Back To The Future: 1985 and the Year Country Music Died
”Country records are getting plenty of radio play, but they all sound alike and nobody’s buying them.”
”A lot of the established country stars and record producers are making records by formula. They’re so caught up in conforming to what used to sell and what radio stations will play, the new records don’t have any life to them.”
”It’s still possible for new performers to make it in country music, but they have to come across in videos and they have to be really sensational live performers.”
Surprisingly, these are not quotes from today. Nope, they’re quotes taken from a story in The New York Times published on September 17th, 1985 that famously, and controversially, declared the death of country music, or at least that’s how the story got told as it set off all manner of scurrying and discussion in Nashville and beyond. In truth, The New York Times headline was “Nashville Sound: Country Music In Decline,” but the assessment might as well have been a death pronouncement. It was Bobby Bare who offered the first quote above, and famous artist manager Bill Carter who offered up the next two.
The New York Times piece gave a grim statistical assessment of country music’s popular descent, citing the slashing of sales figures in both albums and singles from previous highs as evidence that the appeal of country music had dried up. And what did The Times link the implosion of country music to? The wide appeal of rock music among younger people, including younger listeners in America’s rural areas. And a loss of appeal for Music Row’s long-established “Nashville Sound.” Overproduction and cookie cutter songs had made country music bland and predictable.
Robert Palmer, the journalist who wrote the article for The Times pointed out that in 1985, the appeal for Western themes was on the rise due to the surprise re-emergence of popularity in Western movies (Back to the Future notwithstanding), but “Nashville’s production-line country music is too slick and pop oriented to appeal to frontier nostalgia.”
Does any of this sound familiar?
It wasn’t just that country music wasn’t changing with the times, it was that it couldn’t even appeal to its core constituency. It was stuck in popular music no man’s land and was getting left behind.
Music was still being made though, and albums were still selling, however steep the declines were.
What was successful in country music in 1985? Alabama was one of the biggest bands during the year with #1 hits like “40 Hour Week,” “Can’t Keep A Good Man Down,” “(There’s a) Fire in the Night,” and “There’s No Way.” Alabama also won the ACM’s Entertainer of the Year in 1985. Another group, The Oak Ridge Boys, had three #1 singles during 1985, and Exile had two. It was the year of the group in country music, and “God Bless The U.S.A.” by Lee Greenwood was the CMA Song of the Year. That probably tells you just about all you need to know about country music in 1985: bland, dry, cookie-cutter music meant for commercial appeal (yet not achieving it).
But among the ashes of what country music once was there were the chutes of green springing out of the ground that would help fuel the massive resurgence country music would enjoy in coming years. 1985 was the year Dwight Yoakam and Randy Travis began to emerge in the industry. The New York Times piece touted the rise of new traditionalists “such as Ricky Skaggs and George Strait, who are going back to the roots of country music for inspiration, and making simple, soulful records…” George Strait’s Does Ft. Worth Ever Cross Your Mind won the CMA for Album of the Year in 1985.
George Strait and Randy Travis are given credit for helping to lay the groundwork for the now famous “Class of ’89” that included Garth Brooks, Alan Jackson, Travis Tritt, Clint Black, and others that brought country music back to commercial prominence, and to levels never seen before in the genre.
Another bright spot in 1985 was legendary acts. It was the year the supergroup The Highwaymen emerged (Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson), though admittedly its formation was an effort to help combine star power in answer to their own sagging sales numbers. But they had a #1 song in 1985 in “Highwayman” (it also won the ACM Song of the Year)—once again reinforcing that 1985 was the “Year of the Group” in country music.
The New York Times wisely pointed out in the 1985 article, “Some performers associated with country music have become American legends, figures whose voices are recognized everywhere – Willy Nelson, Dolly Parton, Ray Charles. As such, their careers may be immune to the crisis in country music’s mainstream.”—yet another assessment that is eerily relevant today.
So what’s to learn from hitching a ride in Marty McFly’s time machine and traveling back to 1985? That the problems country music is facing today are virtually the same ones that were being faced 30 years ago. It’s all cyclical, as canonized in the old Gospel tune enshrined in the architecture of the Country Music Hall of Fame asking the question, “Will The Circle Be Unbroken?”
