. Pop with a southern twang, a mandatory big hat (for the guys, at least, and some of the gals), and designer boots that have never even touched a gravel driveway, let alone cowsh*t.
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The vid answers what was awful about it, not why it was awful.
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Sturgeon’s law. “90% of science fiction – of ANYTHING – is crap.”
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You could drop “in 2013” and it’d be true more or less since country-pop was a commercial genre.
I wasn’t into country at all till I moved to the Midwest, and I can testify that there’s plenty of good country music. I can also testify that none of it turned up this year. Unless you count the Darius Rucker cover of an older song:
EDIT: I was going to offer this country rock song, but discovered it was released late last year:
Have you learned the error of your ways yet, Frauenfelder? HAVE YOU?
(edited for derp)
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I don’t know what the “last good country song” was, but the Flatlanders album from 1972 has several songs that should make the list-- it might be the last country album to feature the saw as an instrument.
Ah yes, goat ropin’ with the drugstore cowboys. What you find depends a fair amount on where it is that you go looking.
I had always thought country music, like christian rock, was just something musicians with no real talent played in order to make money. I didn’t know anyone who could read considered either actual music.
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There is good country, but it isn’t necessarily what’s sold as country.
There is good western, but it isn’t necessarily what’s sold as western.
I’m not sure there’s any good country-western.
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THIS! The non-Nashville alt-country stuff is actually not bad, but I’ve hated mainstream country for most of my life (I’m in my 30s) and didn’t realize until recently there’s a whole other world out there.
I think it got REALLY bad and then worse around the early 90’s when they crossed the streams with pop music and marketed it the same way.
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We don’t listen to much “pure” tear-in-my-beer country. Wilco and Neko Case are about as far as we usually get. Michelle Shocked, Mary Chapin Carpenter and Mary Gautier are also on our “playlist”. We went to an Emmylou Harris concert a couple of months back. She is absolutely a class act.
The only good country music these days comes out on small indy labels.
Here is my vote for the last good country album: from the mid-90’s:, Dick Curless’ final album “Traveling Through” (though it’s so smooth it might as well be a jazz album.)
Couldn’t agree more, I don’t know if it’s some sort of corollary to the 80/20 rule or something but if you’re looking at any genre it’s likely that the majority of what you’re going to hear sucks. It’s not that Old Country was any better, it’s just that you only remember/currently hear the good stuff. The wheat has been separated from the chaff, if you will.
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My grandfather was a sheriff and a judge in a dry county. He also had a barn full of horses. Before he passed away, he said these words to me which I will never forget:
‘If you can’t kick the shit to it, what good is it?’
And there’s your problem right there. I can’t imagine kicking anything but the back of my own head to this noise.
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I’m not so sure. One of the most thought-provoking and insightful country songs I’ve ever heard is from this year. Maybe it’s because it’s holding a mirror up to the whole “country” mystique.
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Well, my dog died just yesterday and left me all alone
The finance company dropped by today and repossessed my home
That’s just a drop in the bucket compared to losing you
And I’m down to seeds and stems again, too
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There are a LOT of truly great new country songs and new country musicians. Unfortunately, you will not hear a single one of them on Top 40 Country Radio.Country music is near and dear to my heart, but Nashville is overrun by bros in wranglers and baseball caps who don’t have the slightest idea what country life even is. Dig around in the alt country crate, or even in the country crate from the greats of yesteryear. You’ll find a treasure trove of beautiful meaningful songs from vibrant relevant artists you’ll never see on CMT or hear on Today’s Top 10 Radio Countdown.
-T
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Why was Country Music awful in 2013? Why would anyone expect it to get better? It’s been awful for decades- 2013 was just a continuation of the trend. When was it not awful? 1953? 1875?
The problem with country is the same as the problem with pop music: The two or three American broadcast conglomerates only want to play music which their focus groups have determined will result in more listeners. IOW, lowest-common-denominator to the max (kind of an oversimplification perhaps, but you get the point).
Anyway, speaking of Merle Haggard…
No, no, it’s much, MUCH worse than that. Christian music of today is so bad as to be well beyond unlistenable.
