Blake Shelton (Yes, Blake Shelton) Advocates for the Protection and Exclusivity of Country Music
It’s fool’s errand to think anything that happens on reality TV singing shows such as American Idol or The Voice amounts to a hill of beans in the grand scheme of music. It’s even questionable what impact it has on the careers of the contestants who ultimately win or do well on the competitions. The days of such shows launching Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood are over, just as American Idol soon will be entirely, and we’ve seen too many contestants slide right back into obscurity after their success on The Voice to take it too seriously. Though it is a good way for an artist to get some national exposure in the short-term, the stigma of being a reality show star still looms in the air for both fans and the industry.
Last week The Voice debuted its latest season, and there were a couple of artists with ties to more traditional-sounding country who were featured and picked to move on further in the competition. One was Mary Sarah—a young singer featured on Saving Country Music numerous times previously who is still searching for her big break. And the other is a young man from Nashville named Adam Wakefield who performed the Chris Stapleton version of “Tennessee Whiskey” on the show.
Again, let’s not lose our minds over the idea that either of these contestants will rise up and be the country music “savior” through the medium of this singing competition, but it is good to see true country music talent be featured on national television.
What most intrigued me about Adam Wakefield’s audition was not Adam himself. I want to see him do something more than just impersonate Chris Stapleton, and then we’ll talk. It was actually Blake Shelton’s argument with co-judge Adam Levine about the nature of country music that was the most interesting part of the audition.
Many are wondering why American Idol is failing so miserably, while The Voice continues to dominate, despite doubling up on seasons. One of the reason is American Idol no longer offers any drama between judges, or between judges and contestants. When Simon Cowell left, so did the personality of the show. People continue to watch The Voice not just for the singing, but to see the judges banter back and forth, and battle each other for the best talent.
Blake Shelton has some pretty notorious quotes that have followed him like a dark cloud for many years. When he ostensibly called classic country music fans “old farts and jackasses” in early 2013 and Saving Country Music published the quotes, it set off an entire insurgency in country music that makes TomatoGate and other high-profile controversial statements like former Sony CEO Gary Gary Overton’s “If you’re not on radio, you don’t exist” look like child’s play.
“Nobody wants to listen to their grandpa’s music,” Blake Shelton said in January 2013. “And I don’t care how many of these old farts around Nashville going, ‘My God, that ain’t country!’ Well that’s because you don’t buy records anymore, jackass. The kids do, and they don’t want to buy the music you were buying.”
Blake Shelton’s quotes inspired the launch of entirely new organizations sworn to protect the traditions of country music, including Dale Watson’s “Ameripolitan” movement that started in the aftermath.
But how the times have changed since 2013. In 2013, Blake Shelton represented the epitome of country going pop. Just listen to a song like “Boys ‘Round Here” released two months after his now notorious quotes. And then we had the big rise of Luke Bryan, the emergence of Florida Georgia Line and Bro-Country, then Sam Hunt, and now Kane Brown. Blake Shelton’s recent singles aren’t particularly good, or particularly country either, but all of a sudden there’s much worse around to draw the ire of traditional country fans.
But back to the argument Blake Shelton had with Adam Levine on The Voice as America watched on, and they both battled to be picked as the judge for Adam Wakefield, Blake Shelton said some things about country that needed to be heard, and were quite surprising coming from Blake. Usually the banter between judges is quite lighthearted on the show. But in this case, it got fairly heated.
“Country’s not always about exactly what you sound like, but it’s about what you want to represent with your music,” he told the contestant. “It’s guys like you that get me so excited about the future of Nashville. Dude, you’re country.”
Then Adam Levine breaks in, “No, no! What does country and its many counterparts get to have its own club. Music reaches millions and millions of people all over the world. It’s not supposed to be in a box.”
Judge Christina Aguilera weighed in with, “I think that’s a great speech Adam.”
And then Blake Shelton responded.
“I’m not sick of the fact that [country] is this exclusive club. And it’s up to us as country artists to protect who’s in that club. Otherwise, it gets too far away of what the heart and soul is of country music. If you don’t know where it comes from, how in the hell are you gonna know where it should go? That’s why we protect it.”
Let the record show that Blake Shelton has made similar comments when more traditional contestants on The Voice like Jake Worthington or Craig Wayne Boyd have performed, but never in such direct language.
Put aside whatever feelings you might have about Blake Shelton; this quote is no different than all the other quotes in the history of country music from artists preaching about why it’s important to protect the roots of the genre. Though Blake doesn’t name any names, it is an indirect indictment of artists like Sam Hunt and Kane Brown. And these artists deserve to take offense.
Whether it’s because Blake Shelton is reaching the age where he’s starting to see the shelf life of his own mainstream career begin to expire, whether it’s because of artists like Kane Brown and Sam Hunt disrupting the natural progression of country music, or whether it’s the long-held theory that if you actually talk to these artists, they would tell you themselves that they don’t like to cut singles like “Boys ‘Round Here,” and only do it because that’s what they have to do to keep their careers moving forward, Blake Shelton said what every traditional country artist and many fans have on their minds. This is Dale Watson’s “You can’t grow if you rip your roots out of the ground” just with different wording, except Blake Shelton said it to one of the biggest audiences on television.