Right when things appear the most bleak, country music comes roaring back, led by a new generation of traditional artists. This was the case in 1975 with The Outlaws, in 1985 with the new traditionalists, in 1995 with the neo traditionalists, and in 2005 with Taylor Swi . . . oh wait.
But who knows, we could point back to 2015 in the future to artists like Sturgill Simpson, Jason Isbell, Chris Stapleton, Mo Pitney, and many more who saved the day during one of country music’s darkest hours by going back to the past to remind us why great country music will always remain relevant into the future.
October 21, 2015 @ 7:09 pm
McFly and Brown may have succeeded in foiling Biff’s master plan, but Scott Borchetta and Zac Brown (since being kidnapped by John Varvatos and receiving a lobotomy which was followed by the planting of a nanotechnological chip covered by his tophat that has re-programmed him) eluded them without any difficulty at all in going back to time to mobilize Mikel Knight’s systematic SWAT-like raid on all of Music Row! -__-
*
(re-imagines the climatic scene on the casino rooftop)
Trigger: “What about the soul of country music, Scott? They’re going to match up your infamous signature with the Auto-Tuba!”
Scott: (laughs manically) “I OWN what’s left of the soul of all country music, Trigger! Besides, they couldn’t match up the Auto-Tuba that paralyzed your buddy Jason Isbell!”
(Trigger realizes he has been framed)
Trigger: “YOU BAST…”
Scott: “Hahaha, poetic justice!”
*
(shudders) -__-
October 22, 2015 @ 7:24 am
What I really want to know is how Jaws 19 turned out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pl092whRLlI
October 22, 2015 @ 12:03 pm
Can that be a movie please?
“Coming to theaters in spring 2016; an action pack, time traveling, country music adventure that has the critics praising as the blockbuster of the year! Starring Kyle Coroneos and Robert Downey Jr. as Scott Borchetta…”
Just picked RDJ he’s my favorite actor lol.
October 22, 2015 @ 1:03 pm
Who will play Zac Brown: Scott Borchetta’s leading henchman?
The idea in the script is that Zac Brown is kind of like Doctor Octopus in the second Spider Man film: where you know he’s capable of tremendous good, but also the worst evil imaginable and, since being kidnapped and re-programmed by Big Machine, is as wicked and ruthless (but also charismatic and wears the “Aw shucks!” public facade well) in his assaults against country music and anyone who dares to try and preserve/restore it.
I just haven’t decided if Trigger succeeds in having Zac Brown become self-aware of what Big Machine has done to him and, much like Doctor Octopus, aspire late in the film to make things right. Are you in the mood for a Hollywood ending or a dark one? 😉
October 22, 2015 @ 1:45 pm
Uhhh dark one lol, but maybe when all hope seems lost, in the last act of the film, Zac gains awareness and helps Kyle save the day!
Based on apparence with the beard and such, Zach Galifianakis(sp?) comes to mind, he was the guy that was in Due Date with RDJ.
October 21, 2015 @ 7:29 pm
Excellent article. This type of thorough research and deep knowledge of history is one of the most appealing aspects of SCM.
As I have discussed before, pop music revolves in roughly 38-year cycles. Looking at it that way, the whole current bro/metro-bro country is an outgrowth of Western swing and the Bakersfield Sound/Outlaw phenomena (believe it or not). The common thread connecting all 3 types of music is the fact that they mixed country with the pop of their day to produce party music. Here are some rough dates to prove the point:
1927: Western swing starts in the underground
1938: Western swing gains mass popularity
1965: Bakersfield Sound starts in the underground
1976: Outlaw Country (based heavily on Bakersfield Sound) gains mass popularity
2003 (?): Country rap starts in the underground
2011-2014: Country-rap and country-EDM gain mass popularity
Now let’s see if the traditionalist movements in country music run of the same cycles:
1947: Hank Williams hits mass popularity and becomes first widely famous pure country singer
1985: New Traditionalist movement emerges
So going by this pattern, the new-new-traditionalist movement should come around 2023…
2011
October 21, 2015 @ 7:36 pm
Sorry, ignore the “2011” at the end of my comment.
October 21, 2015 @ 7:49 pm
Interestingly, the 38-year theory also predicts the “adult-contemporary” phases in country music. The period from the late 1950s until the mid 1970s was dominated by the Nashville Sound, which paralleled the “beautiful music” of that era. Flash forward 35-40 years, and one realizes that the period from the mid 1990s to the beginning of the 2010s was also dominated by adult-contemporary music that paralleled soft-rock/AC radio music.
