Country Taking Submissive Role To Rap in Mono-Genre
History has been made baby! —rapper Ludacris after performing “Dirt Road Anthem” with Jason Aldean at the 2011 CMT Awards.
Like a good red-blooded American, I spent last night ignoring the CMT Awards like the ugly girl at the dance. More than a passing reflection on the doings of a shindig that has the wet cigarette of Kid Rock hosting and lets the pliable pop-country music fan vote the outcomes (gerrymandered by legions of glitter-faced 14-year-old girls stuffing ballots harder than a sock down the front of Jason Aldean’s nut huggers) is risking giving the event way more credence than it deserves. The ACM’s, and principally the CMA’s, though of course mostly relegated to a joke these days as well, are still the only awards that count in the grand scheme.
However when the headline performance of the night went down, we had one of those moments when as we populate the timeline of how all popular American music coalesced into one big mono-genre, it will count as one of the big bullet points, as Jason Aldean performed a rap song, with a well-established rap artist in Ludacris, to close out the festivities. Yes, Jason Aldean performed the same “Dirt Road Anthem” song at the ACM’s a few months ago, but this was the point that the mainstream country establishment has been working up to for a while. They started with Lil’ Wayne making an weird, non-performing appearance with Kid Rock on the CMA’s a few years back. At this year’s ACM’s Rhianna performed with Jennifer Nettles.
Slowly Music Row has desensitized the country music public into accepting artists from the hip-hop super-genre into their format, until now Ludacris, an artist that regularly refers to black people as “niggas” and disrespects women in his songs, is performing on a country music channel, on a country music awards show.
Please spare me the arguments that this is all for the greater creative good. This isn’t about inclusion or open-mindedness, this is about money. Diversity isn’t to have all popular music be an amalgam of everything, but to have sharp lines and blinding contrast. Let rappers rap in hard-edged styles. Let country artists be twangy, with harsh-sounding banjos and steel guitars. Let pop stars dance around with glitter shooting out of their nipples (or whatever). And let the genres mix when it presents itself as a creative bridge instead of an economic opportunity that mortgages tradition and contrast. That is an environment of healthy diversity.
A few days ago rapper Big K.R.I.T., along with the aformentioned Ludacris and “Bun B” released a remix of a song called “Country Shit”. My first though was “Ah, now rap artists are trying to capitalize off the laundry list-style of country songs the spew out easily-recognized imagery and artifacts of rural life to facilitate the white suburban demographic living vicariously through music.” This same “white suburban” demographic has been a big home for hip-hop as well. But the simple fact is rappers are not ripping off country artists, it’s vice versa. Hip hop was the first to spew out laundry lists of urban language and easily-recognizable imagery.
Country isn’t combining with rap in the formation of the mono-genre, it is allowing rap to take over, along with pop. When two dogs meet, one usually stands in a dominant stance, and one rolls on its back. Right now, rap is the butch, and country is the bitch. Why don’t we see country acts on the Hip Hop Awards or BET Awards? Why don’t we see rap artists aping country styles, why is it only vice versa? (I’ll give you Cowboy Troy and a handful of others, I’m talking big picture here)
The Future of Music: The Mono-Genre & Micro-Genres
When the music sales for 2010 broken down by genre were released, all the major genres of music were down sharply, except for rap and country. Rap actually gained, and country was only down a few percentage points, but that slight difference may be why country feels it needs to be submissive to rap to stay relevant.
What continues to baffle me about country is their lack of talent development and innovation. Instead of incorporating rap and pop styles, why doesn’t country tap its vibrant and growing independent/underground post-punk movement full of fresh styles and ideas that would appeal to the coveted young white suburban demographic? Or how about The Avett Bros. and Mumford and Sons, two bands with huge followings that play upright basses and banjos, but have had to revert to indie rock circles to find a home. They likely would be embarrased to be embraced by country at this point even if they were. In many respects, it feels like Americana has never been stronger. There is a vast talent pool for country to draw from, and instead they’re trying to figure out how to suckle off some of the popularity of Justin Bieber and Ludacris.
With Kid Rock hosting the CMT Awards, with country rapper Colt Ford performing, and with Jason Aldean and Ludacris closing the show out with a rap song, you can make the case that 15%-20% of what went down at the 2011 CMT Awards was either rap or rap inspired. I expect those percentages to increase over the next cycle of award shows until the number gets to 50%. Then the mono-genre will be fully realized, and the death of contrast will be complete.