READ: Lorrie Morgan Calls Out Blake Shelton for Not Paying His Grand Ole Opry Dues
Conspiracy theorists will say this is just Blake Shelton angling to take advantage of the renewed interest in older country music, just like Chris Stapleton is. But there’s no commercial benefit to Blake Shelton saying these things. Blake has actually showed numerous instances since his 2013 “old farts and jackasses” quotes to possibly have learned something, and became more pragmatic in his ideas on country.
None of this changes the legacy of Blake Shelton’s country music career. In the end, the music will speak for him, and his words will be a footnote. But if we are going to give Blake Shelton credit for his “old farts and jackasses” quote and never let him live it down, then we also have to give him credit for this one. Country music is different from any other genre. It is important to keep it exclusive, and to know where it has been. Everything Blake Shelton said was true. It was about time a major country music star said it. And hopefully, many were listening.
March 7, 2016 @ 9:50 am
Shocking coming from a man that has been putting out nothing but pop country for quite a few years. Hopefully he will go back to a more country sound, and influence other country artists to do the same. I really hope Sam Hunt’s next album sounds like pop country and not straight-up pop and R&B.
March 7, 2016 @ 8:57 pm
Going out on a limb here but I’d bet Sam Hunt’s new record will sound like whatever will sell the most records and get the most air play, tradition, artistry, and musicianship be damned. So will Blakes for that matter. Itz jus wut they do.
March 7, 2016 @ 9:59 am
He still does not have a clue, poor guy who thinks he’s country
March 7, 2016 @ 10:07 am
Can’t have it both ways, Blake. Honestly, I am so sick of this guy and wish he would just go away.
March 7, 2016 @ 10:22 am
I think it’s important to note that one set of Blake Shelton quotes happened over three years ago, and the new set of quotes happened last week. So I don’t know if it’s fair for him to say he wants it “both ways.” Perhaps his perspective has changed in three years. That would only be natural. Words are one thing though, and actions are something else. “Boys ‘Round Here’ probably represents the worst of Blake Shelton. But again, that was three years ago.
March 7, 2016 @ 10:24 am
I guess we’ll find out when he releases some new music, but right now he’s a huge part of the problem and his comments smack of “Do as I say, not as I do.”
March 7, 2016 @ 10:44 am
Either way, he’s still the king douche of country music.
March 7, 2016 @ 11:45 am
Sam Hunt, Kane Brown, Chase Rice, Chris Lane, and Florida Georgia Line may have something to say about that.
Hey, there’s no love lost between Blake Shelton and I, but this is no longer January 2013. Country music has changed, and maybe Blake Shelton has too, at least in philosophy a little bit.
March 7, 2016 @ 2:08 pm
You forgot Jason Aldean.
March 7, 2016 @ 10:13 am
The “old farts and jackasses” quote gets the most notoriety – and it’s certainly deserving of that scorn – but sometimes I think it’s more the product of a bungled attempt at a soundbite, like an insecure teenager trying to talk tough.
Shelton’s more insidious quote, and the one most detrimental to country music, is his referring to “Boys Round Here” as “the sound of money.” (“Country Music Opens Its Ears,” New York Times, May 23, 2014). He can say the right things on The Voice, but if his actions include making one of the worst songs in the history of the genre for purely commercial reasons, then his word means nothing to me.
March 7, 2016 @ 8:13 pm
Honestly, calling that song “the sound of money” is pretty refreshing, as opposed to pretending it’s the type of music he wants to record.
March 7, 2016 @ 10:16 am
There is no doubt that Blake knows what country music is and should be about, as opposed to FGL and Sam Hunt, who are just ignorant. He knew it when he came to Nashville with his mullet and guitar and he knows it now. Even when he made his infamous comments, he didn’t attack the quality of traditional country music, only its commercial viability. I welcome his comments in support of tradition, but if he truly wants to be a part of the solution, he should get in the studio and record a real country album.
March 7, 2016 @ 11:44 am
That’s my thoughts, too. I’ll buy what you’re saying, but what are you DOING about it? I wish more people would express this sentiment AND would actually put their money where their mouths are.
March 7, 2016 @ 10:22 am
I think the sentiment is valid, but I don’t put a lot of weight behind him saying it. I saw Blake Shelton at a county fair in 2001 or 2002, before he had his first big break. I remember it vivldly because it was the first time I heard “The Baby”. He played a few originals, and a lot of 80’s rock. I didn’t get the impression that Blake Shelton really had any idea “where it comes from”.
Compare that to Brad Paisley, who I saw there one or two years prior, who played all the classics, like Conway Twitty & George Jones.
Neither one of them really play much of anything worth listening to anymore, but at least Brad Paisley knew what real country music is at one point in his career.
