A Critical Time in Country Music
In the natural history of the Earth, there’s a period known to biologists as The Cambrian Explosion. It was an era when the rate of evolution accelerated so rapidly that even Charles Darwin, the father of the evolutionary theory, admits it stands as one of the main objections to his findings on natural selection. In a relatively short period of time compared to the rest of evolution, the animal world was completely re-organized, leading eventually to the modern animal structure we live in today.
Over the last few months, and the last few weeks specifically, we have been going through a country music Cambrian Explosion of sorts, with massive, earth-moving events completely re-shaping the style and infrastructure of a genre that has been around for over 70 years. Arguably there’s been more significant events in a short period than any other time in country’s history.
- Billboard changing the way it computes songs on the “Hot 100” charts.
- Gaylord Entertainment re-organizing into Ryman Hospitality and going under the control of Marriott International.
- Jason Aldean and Taylor Swift, “country’s” two biggest stars releasing albums on consecutive weeks, with Swift’s becoming the best-selling debut album in a decade in all of music.
- Scott Borchetta going from a budding label owner to arguably the most powerful man in Nashville, making a household name for himself and wholesale changing the way Music Row does business.
Even the way downtown Nashville looks is changing, with the massive Music City Center being erected, the Songwriters and Musician’s Hall of Fame being swapped as part of the project, a water park that was supposed to be built in partnership with Dolly Parton falling apart because of Gaylord’s sale, and Ryman Hospitality putting the naming rights to The Grand Ole Opry and the Country Music Mother Church, The Ryman Auditorium, up for bid. Downtown Nashville, the holy land of country music, is being revamped from the inside out just like the music business that it’s home to.
And this doesn’t even begin to take into consideration the sonic changes to country music, from the hyper-driven pop songs from Taylor Swift dominating the charts, to the intrusion and mainstream acceptance of country rap, and the increased exposure of all of country music’s drama in the new popular television show Nashville.
Aside from Taylor Swift’s first CMA win for Entertainer of the Year in 2009, virtually all the major events a country music historian may use to erect a timeline of how country became what we will know it to be in the future have happened in very recent memory. It’s human habit to think you’re always living in the most important, critical time in whatever it is you’re following, but in this case, the concern seems to have merit.
But one of the things I find most curious about the recent string of current events is how it has been received in certain sectors of the country music population. The country music underground was virtually birthed out of the rapid move to pop in country that was ushered in around the late 90’s, early 2000’s. Without the fervor and dissension around the direction of Music Row and mainstream country music, there may have never been as strong of support for acts like BR549, Hank Williams III, and Dale Watson. For a decade the underground was the sector of country music organizing against the intrusion of pop in country and trying to preserve country’s roots.
But where are those voices now? As these historic issues have been presenting themselves one after another in recent months, Saving Country Music has not only had to work overtime to at least attempt to cover them from an independent viewpoint (let alone attempt to organize against them), but to fight off a strange form of active apathy that militantly wants to not give a shit.
Meanwhile where is there support for attempting to preserve the roots of the music coming from? Carrie Underwood fans of all places. Carrie Underwood fans! They have been making front page headlines for being against Billboard’s new chart rules, even when as Billboard’s Editorial Director Bill Werde points out, Carrie Underwood could very easily be one of the beneficiary’s of the new system. Carrie’s fans’ reaction wasn’t based soley on their self interests, but for better interests for the entire country genre.
The Billboard issue has had massive reverberations throughout the music industry, with fans of R&B, rap, and rock up in arms that artists with “Crossover” pop appeal are virtually entrenched in the top positions on Billboard’s charts. Spin called the new rules “clueless.” The biggest paper in the world, The New York Times interviewed me to get my point of view, even though many of my readers found the issue boresome.
One thing that did not happen that was anticipated with Billboard’s new rules is a complete Taylor Swift dominance of the country song chart, like Mumford & Sons did when they released their new album. Why? Partly because Swift and her label Big Machine purposely limited the sale of her new album Red to certain outlets. For example, the album couldn’t be bought on Amazon until a week after its release, and Scott Borchetta refuses to make the album available on Spotify, Rhapsody, and other streaming services that are now counted in Billboard’s song charts.
So what does all this mean? It means that the elements of country music that used to keep it in check with its roots increasingly don’t care any more. Like refugees, they’re retreating to their little independent scenes and micro-scenes, and forming an elitist “we have ours, screw the masses” bent. But that’s the same flawed logic of saying, “I have a job, who cares if my neighbor does?” Eventually, the creatively-bankrupt nature of mainstream music is destined to creep into your world.