June 9, 2011 @ 10:41 am
The music industry started to shit on itself when it became reliant on tour money. To get a band into a local bar, maybe get 100-200 people to see them, and let them sell merch, is nigh on impossible in any but the largest of cities. We need to go back to the days where artists who wanted to truly “make it” had their people contact booking agents to offer dates at “next to nothing” or “door only” amounts, and then a LOT of promotion went into the show. now the artists want to earn a living touring, which is NOT the way it used to be. Starving musicians folks.. we need them back! 🙂
June 9, 2011 @ 11:14 am
there are tons of them on the roads to new towns every day…
June 9, 2011 @ 12:59 pm
Huh?
June 10, 2011 @ 1:28 am
Still awaiting an answer. Pretty sure most all shows I see (at least once every 2 weeks) are national bands who get their cut of the door as is the standard for all the venues in the neighborhood. I must be slipping in my old age.
June 10, 2011 @ 9:54 am
there are tons of bands running around this country in minivans rationing out 20 dollars a day for food, beer and cigarettes. I let many of them sleep on my floor and couch.
June 9, 2011 @ 10:42 am
It’s been coming for a long time man. I was making the remark back in the ’90s, “Hmmm, I wonder if when the band goes on break at a hip hop club, if they play George Strait and all the girls rush the dancefloor?” It just sucks that the day has finally arrived.
June 9, 2011 @ 10:43 am
One thing that can be learned from the struggle of the underground (real) hiphop community is that no matter the talent if you don’t co-op the sound you won’t break though. Save for the rare example such as Outkast but then…breaking through basically destroyed the band.
June 9, 2011 @ 12:35 pm
Though I am not familiar with them at all, I have no doubt that the best of hip-hop is stuck in the underground, just like the best of roots and country. And if I was an underground hip-hopper, I would be just as pissed at Ludacris as country people should be pissed at Jason Aldean.
June 9, 2011 @ 1:51 pm
As an underground hip-hopper, I’m saddened but not shocked that the pop version of hip-hop is in bed with the pop version of country. Mind you, CMT and BET are both owned by Viacom (who is losing money) and they’re both equally embarrassing to anyone who appreciates music, no matter what race or geography.
June 10, 2011 @ 2:26 am
Heheh, you said hip-hopper. CMT and BET owned by the same company? Wha? The funny part is, I work with all Viacom owned brands and most major media conglomerates and I have to say, BET and Azteca America both seem to employ the dumbest people I’ve ever worked with. And I mean, BET / MTV / Nickelodeon etc, there’s a ton of em all under the same umbrella but jesus the BET staff are the dumbest of them all.
Also the CNBC folks are dumb as bricks. I hope I don’t get fired for this revelation. For what its worth the dude at NBC is cool as hell.
June 11, 2011 @ 7:24 am
The MSNBC staff are the dumbest to me lol probably has something to do with me being a right wing extremist though haha
June 10, 2011 @ 5:58 am
flip off Jason Aldeans hat off his head and pull a heartbreak ridge / Clint Eastwood move and rip the earrings from his ears…… no reason, just DO it! Then find the closest resemblence to Adebisi (from OZ) and introduce them, then walk away….. it’s easy….
June 10, 2011 @ 6:05 am
eh, I cant take country music (radio/cmt) seriously enough to come up with a better response… Im truly sorry. noone is down to do a smash and grab for our country music….. it would take less than a few hours to “total out” Music Row. We all have bandanas and tools of destruction….
June 9, 2011 @ 11:18 am
The people in the audience clapping their flippers like trained seals are just as out of touch as the promoters, managers, and record executives that put this dog & pony show together. This was a stunt, nothing more. Are we to believe that Jason Aldean and Ludacris are good friends, and the collaboration was just a case of one doing the other a favor? Give me a break. We’ll see if Aldean or Blake Shelton get invited to the BET awards. That’s the difference between fans of hip hop and fans of what Nashville calls country music — Nashville country leaves even the least discriminating music fan thirsty for more, and so naturally they branch out into other genres to satisfy their yearning for creativity, since the genre they call home fails to satisfy. Hip hop (and just about any genre outside of Nashville country) has enough fresh ideas and creativity to leave its listeners content. Kids in Farmtown, USA get bored and reach for Ludacris records, but kids in Crenshaw don’t get bored and reach for Kenny Chesney records. I guarantee you that.
June 9, 2011 @ 11:37 am
This is a little off topic but it makes me mad that the blacks can have a channel called black entertainment television but if us white people tried to make a white entertainment television people would protest and cry racist anybody else see something wrong with that picture or is it just me?
June 9, 2011 @ 12:33 pm
Without question it is a double standard but at this point I feel like that argument is so tired, it goes without saying. BET would tell you that at one point black people were excluded from culture and media so they needed to create their own, but as I’m trying to point out in this article, it now dominates culture in many ways. But it is the way it is, maybe it’s not fair, but it’s never going to change.
June 10, 2011 @ 2:28 am
There is a white network, it’s called ABC / NBC / CBS.