March 7, 2016 @ 9:17 pm
Brad Paisley also played a crap ton of Restless Heart covers, which is awesome to me. One club owner scolded him once and told him he couldn’t play Restless Heart all night, ha.
March 7, 2016 @ 10:23 am
Country Music is not Different from any other Genre:
Country music is not different from any other genre. It is just another format of music amongst many others that people listen to for entertainment.
It just happens that you love country music and it is very important and personal to you that you believe it is different from other genres.
People who love and follow blues, jazz, classical, rap, soul, rock, etc… all believe their chosen genre is special and unique.
None of them are. They are just special and unique to the people who follow them.
March 7, 2016 @ 11:31 am
I don’t think country music is “special” compared to any genre, but I do think it is different, and I think Blake Shelton did a good job spelling out why. Rock and roll from its inception was about breaking social mores and denying tradition and the establishment for example. But country music from its beginning was about reminiscing on times gone and preserving the sentiments of the past. Even when folks like The Carter Family and and Jimmie Rodgers were singing country, they were doing it from a perspective 40 to 50 years previous to their own. Bill Monroe was all about preserving and paying forward the fiddle and string band traditions of the original settlers of Appalachia, who brought their music from the Old World. Preserving the past has been at the heart of country music, and that’s what makes it unique from other genres. Also, country music isn’t just a “genre,” it is a lifestyle and culture. Country music is there to preserve the traditions of country people. You take those traditions out, and all you have left is pop music with a fiddle.
March 7, 2016 @ 11:31 am
‘County music is not different from any other genre’.
In my opinion, that’s a pretty stupid thing to say. Nobody was saying that country is the only special and unique genre, it was just said that it is different…which it is.
I’m probably missing the point of what you are trying to say an am not understanding how you say all people who love a specific genre think they are special and unique when none of them are. They all are special and unique and the roots of each genre should be respected within the genre.
Fortunately; blues, jazz, and classical have not had to deal much with mainstream appeal and the resulting decline of quality from straying from the roots of the genre. Metal has gone through an era of pop influences, suffered, and has rebounded…at least in the underground. County is going through an identity crisis now.
The entire point of Blake’s comments and this article is that we need to be aware and respect the unique and special qualities that initially defined country to have great country music moving forward. It’s unlikely you’re going to hear a great blues record from someone who doesn’t know the history of blues. You’re probably not going to hear a great classical piece from someone who doesn’t understand classical music, and we’re not going to hear the next great country album from someone who doesn’t have an understanding and appreciation of the roots of country music.
March 8, 2016 @ 7:45 am
You know, for probably the first time, you are right. Country music is no different. Every single genre is the same. In the end, the corporate music cabal will get to it and ruin it eventually. It does not matter what genre it is. We didn’t think it would happen with hip hop, and it did. And then when the corporations got hip hop, country was pretty much the last line of defense. But they got country too. No form of music is safe.
March 8, 2016 @ 10:30 am
You seem to be blurring the lines between the corporate infiltration of music and the delineation of genre. I agree with you about corporate influence, but these seem to be two separate issues.
March 7, 2016 @ 10:42 am
“Country”™s not always about exactly what you sound like, but it”™s about what you want to represent with your music,”
wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong WRONG wrong WRONG WRONG!!!!!!
It’s more than just “What you want to represent with your music!”
By that logic then Kane Brown and Sam Hunt are perfectly justified because they want to “represent” Country Music.
Country Music is born out of a sound that could only happen in rural America, and it’s various subgenres each represent a different geographic location, Western Swing represents the more crowded rural west, and Bluegrass is born out of the wide open spaces and mountains around the Appalachians. If you get too far away from that sound, you aren’t making Country Music, you’re making music and calling it Country.
For example, seafood comes from the ocean, but throwing a cucumber in the ocean and calling it seafood doesn’t make it so. No matter how much you “Want to represent seafood.” Likewise throwing in cultural references and a banjo doesn’t make Country Music. I can “represent” whatever the heck I want with my music, but unless it SOUNDS like Country Music, then it isn’t. Likewise I can grow up in Kentucky, listen to all those Louvin Brothers records, chase chickens and catch catfish, and represent that in my music using drums and electric guitars. It’s NEVER GOING TO BE BLUEGRASS!
The idea that by “identifying” as something or “representing” something you can make it real is just dumb. A fake duck will never be a real duck, and Kane Brown will never be Country. I can identify as a Jamaican but I was born Dutch and I’m still Dutch, genetics don’t lie. I can identify as athletic, but I’m overweight and can’t do a backflip! I can “represent” pencils, cabooses, spools, or Jack Benny in my music and all it means is that I like Jack Benny or pencils. Luke Bryan “represents” Country Music via stereotypes and constant cultural references, but he’s a phony.
The rest of his quote about “knowing where it comes from and protecting it” is great. But it takes more than just knowing that it comes out of cornfields and the depression to make good music. You have to understand why it sounds the way it does, and then try and recreate that sound. Knowing where it comes from is great, but CARING where it comes from and WORKING to go forward and progress without sacrifice is what matters here.