Just like the Outlaw movement was primarily a backlash against the Nashville Sound, the bro-country movement was a backlash against the recent adult-contemporary country phase.
So in sum, it looks like each cycle of country music consists of 3 stages:
1) party
2) traditionalist
3) adult-contemporary
Rinse and repeat.
October 22, 2015 @ 2:30 pm
What worries me (I can be set straight regarding this, as I don’t know the statistics in depth like so many of you do, one thing I surely appreciate about the commenters here) is that I can’t recall a time when the country music industry so openly and unapologetically marketed to the youth demographic, who aren’t known for having much knowledge of or appreciation for the roots and tradition of country music, these days-it’s like a mantra to hear that country music must “evolve”, which seems to mean it must become a part of the homogenous sound which consists of what appeals to that demographic. It’s kind of like, the more I hear that “diversity is our strength”, the more that I see actually happening is the extinction of diversity. The things which make country music a distinctive genre are the things this target market soesn’t seem to want to hear in the music. Someone in a country music documentary I saw said it well (and this documentary was from the late 90’s, I believe)-the new slogan on country radio was “this isn’t your father’s coumtry music anymore”, and the guy made the point that for the first time, country music had been cut off from its roots and its past-he was saying this back in the 90s. That’s what worries me, that the roots and past and the storied history of country seems to have been so completely dismissed, just sliced right off from the whole genre, and IMO, country music absolutely cannot exist without its past, even if that past is constantly being built upon and taken in various directions-it still needs to always be reckoned with and taken into account.
October 22, 2015 @ 7:04 am
K
October 22, 2015 @ 7:10 am
Ignore that “K” comment I was about to type something up but it expired.
October 22, 2015 @ 7:12 am
So are you trying to say that we’ll have to deal with the current country music phase till 2023?
October 22, 2015 @ 2:13 pm
Going by the experience of 35-40 years ago, the party songs will fade fast, then we will go through a down time in country music when the genre finds itself in a tailspin commercially and rudderless creatively (it looks like we may already be in such a period now in the post-bro era). Ironically, that very lack of direction will serve as fertile ground for planting the seeds of a new traditionalist form of country, and those crops will come into full bloom commercially in the early-to-mid 2020s.
Just my predictions…
October 21, 2015 @ 7:48 pm
You gotta give it to Alabama, those are some sweet mullets!!
October 21, 2015 @ 7:49 pm
This Back to the Future business is all nonsense. I could prove it too if I hadn’t loaned my time machine to Clint. (For those of you who didn’t know, I accidentally left it in reverse and it went back in time without me. But Peter the Great found it and returned it to me. I have since made good on my promise to loan it to Clint, since I have no use for it now that my Terminator research has hit a dead end.)
The difference, at least to me, is that even at their worst Alabama remained “mostly” country. And George Strait, Randy Travis and Ricky Skaggs, who were very country, made their careers not by being Country, but by being talented and making quality music. It seems that the “post-bros” (Pardi, Pitney) have put the country back, but they haven’t found the quality yet.
And can we please get a new Country singer who’s over thirty? These slicked hair and muscle shirt pretty boys just look ridiculous.
October 21, 2015 @ 7:54 pm
Pardi’s songs so far are somewhat gimmicky, but Pitney’s songs (at least the ones that I have heard) are consistently featuring true depth.
October 21, 2015 @ 7:57 pm
Also, for the record, Jon Pardi is 30. Randy Travis, on the other hand, was in his 20s for almost all of the 80s when he enjoyed his peak years.
Ironically, even though country fans have become significantly younger, the average age of male singers in their peak has not changed much at all.
October 21, 2015 @ 8:12 pm
Mo Pitney hasn’t found the quality yet? That’s your opinion so I can;t argue with it, but I definitely disagree.
Sturgill Simpson: 37
Chris Stapleton: 37
Jason Isbell: 36
John Pardi: 30
Mo Pitney is the outlier.
October 22, 2015 @ 8:27 am
I hadn’t considered Isbell or Simpson as a part of what I’ve started calling the “post-bro” sound, since they’re part of the independent class.
But thank you for clearing that up.
On the Mo Pitney thing: His quality is hindered, I think, by the efforts to make him radio friendly. All we’ve heard to this point is what Darius Rucker would call “Mo Pitney” lite.