June 10, 2011 @ 7:02 am
I love you LIndsay…and Tim Wise would be proud.
June 10, 2011 @ 10:37 am
Haha id rather watch Fox
June 10, 2011 @ 11:18 am
Somehow in my drunken state of mind I forgot to list FOX. Sorry Mr. Wise.
June 11, 2011 @ 6:57 am
Alcohol is a magical thing aint it haha
June 9, 2011 @ 12:27 pm
“Hip hop (and just about any genre outside of Nashville country) has enough fresh ideas and creativity to leave its listeners content. Kids in Farmtown, USA get bored and reach for Ludacris records, but kids in Crenshaw don”™t get bored and reach for Kenny Chesney records. I guarantee you that.”
Good stuff.
June 9, 2011 @ 1:23 pm
Thanks, Trigger.
June 10, 2011 @ 7:14 am
I live in Ohio and when I first joined Facebook, there was a group that I joined called, “You live surrounded by cornfields…you aren’t ghetto…pull up your pants” (or something like that). I think ICP and other “white” bands have been trying to capitalize on this weird white rural rap thing for a long time.
I’m curious what you all think of this but here’s my take: Classic country was too heartfelt for the trashy folks who glom onto this superficial, misogynistic version of rap/hip hop. As the US gets dumber and dumber and more and more disengaged from forging their own destinies…more drugged by the idiocy of shows like Maury and Springer…they have no place for soulful, thoughtful singer-songwriters. I think that many poorer rural folks feel even more disengaged from society today than ever before, and turn to genres and forms of music that celebrate the lowest common traits of humanity.
There is a long history of thoughtful, wise, and crafty hip hop music. However, the majority of the mainstream product caters to the basest urges of humans. Even the worst pop country at least attempts (most of the time?) to appeal to sentimentality and romance – which as sappy and unfulfilling as this may be is at least not celebrating violence against women or gang fighting.
I have often gotten slammed as being “elitist” on this blog for things I write. I know I am overly educated. But here is the thing: I can dive into the most percussion driven African regional music or savor local tunes from Brazil way better than I can stomach most popular rap music today. It’s not about race…it’s about thoughtfulness, sincerity, and quality, no?
June 10, 2011 @ 12:30 pm
It’s about consumerism and capitalism. Modern rap accepts the ideology that money means success and therefore, you are a better person because you are able to afford diamonds and Lambourginis. Of course, the record labels want to promote this music! It benefits them! They are investors in the businesses that profit from this ideology. Rappers are their allies; they are like walking advertisements. White rural kids are buying into this too now because they have access to TV and are constantly bombarded by ads. It works on them because they are poor and politically disadvantaged. They believe if they make more money, they will be saved from their plight; thus, they work more and save only to squander their money on the latest gadget they don’t need, rendering them poorer, but making the rich richer. Rural, country kids are trying to live out a fantasy by listening to rap music. Not only is it a fantasy to them, but most of the time, it’s a fantasy to the rappers as well. There are maybe a dozen wealthy rap artists who can actually live up to the boasts they make in their songs. The whole thing is a farce! It’s an advertising campaign! It’s about making us hate ourselves, so we will buy more so we can appear rich and successful. As Kanye West said, “They make us hate ourself and love they wealth”. (See? Not all hip-hop is bad!)
I’m not against mixing rural and urban cultural music. It has happened before successfully (rockabilly) and it can happen again. It’s not going to happen with “hip-pop” that promotes materialism, because materialism is hazardous to the soul. Good music is good for the soul.
Rap could combine with country if the correct elements were used as resources. Rap derives from hip-hop. Traditional hip-hop started out as a way for the disadvantaged urban poor to share their stories. Country is just the music of the disadvantaged rural poor. If the two groups could pull from those similarities, it would work. You’re right Karen, it IS about sincerity. Hick-pop is not sincere because both groups are trying to create a fantasy for the benefit of the wealthy elite.
June 9, 2011 @ 11:28 am
This just proves that no matter how bad the artist is the suburbanites that want to look like a thug or a wanna be redneck will buy the stuff up just bc something the person says in a song. The things that make me mad is hippity hop is music like George Jones said its talking stuff and the fact that these new country artist wanna further there career by mentioning Jones or Waylon in there songs. I was turning through the tv last night and stopped on cmt and saw a little white kid that looked like a girl with his pants on the ground getting a award country aint country no more.
June 9, 2011 @ 12:29 pm
LOL I’m glad country isn’t popular here, I don’t get advertising shoving Jason Aldean down my throat and telling me he plays country
Anyway, This rap thing is ridiculous and I can’t believe that the pop country fans are falling for it.