March 7, 2016 @ 11:13 am
You’re right, it IS about what you sound like. Someone could say Luke Bryan “represents” country lifestyle with his trucks in a cornfield crap. If it doesn’t SOUND country, it is blasphemy to call it country. There are plenty of rock songs about southern things. By Blake’s logic, these are country songs. I would argue that it’s the opposite of what Blake said. You don’t necessarily have to talk about southern related things, but you do have to use a music style that sounds country. Mo Pitney said “Country ain’t even a place on a map, it’s a place in your heart.” It’s not about where you were born or where you live. It’s about the feeling of the music, about what it means. If you can convey anything using a legitimate style of country music, then it is country. Or at least that’s my stance.
March 7, 2016 @ 11:40 am
I agree with you mostly, but I think you’re reading too much into that first Blake quote, and not paying enough attention to the context in which it was offered. The context is key. It goes back to the argument of, “Is Chris Stapleton country?” The context was the contestant had just sang a George Jones/ David Allan Coe song, but he did it in the same soulful way Chris Stapleton does. Blake Shelton specifically remarks on how the melody has been changed from the original (and mentions it was a George Jones song). What Blake is saying is that you can still sing a soulful song and still have it be country because it represents country sentiments in the song.
I totally understand that it’s easy to tee off on someone like Blake Shelton. But very similar quotes, even the “Country”™s not always about exactly what you sound like, but it”™s about what you want to represent with your music” idea has been said by dozens of other artists, and those quotes have been championed by the same people who are criticizing Blake for his. In some respects it’s fair, because Blake Shelton is doing one thing, and saying another. But I happen to agree with Blake’s “Country”™s not always about exactly what you sound like, but it”™s about what you want to represent with your music.” If it’s not true, then that means Chris Stapleton is no more country than Blake Shelton.
March 7, 2016 @ 12:22 pm
I’m a diehard Country Music conservative and traditionalist. I don’t consider Chris Stapleton or Sturgill Simpson or even Ernie Ford to be “Country artists” in the literal sense. They’re artists I like who happen to sound a lot like Country artists I like, who record songs that cross genres.
I think the truest traditionalist out there right now is a toss up between Whitey Morgan and Jason Boland, and I think the most progressive “real Country” singer is Daniel Romano.
I happen to define the boundaries of my home genre in very narrow terms.
Chris Stapleton can soulfully sing the heck out of a classic Country song, but when he does it doesn’t sound as much a Country song anymore as it does a Country song sung by a blues/soul singer, and whether or not it’s “proper and authentic Country Music” it’s quality music, the same way a lot of Green Day or Arturo Sandoval or The Kingston Trio made quality music.
Luke Bryan claims that he represents Country sentiments in his beer and truck songs. But he’s a pop singer (by and large, I still have a soft spot for “You Don’t Know Jack.”) The FGL guys call themselves hillbillies but they’re tattooed suburban dudes who probably never picked cotton, like their mothers didn’t and their sisters didn’t and their daddies never died young. (The helicopter thing notwithstanding.) They’re not Country artists, no matter how many cornfields and dirt roads and banjos they shove into the music, because unless it has those key components like Cramer-style piano, acoustic fingerstyle guitar, loud and twangy steel, then it gets further and further removed from Country music.
For instance I have an autographed Tom Brumley album. “Hey the guy who played with the Buckaroos must be Country!”
until you push play and it’s easy listening soft jazzy textured steel solos. It doesn’t have the clickin rockin drums or the thumping bass or that distinctive telecaster sound.
And hey I love it, but it’s not really “Country” music.
And I don’t consider this an argument, for what it’s worth.
March 8, 2016 @ 7:02 am
This is a really narrow definition. Like oppressively narrow. Yes, Tennessee Whiskey in the context of how its sung by Stapleton is a stretch as a country song. But “Nobody to Blame” sounds like a Waylon song, and “Whiskey and You” is definitely country. Where else does that song belong? And what about High Top Mountain? That literally has all the elements you describe above, but you don’t consider it country? What about a band like the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band or Willie Nelson? Those artists are both very clearly country artists, but they veer. Does that mean they aren’t true country artists? I’m sorry but I have to disagree with you. Being “country” or a country artist has very little to do with a specific set of instrumentation. It has everything to do with the feel of the song, and yes its subjective. It’s why we can all very objectively agree that FGL is not country, while we can mostly agree Sturgill is, even if FGL hits more of your supposed check marks on a given song. Quite frankly, we need variety. You put everyone into a steel guitar box, and we have 100 bagillion songs that sound exactly the same. Don’t get me wrong, I would like most of them. But I would get really bored after a while. In fact, I don’t buy some really good music because I say to myself, I’ve heard this before and it’s redundant. More to the point, why the hell are we fighting amoungst ourselves? If this guy wants to get up there and sing a DAC song, shouldn’t we all support the hell out of him? What if just one person goes and tries to find out where that song comes from and gets hooked. Shouldn’t that be more important? We are all in the same roots music loving tent.