Meanwhile Music Row and the big money forces in Nashville can do whatever they want without fear of retribution or reprisal from the roots of the genre. Carrie Underwood fans? They can be managed; cast them off as crazy. That Saving Country Music guy? He’s a self-absorbed wacko whose losing relevancy.
At the CMA Awards, we could have a country rap song win Song of the Year, and a girl with a song that they purposely made to be pop, and purposely did not release a country version win Entertainer of the Year, and the howls will be half as much as when Eddie Rabbit released “I Love A Rainy Night” in 1981.
It’s no longer cool to criticize what is happening to country music. In fact, it’s now cool to not criticize what’s happening, and to criticize the folks that are.
So what’s the solution? Honestly I don’t know. I wish I had a red bow to tie this article up nicely with, but I don’t. All I know is that the commercial forces aiming to restructure country music into America’s predominant pop genre have never been better poised to do so. Little is stopping them.
November 1, 2012 @ 10:57 am
You’re right about the billboard chart changes. It’s as if music is becoming a giant mono genre. But, to say that:
“It”™s no longer cool to criticize what is happening to country music. In fact, it”™s now cool to not criticize what”™s happening, and to criticize the folks that are.”
is a little off track. Black Flag never got airplay on mainstream radio even though their music is rock and roll to the core. Rancid has made millions upon millions touring the world for the past 20 some years and have only had one radio hit early in their career. But, the fans are not naive enough to think that mainstream radio corporations will listen to their plea to play music with more variety. Clear Channel makes enough money playing what they play on their different formats across the country. They don’t need to accommodate the rest of us.
It is my opinion that this will never change. We live in a capitalistic society where money speaks louder than words. Maybe one day the tide will turn, and roots music will gain so much popularity that it will be heard on pop stations replacing modern dance music. But, by then, it will have evolved into something that is unrecognizable to us.
Punk rock will never be popular enough to be covered by the media the way pop music is. Neither will real country, americana, alt-country, blues, or any type of real good natural music. There will always be the occasional anomaly such as the Black Keys (unfortunately I can’t think of many more examples) , but for he most part, this is just the way the world works. I would like to invite everyone who hasn’t seen the movie Idiocracy to check it out. Satyrical but eerily convincing.
Long live the underdog!
November 1, 2012 @ 11:36 am
That comment wasn’t as much about artists as it was about fans. I think country artists like Dale Watson and Hank3 who used to be more outspoken about the direction of country music are trending away towards that because it got to the point where they were preaching to the choir. Those songs are still out there, and will be forever, but to continue to put out anti-Nashville songs, at least for those artists could end up feeling redundant.
However the reasons Dale, Hank3, and others put out those songs has never been greater.
November 1, 2012 @ 11:41 am
I whole heartedly agree. I can draw the connection between the current state of country to punk rock again. Punk is all about changing the system and coming up and breaking out of the norms that pop culture traps us in. But there are 4 decades worth of punk rock musicians fighting for a change, but where has it gotten us?
The underdog will always be an underdog, and I can’t say that I for one would want to change that. Let the Aldeans and Swifts make all the shit music they want. It still doesn’t change the core of the underground scene. It only reinforces it.
November 2, 2012 @ 12:28 am
“Punk is all about changing the system and coming up and breaking out of the norms that pop culture traps us in.”
What exactly does this mean in concrete terms? Does this imply a collective uprising of the people to change our economic system to one that gets rid of the necessity to work under an employer in order to eke out the barest living? Does this mean forcing a change in the record label structure, a la the Outlaw movement? Or is it about a new paradigm in musical tastes? If the “change” you are discussing is about musical taste, then there is a fundamental problem with this argument:
“But there are 4 decades worth of punk rock musicians fighting for a change, but where has it gotten us?”
Pop culture, by definition, represents that which is most popular in society, and therefore that which has the most purchasing power. As a result, no art form which is fundamentally oriented toward opposing “pop culture” will ever succeed commercially.
November 2, 2012 @ 6:12 am
That was my point. Does anyone really want to see what would happen to someone like Dale Watson if he was picked up by a big label?
November 2, 2012 @ 6:39 pm
@Hagphish
We already know what would happen. Look no further than Pat Green.