October 21, 2015 @ 8:28 pm
Considering the fact that he has 13 #1 hits, 14 Grammys and was the 1985 CMA Entertainer Of The Year, the country music community doesn’t really talk about Ricky Skaggs a lot. I know he moved on to bluegrass, but even the biggest country music nerds that I talk to don’t know who he is. Strange, considering that in his heyday, he was more popular than George Strait.
October 21, 2015 @ 9:45 pm
In my opinion, the worst part about Ricky Skaggs’ career is when they overly popularized him because they had no other country male solo performers to push. There was some decent music in there, “Highway 40 Blues,” his cover of “Uncle Pen,” but some of that stuff felt very 80’s for a lack of a better way of putting it. In my opinion, it was his work with Emmylou, in the Clinch Mountain Boys, and later with all his bluegrass revival stuff where he shined the brightest. He makes an excellent side man, a great front man, but just a pretty good mainstream star.
October 21, 2015 @ 9:56 pm
That’s a good point. Maybe it’s the fanboy in me, but I just figured anyone who could take a Bill Monroe song to #1 against all the Urban Cowboys would be revered a little more. However, I will contend the fact that he was kinda pushed onto the public.
October 22, 2015 @ 6:23 am
Why was it Ricky Skaggs and not George Strait? Or was it about equal?
October 22, 2015 @ 11:49 am
I think George Strait is who it ended up being after Ricky, because after 1986, Ricky’s mainstream radio career had a pretty steep decline and that’s when Strait and later Randy Travis came into full form. I wouldn’t be surprised if Ricky was happy about that. If he’d rather be a superstar instead of a star side player, he wouldn’t have spent the majority of his career pursuing the latter.
October 22, 2015 @ 12:58 pm
That sounds about right. I was just a kid then and know about that just from what I’ve read.
I am glad RS didn’t pack it in after his mainstream career, though.
October 22, 2015 @ 9:25 am
And then there’s the album he did with Tony Rice in 1980 or so. Great stuff.
October 22, 2015 @ 11:43 am
Yes. It’s all that periphery stuff he does that in my opinion makes Ricky Skaggs a country music god in my eyes. Not to knock the #1 because there’s good stuff there too.
October 22, 2015 @ 2:36 pm
His rendition of “Talk About Suffering” gives me goosebumps. And I love his version of “21 Fiddle Salute”. Heck, I love everything he’s done, for me, he can’t put a foot wrong.
October 22, 2015 @ 3:25 pm
Here’s an uptempo number from Ricky Skaggs’ radio career that I’ve always enjoyed, “Don’t Get Above Your Raisin’.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmwxBVSv5Vc
It was his first real hit, and was originally a Flatt and Scruggs tune. I especially like the mandolin and dobro jamming at the end. Now, try and imagine something that sounds like that playing on country radio today. Also, I guess the message of the song sort of doubles as a message directed at country music itself, both in the early 80’s and today.
October 22, 2015 @ 2:34 pm
It’s strange to realise that Ricky Skaggs is now almost in the “elder statesman” category for country music. One of my favorite artists, and one of the main reasons I conceived a love for bluegrass.
October 23, 2015 @ 5:06 am
Almost an elder statesmen? Ricky Skaggs is over four years older than Marty Stuart, four years older than Alan Jackson and almost five years older than Randy Travis. He is, however, slightly more than two years younger than George Strait.
I would consider Ricky Skaggs on a level with Marty Stuart. They both have a massive knowledge, appreciation, and – maybe most importantly – respect for the history of country music, in all its different forms.
October 23, 2015 @ 5:54 am
I would have been willing to say “IS an elder statesman”, but I don’t like to make absolute statements on this website (unless it’s just a matter of my opinion), because there are so many people here who always know things I don’t know about country music, and will set me straight when I get it wrong 🙂 )
October 22, 2015 @ 3:44 pm
Wasn’t Keith Whitley also emerging around that time?
It seems like he represented a link in the chain to country music’s history that was severed when he died in the late 80’s, just as he was really coming into his own as a country music star.
Also, I believe Steve Earle was another guy who debuted in country music in 1986. I know his career as a mainstream act was brief, but he actually had some hit songs at the time, including two in the top ten.