March 8, 2016 @ 7:09 am
P.S. Yelawolf, the rapper, is a country artist by your definition (and also mine), and a damn good one. But I have a feeling you would disagree, even though he meets all the criterion of your checklist.
March 8, 2016 @ 9:58 am
It’s not oppressively narrow, it’s correct.
The definition of a keyboard is oppressively narrow; it either is a keyboard or it isn’t. and that’s how Country Music is.
It’s not just “whatever the heck we feel like it is” because that’s what the bros do.
Country Music is music made by and large by rural Americans for and about rural Americans using stringed instruments. There is room for interpretation, for instance Johnny Cash and his horns, but he was rockabilly anyway and the Country Music field just embraced him as rock left him behind.
By that logic Green Day can perform “Tennessee Whiskey” and be Country. That’s just ridiculous. If it isn’t Country Music it isn’t Country Music.
And yeah, I LOOOOOVE Green Day, I also love Buckethead, Guns ‘n Roses and John Coltrane.
It’s possible to enjoy many kinds of music, without insisting that they also belong to your favorite genre.
March 8, 2016 @ 10:22 am
You put “whatever the heck we feel like it is” in quotes as if it was something Blake Shelton or someone else said, instead of the real quotes which mean it’s more a “feeling” than a “sound,” which is something folks a lot more favorably thought of around these parts have said themselves. Again, I’m not disagreeing with your general premise, but I think you’re teeing off on the wrong quotes.
March 8, 2016 @ 11:19 am
Nope, not trying to pass it off as a quote. Just using them for emphasis.
March 7, 2016 @ 5:23 pm
“If you get too far away from that sound, you aren”™t making Country Music, you”™re making music and calling it Country”
Damn that hits the nail on the head
March 7, 2016 @ 10:53 am
This is also coming from the guy who so recently put out “Gonna.”
The words only mean something if he backs them up with his output going forward
March 7, 2016 @ 5:37 pm
whoaa! lets slow down justa minate there cheef. thats blates best song.
March 7, 2016 @ 10:59 am
Few people even know what country music is anymore. A lot of people can’t stress enough how much country music sucks. They think ALL country music is all about dumb hicks drinking beer, driving down a dirt road in their big. black. jacked. up. truck. set to the sound of “bad rock with a fiddle” sans the fiddle. When the think country music, they think Luke Bryan, or even Sam Hunt, not realizing that’s not even country. And most of the people who you hear saying they’re big country fans only know about folks like Jason Aldean and ol’ BS here. They have T-Shirts with the lyrics of “Boys Round Here” on them, but they’ve never heard of Conway Twitty. Nobody even knows what country music is, and I’m sick of having the entire idea of the genre ruined.
March 7, 2016 @ 11:54 am
YES THIS! All of this! I especially love “set to the sound of ‘bad rock with a fiddle’ sans the fiddle.” THIS is my complaint. what’s going on has led to a bazillion “Country” fans who have never heard Country music. I’m not the scholar on the subject either, and I enjoy some of the mainstream Country artists and their songs, but regardless, I love Country music that sounds like country music, and I feel like I’m being bamboozled all the time by people who claim to love country music but have never even really heard it.
March 9, 2016 @ 9:22 am
Word. These guys just stand on the shoulders of Garth Brooks. I bet their record collections begin in the 90s.
March 7, 2016 @ 11:00 am
Adam Levine country record dropping in 5… 4… 3… 2… 1…
March 7, 2016 @ 11:26 am
Adam Wakefield….. enjoyed hearing him sing.
March 7, 2016 @ 12:08 pm
Early Blake Shelton was actually quite good. Once he hit the Voice, though, it went down quick. I wonder if he really wants to turn back the clock or if he just is chasing the new Stapleton trend.
March 7, 2016 @ 12:13 pm
But appreciate this:
Read what Blake Shelton just said, and then read what Chris Stapleton has said on the same exact subject.
https://savingcountrymusic.com/chris-stapleton-i-dont-think-country-music-needs-saving/
“I would rather people stop caring about lines. Nothing gets on my nerves more than somebody else spending all their energy and time talking about something that they don”™t like, and trying to convince you [that] you shouldn”™t like it, and this thing over here is better. ”¦ I don”™t like sushi. In fact, I kind of loathe sushi. But I don”™t go around trying to convince my wife or any of my friends, ”˜Oh, you shouldn”™t eat sushi, it”™s terrible.”™ It”™s the dumbest thing ever. It doesn”™t make sense to me why we do that with music. We don”™t really do that with anything else. ”¦ I think it”™s OK if somebody likes my music and likes Sam Hunt”™s music too. And I think if we”™re both selling records, it”™s good for everybody. I think it allows other records to get made.”
March 7, 2016 @ 1:30 pm
I think both Stapleton’s comment and Shelton’s old comment about “old farts and jackasses” do apply to some people like my aunt. She complains about everything the last half century, but wouldn’t buy anything she considers good, if there even is such a thing. The customers who vote with their wallets have more say in allowing more music to be made, and what kind. Supporting what one does like is an important part of the equation.