Over a decade on the road, and handful of beautiful albums, then “Wave on Wave” becomes a big hit, he gets a big award and a record contract, and goes pop country because he wants more.
The good news is, I think he’s trying to fix that, at least, that’s the gist of what I get when I read his website.
November 1, 2012 @ 11:44 am
i would recommend god bless america in addition to idiocracy–its ridiculous to me that people don’t realize how stupid and gullible they are becoming. the sheep mentality of the masses is getting worse all the time.
maybe i was too young for it, but i don’t remember rancid having a “hit.” what was it? something off of …and out come the wolves, i assume?
November 1, 2012 @ 12:11 pm
Two hits actually. Ruby Soho and Time Bomb, both from ‘…And Out Come The Wolves’. But, that was like 18 years ago, and they’ve had like 5 albums since.
There are still some examples of artists that can never get mainstream airplay but become international successes. Wayne Hancock, Brian Setzer, Hank III, Scott H. Biram, William Elliot Whitmore, the list goes on.
Imagine what how the pop masses would receive Hank Williams if he was born 60 years later than he was. Do you think Nora Jones would have covered Cold, Cold Heart?
November 2, 2012 @ 12:12 am
Just like everything else, people’s musical tastes today are very different from what they were 60 years ago. How do you think Frank Sinatra would be received today?
We just need to accept that music changes over time.
November 2, 2012 @ 12:14 am
Have you considered the idea that people who do not listen to punk rock or what you term “real natural music” may simply have a different musical preference than you do? It’s very condescending to imply that people with different artistic tastes are “idiots”.
November 2, 2012 @ 6:36 am
I am not calling anyone an idiot. I am simply stating that I think most people in the roots community are anything but apathetic about their scene. That doesn’t mean that Hank III is ever going to replace Jason Aldean on country radio.
Let me clarify: Real Natural Music to me means music that is made with instruments that a tangible, can be strummed, made by hand, and do not include mother boards.
November 2, 2012 @ 7:00 am
How about vocals being manipulated? Sure making music off a computer isn’t like playing by hand, although it takes a lot of talent, just different talent….I have as much a problem with an artisit distorting their voice to sound like they are recording in a wood shed as I do with auto tune.
I get the difference, but in either case, both artists are manipulating. Do I let it dictate the music I like, no, but auto-tune and singing to tracks vs. singing into a mic that gives that distorted sound are manipulation.
Are more talented hacks making music today? Probably not, they just have more outlets to get it out, so we see and hear it. But I’m sure there were plenty people playing music back in Hank Sr. days, they just didn’t have youtube back then or could record on their phone.
November 2, 2012 @ 7:53 am
I totally agree. I think some artists spend a lot of time and money to make it sound like they didn’t spend any time or money. On the other hand, people like Reverend Deadeye have an old sound because they are using old/homemade equipment.
I use a microphone that I made from parts scattered throughout my house and garage that sounds like I’m singing through a telephone…because there are telephone parts in the microphone. Not only because I like the sound, but also because I don’t have 250 bucks to blow on a Copperphone.
Its one thing to carry on tradition. Its an entirely different thing to use modern technology to reproduce a lo-fi sound with hi-fi equipment. In any case, I guess its all just art that is left to each persons interpretation.
November 2, 2012 @ 12:50 am
The great thing about technology, specifically the Internet, is that it is creating a fundamental change from the old reality you describe. The problem with radio is that space is limited, therefore allowing large corporations to monopolize control of it. The Internet, however, with its (at least for now) unlimited space, should be a dream come true for underground musicians (and for that matter, for small businesses, grassroots movements, and any other small, non-corporate entity).
January 3, 2013 @ 5:12 pm
why do you think that the genres you mentioned are not as popular as pop?
January 3, 2013 @ 5:46 pm
I THINK, most people aren’t as passionate about music as us.
Punk rock speaks to me on a personal level. I can relate to the struggles and attitude of the music because I have gone through similar experiences as the stories told in the songs. I share some of the beliefs that punk rock speaks of. I grew up in a very rural area with Willie and Jerry Jeff on the record player. So, even at a very young age, when I heard songs about horses, big skies, pick up trucks, and Nolan Ryan I could relate.
Some people are raised with a passion for music. Some people discover their love for music in their teens. Some people never develope a love for music. These are the people that pop is marketed for. The music is just background noise or a temporary escape from the rigors of everyday life. More people live in trend setting metro areas, so songs about clubbin’, bouncing asses, designer labels, and trendy adult beverages are better recieved. The songs don’t need to be deep in meaning or instrumentaly sound for casual listeners to enjoy it. And, there is nothing wrong with that. The problem is that the rest of us who are passionate and crave more meaning and craftsmanship have a hard time being exposed to the music that we love.