October 21, 2015 @ 8:57 pm
How much will Henley’s Cass County album contribute, if any, to at least making a move in the right direction Trigger? How about that duet with Merle Haggard? “High Cost Of Living”–Don and Merle, “When I Stop Dreaming”–Don and Dolly and now, going to country radio, “Words Can Break Your Heart”, Don and Trisha Yearwood. Wow… Gotta count for something! Also, do you think Henley did this album as a labor of love, a template if you will, for contemporary country artists (hey ladies and gentlemen, this is how it’s done!) I’d like to think so since the album is so good. It’s obvious that he put an incredible amount of time and effort into it which tells me He wanted to put a top notch product on the shelf. Can’t say that about most of todays (so called) country artists. Thanks Trigger…
October 21, 2015 @ 11:57 pm
I think Cass County has helped, but these things are hard to gauge in the here and now. You really need the perspective of time to really understand how the shifts in country music have happened. It might just be right now that we fully understand what was going on in country in 1985, and as time goes on and country continues to go through changes, we’ll probably understand even more.
October 22, 2015 @ 1:40 am
I am A Eastern Kentucky backwoods boy that has been raised on all types of music that is recorded. I am no musician I do have a musical ear I can’t hear music and I know a number one hit when I hear it. It is sad to me to hear what today people call country music pop country it’s just a money machine and they’re turning these songs out over and over and they all sound alike no heart no soul and the artist don’t even know what country is. One of my all time favorite musicians songwriter is Larry Cordle,, bluegrass singer who wrote and sung,,, Murder on Music Row,, which was redone by George Strait and Alan Jackson and received song writer of the year for this song that him and his band,, Lonesome Standard Time,,,recorded first which in my opinion is a much better version. I miss the Waylon Jennings Merle Haggard George Jones Johnny Cash Bocephus Waylon Jennings Billy Joe shaver the list goes on.. I miss the true country singers that pave the way and started this country music business from their hearts not for success not for the glory. Unselfishly they didn’t care about what public thought about them if they didn’t like their outlaw style there true hard working man core music the real country boys that lived grew up in the country and had to make it by their own true grit and not what time soft sissy f** had them to sing or perform. They all lived what the song and wrote about and people respected them for being genuine for writing and recording their own music to relate to the peope like them true country people hard working knowing how to have a good time and love their families. Today’s country don’t even relate to true country folks like myself today’s artist would be scared to come to the backwoods of Kentucky or they wouldn’t come because they would think they were too good. Where my all time favorite artist songwriter Ronnie Van Zant way before his time for being his age and what he wrote about in his songs true life and situations we can all learn from. Now in my opinion one of the most talented without a doubt is Hank Williams III Shelton Williams he is without a doubt in my opinion one of the most gifted musicians alive or ever will have lived he does it his way not for the fame he does it for the music. He is an excellent songwriter extraordinarily talented musician and playing any instrument he wants and a great producer with many versatile musical skills from the one and only Hank senior 2 southern rock and adventuring into acoustic bluegrass in my opinion I would love to see him record a bluegrass album. I was raised on bluegrass to me is the most pure form of music let’s don’t forget about the one and only Keith Whitley who started singing bluegrass with JD Crowe and the new South the record live in Japan is what I cut my teeth on the all time greatest bluegrass recording record vaulty. This new country rap understand where they are going broadening the horizons reaching new fans all that out if you really sit and listen to the song lyrics are ridiculous all they talk about is driving four wheel drive truck my opinion before any country artist record album they need to spend some time in the Eastern Kentucky hills and learn what true country music is feel it in your soul they will meet their crossroad on these old Ridge Road miles from city. And all music is the story or poem that should be heartfelt not something thrown together to make money lock sitting on a beach for all this soft city kids that put a cowboy hat on and record what what industry cause music that some dude is sitting behind a desk in a high rise writing ng down. My name is Shawn Limings, I believe I will just show myself and everybody that hears me how easy it is they have a number one hit today I can write one of those songs in 10 minutes that people want to hear that don’t know nothing about country I can sing and I do have the looks all I got to do this pick up a guitar. Then I will go on with my career striving to restore what true country music is and where it came from. With no electrical recording sounds just pure acoustic instruments bluegrass style. And if anybody wants to enjoy a great week of Eastern Kentucky is best bluegrass last weekend of June every year come to Rudy fest in Grayson Kentucky its on the web the best bluegrass artists line up Festival in the country with one of my personal favorites one of my all time favorite artist Larry Cordle. Let’s don’t forget about Dave Evans. Rest in peace Keith Whitley we wish you was here ng to bring bluegrass to where it should be mixed with true country
October 22, 2015 @ 6:54 am
Or we could be looking back to 2015 and see Kane Brown haha. Its looking like he’s officially the next big thing.