March 7, 2016 @ 12:16 pm
I actually don’t mind Blake’s music. Some of it is really bad, but I’m surprised by how he tries to keep it country despite trying to have commercial appeal. I always thought he wasn’t as bad as the other commercial country artists out there.
March 7, 2016 @ 1:07 pm
It’s hard to take seriously when it came out of the mouth of a dip-dip-dip-dip-dipshit.
March 7, 2016 @ 1:11 pm
I like Blake Shelton’s music. Sure, it has changed over the years, from his more traditional sound to the modern sound today. But even his modern music seems a lot more country than his contemporaries.
March 7, 2016 @ 1:19 pm
Talk is cheap.
March 7, 2016 @ 1:28 pm
I saw this live and I almost feel over in my chair hahaha. Blake Shelton guarding the gates of Country Music. Its right up there with the Zac Brown working on EDM music statement. Blake is all about what keeps him relevant at the moment whether its riding the wave of his power country couple marriage or doubling down on a trend and then cashing out before the thing bellies up. The Boy Round Here now wants to be an Old Fart and Jackass again. Blake has done an incredible job creating smoke and mirrors though, I will give him that. He’s one of the most overdecorated stars in Country Music history.
March 7, 2016 @ 1:37 pm
Sometimes I wonder if Blakes original comments were a bit misunderstood. He said old farts don’t buy records, kids do. This is pretty much true. Most people I know over 40 still listen to the same music they were 10 to 20 years ago. Either that, or they listen to the radio. His point may have been that record companies direct the artists to make music to appease those who pay for it.
I feel for musicians these days who are stuck between the choice of selling out for record sales and big tours, or living the life of small clubs and barely surviving. I may not like the music, but it’s hard to fault someone who chooses to pay the bills.
March 7, 2016 @ 2:03 pm
Had I not heard BS say this on the VOICE I’d say you had put up the wrong photo with that quote Trigger .
The guy has become the straw-grasper of straw-graspers . Record shit music then posit yourself as a country music savior/ mentor/ coach on a TV show that wouldn’t know a REAL country song from a Jethro Tull album cut and hype it all with a reality show love affair .
Holy shit…. the media has become so dangerously powerful and influential in its omnipotence ( see Donald Trump ) , its contradictions , hypocrisy and side-show sound-bite atmosphere that the only place a person CAN escape from it is in honest classic country music . ” I hear that whistle blowin ……..”
June 12, 2016 @ 12:42 pm
I actually WAS watching the Voice episode when Blake said that…it was the Blinds and both him and A.Levine were trying to get A.Wakefield on their team. He said it. LOVE Blake, and Tim McGraw and Brad Paisley and Keith Urban and Garth Brooks and George Strait and Alan Jackson and George Jones. I will admit I can’t stand Jason Aldean, ewwww. Love Reba and Carrie and Faith Hill and Dolly and Loretta and most of all, Patsy Cline.
One thing I noticed… all the TRUE country music STARS enjoy the new country stars and embrace them and their changes and respect their talent. By the way Johnny Cash and Conway Twitty, the beloved country music icons, started their music careers in rock and roll. A lot of music genre’s have evolved, not just county. There has always been different country sounds, like in the 60’s it was Nashville, Bakersfield, Austin and Louisiana. So all you arm chair quarterbacks just speak from a seat of jealousy and meanness. Music is the ultimate form of expression and entertainment and should never be pigeon-holed. I think the reason a lot of people don’t like Blake is he’s got the balls to throw your silly words back at you and as a fan I LOVE him for it. Blake also knows exactly who he is and is grateful for what he has. But trust me, a lot of fans love Blake…a lot. So for you sad little haters, oh boo-hoo.
March 7, 2016 @ 2:14 pm
When did the early 2000’s Blake Shelton make an appearance on The Voice?
March 7, 2016 @ 5:01 pm
Good for Blake. I’m glad he recognizes this on some level, even if his self-awareness hasn’t exactly been intact most recently.
Now he needs to put his money where his mouth is and ensure the follow-up to “Bringing Back the Sunshine” puts that mission statement into action.
Even though his music has always gravitated decidedly to the Adult Contemporary-leaning end of the contemporary radio country spectrum (save a few rowdier outliers) and, thus, there has rarely been much teeth to his sound…………….Shelton’s work preceding “Startin’ Fires” was nonetheless punctuated by plenty of tasteful instrumentation and personality. It helps that Shelton is such a charismatic personality in that it single-handedly manages to lift plenty of cuts that would otherwise stand out as instantly forgettable mediocrity……………….somehow stand out more.
Then, beginning with his Six-Pax EPs………………..Shelton just kind of drifted off course. Many would point to “Red River Blue” as his actual “selling out” point, but I would boldly argue it was his first EP, “Hillbilly Bone”, that signaled the beginning of his blatant pandering to the corporate whims: from the obnoxious title track to the culture-wars pandering “Kiss My Country Ass”. That continued with “All About Tonight” (despite a solid song with “Who Are You When I’m Not Looking?”)………………………and finally culminated with the release of “Red River Blue” that coincided with the explosive breakout success of “The Voice”………………………..which that and “……Based On A True Story” is easily the biggest one-two commercial punch of his career to date.