I’m far from an expert, these are just my opinions.
November 1, 2012 @ 11:34 am
I’m not apathetic. I care about independent music. There are lots of us. This Friday night I’m going to drive 140 miles round trip and go see Chris Knight. I’m going in January to travel all the way to Belize to see Jerry Jeff Walker. Almost every weekend I spend time and money to go see independent artists play music. I don’t need Nashville, Billboard or anybody else. As long is there is the network of venues, radio and web based outlets for independent artists to present their art and there are people like me that support it. It will exist. Nashville be dammned.
November 1, 2012 @ 11:53 am
This should have been your halloween article because it is so frightening. I try to have hope that things can turn around but I think it is almost doomed to continue along like this. Outside of people like us who visit this site, people just generally don’t care about substance anymore.
November 1, 2012 @ 12:42 pm
Thank The Lord Taylor’s songs like her fans and billboard predicted did not even dent the top ten in the new hybird country chart. None of her songs debuted in the top ten.
Is this a good sign? Hell yes..
November 1, 2012 @ 1:06 pm
Well, she was much weaker in selling album cuts this time – normally all her songs chart the week after. If they had released it to streaming she would have controlled all the spots.
November 1, 2012 @ 1:10 pm
Yes and it’s a good thing. The fear most country fans can reside and take a deep sigh of relief.
Do you really want one artist to clog the charts like that? I don’t care who it is.
Would you want all your songs to chart, or the longetivity of an album/single on the charts?
November 1, 2012 @ 1:18 pm
Hey Triggerman, wil you be talking about the CMA awards as you watch them, like you did with the ACM awards? I can’t watch it probably until tomorrow from where I am, but perhaps, you could spoil in some details? Please?
November 1, 2012 @ 2:03 pm
Oh yes! The Saving Country Music Hideout is being provisioned as we speak for the Anti-CMA Awards.
November 1, 2012 @ 2:05 pm
I feel like music is changing because our culture is changing. It”™s not just the music that is getting weaker and weaker, look at the popular tv shows these days. Honey boo boo, Kardashians, etc. These shows seem to appeal to the dumbest and most idiotic people. Hell, CMT used to have music, now they have these dumbasses who think it”™s awesome to be a redneck and make a fool of themselves on national tv. It seems as if the population gets dumber by the day. There are more and more of the people who think that being country is about taking your STD stricken girlfriend mudding, dancing in the middle of a field and making love in the back of a truck. Does anybody know of anyone who actually does that? I damn sure don”™t and I grew up in the sticks. The number of dumbasses in this world keep getting larger and they are the ones who buy up this garbage they call country music.
November 1, 2012 @ 2:17 pm
Amen to that Ryan! I think the lowest common denominator deal is accross the board. Thankfully, there are enough fans of the real thing, at least in geographic pockets, in this country and abroad to create a viable market for independent music. So now it ain’t getting better anytime soon. However, thanks to the age of new media options independent music exists in a large enough format to keep it in the studio and on the road. Nashville she is a lost cause.
November 1, 2012 @ 2:55 pm
You are correct about the new media and technology making it easier to get your music heard by a broader audience, but it also hurts musicians in other ways. Album sales are way down thanks to these new technologies making it very hard for musicians to make a living doing what they love. They are forced go on the road for 11 months out of the year just to barely survive. Meanwhile, the pop stars shit gold and have everything done for them.
It’s sad as hell reading Facebook updates of some of my favorite musicians having troubles on the road spending all the money they have just to make it to the next venue that is full of people that aren’t interested in their art or they play to an empty room. It’s a goddamn shame!
November 1, 2012 @ 3:11 pm
It”™s a damn shame that the artists who make music for the art of making music, and doing what they love, are the one”™s struggling. Meanwhile, the Luke Bryans and Jason Aldeans of the world put out new music because they see the $$$, and their record label says its time to record a new album full of crap.
November 2, 2012 @ 9:27 am
It is true that a lot talent is struggling to get from one gig to the next. However, in amongst the independent music scene are folks that do pretty well financially without selling out to the machine. Yes that means a lot of time in the van or the bus but at least because of the new media outlets their music has a shot of being heard without major label support. Without the new media in spite of it’s drawback’s there would be a lot less good music being made and heard. There will always be the unwashed masses that support crap. However, there is now more opportunity to let more people hear the good stuff.