October 22, 2015 @ 8:44 am
Kane Brown? Is he anything like Luke Shelton? Chase Swindell? Bryant Aldean? or Cole-Georgia Line?
Oh yeah, it looks like they’re multiplying.
Borchetta says “Quick, bro country is floundering, someone get me more bro-country singers!”
Of course that’s like trying to float the Titanic by putting more holes in it.
October 22, 2015 @ 10:07 am
Geez, where do the mamas get those names from? I guess from birth they were groomed for country music.
October 22, 2015 @ 11:31 am
When is Mo’s album coming out?
October 22, 2015 @ 11:54 am
This just proves the same argument happens over and over again in Country Music.
October 22, 2015 @ 2:14 pm
My opinion is that country music was dying in 1991. The reason why (1991) is Older country singers quit having hits, most of 70′ and 80’s country quit having top 40 hits, and tons of new artists having top 10 hits since 1991.
October 22, 2015 @ 2:28 pm
1991 was when the “Class of ’89” was arguably at its commercial peak, and this was when many of the older stars got crowded out, so I’d say that’s not a bad assessment.
October 22, 2015 @ 8:24 pm
I agree and I love the country music of the 1990’s even before that. Country music had best selling cd’s during the 1990’s even record breaking charts during that decade. Thanks for the feedback Trigger.
October 22, 2015 @ 10:36 pm
On what planet is God Bless the USA a dry, cookie cutter bland country song?
October 22, 2015 @ 10:47 pm
It’s a beautiful song, both lyrically and musically (especially the gorgeous piano instrumental). However, it is not country, either in sonic or vocal style. It is very much in the vein of soft rock.
October 22, 2015 @ 10:49 pm
To be fair, there are some country elements in that song, especially in the fiddle parts, but overall it is very much soft-rock and was targeted to a broad national audience.
October 22, 2015 @ 11:01 pm
I won’t argue with your assessment, it is fair. Again, on what planet is that a bland, cookie cutter song? It has withstood the test of time, there is no arguing that there is heart and soul in that song, he meant what he said and sang it from the heart. The only comparable song I can think of to it would be American Trilogy. Certainly not a “cookie cutter”
October 23, 2015 @ 12:37 am
Oh, I don’t agree that it is bland or cookie-cutter at all. It is truly a timeless anthem.
October 24, 2015 @ 3:05 pm
Can we all go back in time in 1985 please?
October 25, 2015 @ 1:14 pm
Why so much disrespect for Alabama, The Oak Ridge Boys, and Lee Greenwood? I get the cyclical argument you’re making. I despair of mainstream country radio ever being good again, but I hope you’re right that some sort of change is in the air and that bro-country is soon destined for the garbage heap where it belongs.
But Alabama, Oak Ridge Boys, and LG are in no way akin to the crap that dominates country radio today. Each of those acts had great songs, some of which were genuine country and others that were more rock or pop tinged. Maybe some political baggage is attached to “God Bless the USA”, but put that aside and recognize it for the good song that it is. To suggest that those three are the 80s prerunners of the Bryan-Aldean-FGL garbage of today is deeply unfair.
If that wasn’t your intent and I misread what you wrote then I apologize.
October 25, 2015 @ 1:20 pm
Brandon,
I totally agree all three of those acts had some great songs. I also think Alabama, when you put their entire body of work together, was overall pretty mediocre when you compare them to other acts who dominated the genre in previous eras. That doesn’t mean they didn’t have their moments because they did.
As far as comparing any of them to Bro-Country directly, that was not my intent whatsoever. You might see some precursors between Alabama and Bro-Country, like the listing off of country-isms instead of telling stories in song, or cite the fact that so many Bro-Country acts directly name Alabama as an influence in lyrics in songs. But no doubt Alabama’s output was still way better than Bro-Country.
October 25, 2015 @ 5:15 pm
We are in an alternative timeline, when the major players end up doing duets with 80’s pop idols, and our biggest artist signs with a unknown computer download site, because that is the way to get
your music to the masses.