But, “Bringing Back the Sunshine”……………………..when you really take it in in hindsight………………actually resembles a notable stride backwards towards the “Startin’ Fires” era. Sure, the songwriting was lousy for the most part and consists of his most forgettable material yet………………….but the instrumentation and production was so notably dialed down from beginning to end. Hell, even the terrible “Buzzin'”, as arsenic as virtually everything about it is……………….nonetheless had some decidedly stripped-down, acoustic-dominant production that you could easily reproduce on your front porch during a jam session. The album closer “Just Getting Started” is the closest the album comes to being driven by electric guitars, and even that track is decidedly laid back.
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So, I have to say there’s reason to believe Shelton may very well be trending back towards a genuinely contemporary country sound again.
The lead single, “Came Here To Forget”, sounds like it’ll be a tear-in-your-beer heartbreak song and all that remains to be seen is whether it will make “Neon Light” (which blatantly tried to have it both ways in featuring country instrumentation but still smacked as conciliatory with the drum loop-percussion) look like “Fix” or the entirety of Chris Young’s current album in terms of sterility and polish of the production. I’m definitely curious.
March 7, 2016 @ 6:53 pm
The only Blake Shelton quote I’d be impressed with at this point is one that says something like “I am begging for everyone’s total and complete forgiveness for recording a song that included the lyrics “backwoods legit, don’t take no lip” and other such tractor rap, 3rd grade, nursery ryme-time horseshit.”
March 7, 2016 @ 8:21 pm
Not a conspiracy theory, it’s fact. Obvious, slap you in the face marketing fact. If you can’t see that you oughta move on
March 7, 2016 @ 8:51 pm
Hahahaa! Ok bigmouth, whatever you say. Call me when you put out a record that has some substance in form of real country music, if you still know what the hell that even sounds like. Call up Whitey or Mr. Boland for some input on that project before you get goin it though. Do that, then you’ll have my attention. Till then, shut the fuck up and keep counting your money. Peace.
March 7, 2016 @ 9:45 pm
Before we get all tied up in what does and does NOT constitute country music, let us consider that country music doesn’t exist in isolation in just one huge city in the middle of the South, namely Nashville. That’s the home of the industry, of the Grand Ole Opry, no disputing that. But Nashville isn’t the only place where country music is heard or practiced; and even doing just a cursory look at its history will show that to be true. You have the bluegrass and mountain music of Appalachia and the Ozarks. The Western Swing style that originated in Texas and Oklahoma in the 1940s. The Cajun/zydeco style in Louisiana. The honky-tonk style in the West, including the aforementioned Bakersfield Sound here in California. The Mexican influence in the Southwest. And that’s just a small sample. A great deal of what consists of Country music comes from different regions of the country, but it comes in its best form from a largely Rural lifestyle, from the land and the soil itself.
The problem is that that particular way of life hardly exists anymore. Practically all of the regional styles of country I just mentioned would probably be classified as Americana today. Much of what you hear on the radio has very little to do with actual country music now. Linda Ronstadt, who grew up in Arizona on an eclectic music pallet that included Hank Williams, calls country music today basically “mall crawler music” with little or no connection to the land, but a consumer-fed Suburban mentality propagated by record company executives whose knowledge of country music, such as it is, probably doesn’t go back much further than Garth Brooks, which really isn’t all that impressive.
We can’t blame the lousy quality of country records these days only on the artists alone, though Blake Shelton and all the other “bro-country” acts don’t exactly do the genre justice by burying traditional country instrumentation under walls of loud Southern rock electric guitars, EDM rhythms, autotuned vocals, and awful rap/hick-hop influences. It starts really with the label chieftains and radio station programmers who force this down everybody’s throats. Only the fans, en masse, can force the issue (IMHO).
March 8, 2016 @ 7:26 am
Another bit that’s interesting to me is the early influence of Hawaiian music in the form of steel guitar. It was incorporated into country music early on, but the journey’s pretty interesting.
March 8, 2016 @ 7:47 am
Very good point. The instrumentation can come from faraway places, such as the steel guitar from Hawaii. And it all forms identifiable sounds that originate with the land and ordinary folks. That’s really what makes up country in the minds of those who know and love it so fiercely.
March 8, 2016 @ 9:42 am
Before 67 there were five cities of country music, Nashville being one of them. Austin, Atlanta, Chicago, and Bakersfield. It also had to do with with the various forms of the opry in the other parts of the country. The national barn dance, Appalachian jubilee, Louisiana hayride, wheeling jamboree and such.