November 1, 2012 @ 4:33 pm
Does that mean I have to then ignore all the great hugely popular shows like Breaking Bad, Mad Men, Sons of Anarchy, Newsroom and such then? I’m completely against the idea that modern media and pop culture is performing a collective ‘dumbing-down’ of America. BUT, I don’t think this is the argument Trig wants to inspire discussions about.
November 1, 2012 @ 5:51 pm
I’ve been listening to all kinds of music since before the Beatles, and to my memory, rarely has radio been an especially good place to hear the music I enjoy.
And that has always included Country radio.
Commercial Radio, as a general rule, has always played for the lowest common denominator for *any* genre.
There are always exceptions, of course, but they have always been underground. And when “underground” attempts to go commercial, it always quickly looses all of its undergroundness once it begins to become successful. The cynic in me always figured that any kind of Rebel Radio was simply a mainstream marketing ploy, anyway.
Having said all that, if I had the opportunity to make lots of $$$ being a Twang Pop star, I would probably leave my artistic integrity at home behind closed doors where it belongs 😉
November 1, 2012 @ 6:02 pm
Trig said “…but to fight off a strange form of active apathy that militantly wants to not give a shit.” Wow, you’ve really hit the nail on the head in my case! Most of my music listening revolves around traditional forms of country music and I find the mediocre crap that fills the Top 40 country airwaves these days to be pointless. I have no desire to listen to most modern mainstream country and am actually shocked when I come across something good in that realm. The emergence of Carrie Underwood and Taylor Swift as icons in the genre was the death knell for me and I have no desire to tune back in to mainstream country radio in the future. I don’t expect the current trends to reverse themselves due to all of the entrenched marketplace factors involved. I still enjoy reading about what’s going on, I just have no desire to be an active participant.
On the other hand I find the availability of download singles from older country albums from the 1940’s through the 1960’s to be a godsend! I love poking around Amazon searching for classic country lost treasures as there are just so many of them! Thanks to the digital music revolution I can now focus my musical interests on the historical past and pretty much ignore the current music scene. I still give a crap about country music, just not the current mainstream goings on…
November 2, 2012 @ 12:37 am
I once read an article that discussed how the increasing homogeneity of radio pop music is being driven by the rise of online music. Online music has attracted those at the edges of the musical taste “bell curve”, who were frustrated with the homogeneity of radio music. However, by narrowing the “bell curve” of radio listeners, this has led to even further radio homogeneity, therefore resulting in one big self-fulfilling prophecy.
November 2, 2012 @ 12:38 am
Nice picture, by the way. Where did you get that from?
November 2, 2012 @ 12:42 am
That is the painting that is in the actual hall of the Country Music Hall of Fame meant to represent the roots of the music. You haven’t really seen it until you’ve seen it there.
November 3, 2012 @ 12:45 am
Hey Trig, I want to get more involved with the scene, both as a musician and a fan, any tips on helping to build up an underground country scene?
I feel like a lot of why people complain less about country these days, is that a lot of people have given up, and decided to call themselves something different, like alt country or americana, I know my band decided Americana had a better ring to it than classic country, which just sounded to much like we were a bunch of older guys on their last leg, or who were trying to sound just like all the greats, as opposed to the reality, which is closer to a bunch of kids trying to have a good time and get their music out to the world.
anyway, I feel guilty for shying away from calling it country, just because I don’t want to be associated with a lot of pop acts…so I want to try and figure out things I can do that would be good for all of us!
November 3, 2012 @ 7:27 am
I know nothing about being in a band or recording music, but if it were me, I would just make the music I like and forget about what genre to call my music. Write and play what you feel. Don”™t worry too much about making a certain sound. Be true to yourself. If you do that, you will have success in the underground scene. My opinion is worth nothing, though.
November 3, 2012 @ 12:13 pm
thanks man! yeah, I guess it really doesn’t matter what genre we call ourselves, as long as we’re having fun and some people dig it right?
January 3, 2013 @ 5:08 pm
the ‘commercial forces aiming to restructure country music into america’s predominant pop genre’ wouldn’t have any power if people didn’t give it to them, and that’s what bothers me. none if this ‘new’ country would be selling if the masses weren’t eating it up. (supply and demand) so who’s to blame??