March 7, 2016 @ 10:29 pm
Well, at the risk of losing any of my street cred on this forum, I actually like “Boys round here”. I know, the horror and horrors. But before y’all get your panties in a wad, let me explain why. First of all, I like the vocals. I like the way Miranda and the P.Annie’s come in, I like their harmonies, I like Blake’s vocals. All of the above sound country. One could argue that the lyrics may suck, but I always took this song as pretty tongue-in-cheek. I will admit the whole texting thing was kind of a downer, I just read that recently. But I like the song. I will now invoke the name of an artist that I currently love, William C.G. There, my street cred is back!
As far as Blake goes, it’s hard to tell what motivates him, that is anyone’s guess. I do know he cares a lot about his contestants on the Voice- that I’m certain.
March 7, 2016 @ 11:51 pm
If BS hadn’t landed the VOICE he’d be a nobody based on his age , his crap song choices and the fact that all the little girls that labels are chasing are chasing Luke ,Hunt ,Aldean and the latest trendy ‘product’ .Add to that the fact that BS is not even close to a Brad Paisley or a Kenny Chesney or a McGraw when it comes to entertaining and even those guys are up against it when it comes to maintaining a radio presence. BS has become a parody of the ” Good Ole Boy” in order to better serve that TV show . His few live performances on that show display just how lightweight his talent is …he had difficulties reaching notes .
June 12, 2016 @ 12:06 pm
TOTALLY disagree- Blake is a STAR and a Country one..and you’re just just wrong. I Like Boys round here…it’s fun. It ‘s entertaining and a lot, I repeat a lot of people, like it. Not every movie has to win an oscar and not every song is a Grammy winner. A lot of these comments are based on some people’s jealousies and small minds. Get over yourself!!!
March 8, 2016 @ 12:03 am
Wow, I’m with Orgirl1. What did Blake do that causes y’all to be such haters? Is he a mainstream country artist?? Hell, yes. But whether it’s Austin, Homey Bee or his acoustic version of Over You, give him respect. Opinion is fine. Not your cup, fine, But the attitude is tiresome. Also, worth a mention that he regularly reference George, Merle, Whitley, Tom T, etc on a huge weekly network show. Ain’t gotta love, but geez….
March 8, 2016 @ 7:03 am
Blake has certainly disrespected country fans with his past statements. He’s got a lot of fences to mend before he can expect our respect again.
March 8, 2016 @ 7:24 am
He lost our respect with “Boys Round Here” and his “Old farts and jackasses” comments. He has a long way and a lot of contrition to do if he is going to regain the respect of country music fans like me.
March 8, 2016 @ 5:35 am
There again, if you don’t believe the bad shit they say, you can’t trust the good shit they say.
March 8, 2016 @ 7:20 am
I’m not sure his new single backs up what he said. https://youtu.be/4Phu1jJhVT4
March 8, 2016 @ 7:53 am
I’m fairly certain it doesn’t. Unfortunately for him, actions speak louder than words
March 8, 2016 @ 10:01 am
Is it April Fools Day?
March 8, 2016 @ 11:09 am
Blake just recorded a song with the Oak Ridge Boys for his new album…It will be interesting to hear that song.
March 8, 2016 @ 12:12 pm
I seriously laughed out loud at this b/c isn’t he releasing a duet w/ Gwen (can’t sing, especially live) Stefani? PS did you hear his new single? Three lines repeated over and over auto tuned & not very country-so is he out of the club?
March 8, 2016 @ 6:10 pm
You know, this might be an unpopular opinion, but I have something of a soft spot for Blake. Aside from his arrogance here and there, he presents a mostly likable personality in his music. Not of the “we’re so dope” FGL/Sam Hunt variety, but moreso of an approachable quality that makes him feel like you could just walk up to him and talk about the weather. I have no idea how accurate that is, but it sells me on a song every now and then. I also still think that his 2007 album Pure BS is solid modern country all around. It also doesn’t hurt that the man has a decent set of pipes to boot. I suppose what I’m getting at is that I have issues with him (as most of us do around here), but I just can’t hate him. Even his bro-country material has a modicum of twang and charm to it that’s missing from most of his competition (of course, there wasn’t any Sam Hunts during the time of “Boys ‘Round Here,” either, so it might just be the passage of time). Boy do I hate some of his songs, though.
March 9, 2016 @ 1:21 pm
I get it. Bottomline. New album just dropped and it’s more traditional.
A course correction was quickly needed and applied. Band-aid.
March 11, 2016 @ 2:12 pm
Blake Shelton? has he ever even HEARD a country song? “listens to “Came Here to Forget I’m guessing not…
March 20, 2016 @ 9:23 pm
Saying that The Voice is “dominating” while American Idol is “failing” is hyperbole. The Voice premiered with a 3.4 and idol with a 3.0. Not that big of a difference. Once again, you seem to be biased towards the Voice and against idol.
March 21, 2016 @ 7:47 am
Trust me Justin, I hate both equally. You’re taking a small sample size to validate a point I’m not even arguing against. “American Idol” is in its final season while they continue to double up seasons of “The Voice.” That’s about all the indication you need. Not surprised the American Idol premiered better since it’s the final season.