June 9, 2011 @ 12:52 pm
“Diversity isn”™t to have all popular music be an amalgam of everything, but to have sharp lines and blinding contrast. Let rappers rap in hard-edged styles. Let country artists be twangy, with harsh-sounding banjos and steel guitars…..And let the genres mix when it presents itself as a creative bridge instead of an economic opportunity that mortgages tradition and contrast. That is an environment of healthy diversity.”
Amen.
June 9, 2011 @ 12:57 pm
What I don’t understand is that there’s so much outstanding non-Nashville music out there – why resort to this? Why? Whenever I play Hellbound Glory or Bob Wayne or whomever to a someone who says they like “country” music they love it, but have never heard it.
I mean, couldn’t record company executives make just as much money with good music? Or would the whole relationship deteriorate from the quality of such music? Maybe there’s no solution (?) But I’m all ears.
June 9, 2011 @ 1:07 pm
Look how country radio just completely shut out the music from the “O Brother, Where Art Thou” soundtrack, even though it was selling millions and millions of copies. Perhaps the “establishment” thinks they have too much invested or too much of a sure thing in the existing infrastrucure? Kind of a GM before the bailout mindset?
June 9, 2011 @ 1:19 pm
Funny you mention that example. A big “country” radio station in Georgia has an add that says something to the effect of “Country music without all the, you know, [insert dueling banjos riff]”. That’s seriously how they market themselves. Yet, whenever I play bluegrass for someone, they love it. Take any pop country fan you know to see live bluegrass and they have a great time. I don’t get it.
June 9, 2011 @ 1:49 pm
Now that’s an extremely sad commentary with respect to the radio station. Might as well say “country music with the heart torn out of it.” And somehow that’s a good thing.
I’ve had a similar experience taking friends to see music artists outside of the mainstream. They’ll have a great time, but does it mean enough to them such that they’ll seek out more music by the artist or similar artists all on their own? Or is it analagous to enjoying a much better than average hamburger and then it’s back to McDonalds tomorrow?
June 9, 2011 @ 1:50 pm
Rap has the perfect model for success in this climate because financial success is a celebrated value. The more financially successful you are, the more you can brag about it. You can even “go country” if it makes you more money. There is no such thing as selling out. A pop country star would never claim financial success because that would make them less of an everyman. Ironically, the country music industry is built purely to make money. With professional songwriters and session musicians, modern pop country artists are merely vehicles that songs pass through. Rappers have much more creative freedom than any country artist. They release mix tapes independently to appeal to their core fans and release albums on the label to get radio hits and drum up new ticket buyers for their tours. Why should a rap fan get excited about a decent looking person hamming up their southern accent on someone else’s songs backed by a corporate band? It is the antithesis of hip hop.
June 9, 2011 @ 1:57 pm
Well said sir.
June 9, 2011 @ 9:37 pm
Lots of good thoughts on this article, including yours Big A.
June 10, 2011 @ 7:18 am
Good points about materialism, Big A. The Chuck D’s, Q Tips, Method Man and KRS 1’s of the world are probably taking anti nausea meds daily to survive what has happened to their genre…
June 11, 2011 @ 8:44 am
Absolutely. All of them have released albums in the past few years that got almost zero airplay. My favorite is Q-Tip’s “The Renaissance”. The song “Dance on Glass” starts out with “The people at the label say they want something to repeat, but all my people really want something from the streets (so keep hookin’)”.
July 26, 2011 @ 12:38 am
You dont know shit.
June 9, 2011 @ 2:21 pm
Here is a perfect example of what is happening. This is what they have done……..http://youtu.be/PKfMZJLbexQ Now i love the video it show what we love doing down here BUT this POP rap what ever has got to stop.
June 9, 2011 @ 2:22 pm
I don’t blame Jason Aldean or Ludacris. I blame the four artist that started this. Tim McGraw, Nelly, Big & Rich, Cowboy Troy.
June 9, 2011 @ 4:24 pm
This could have been an excellent idea, if the song and the performers had been different. A song written by 2 Georgia boys, performed by 2 Georgia boys. Being from Georgia that should make me proud, but instead it makes me hang my head in shame. It was awful. I hate to make this about race, but the reason country music is bowing down to rap, at least in my opinion, has to do with the way America thinks. Have you ever noticed how white people are so scared to offend black people in any way and how nobody has a problem with a black man being racist, but if a white man is racist, he’s evil? Something I noticed back when I was in high school was that we naturally segregate ourselves. Segregation has been outlawed for many many years now, but white people tend to want to hang out with white people and vice versa. We want to hang out with people that we have similar interests with and that’s how it falls. So, since we naturally segregate ourselves to be with similar people, why in the hell would we mix 2 completely different styles of music? MONEY, the almighty dollar. “country music” is dead. In my opinion, it died when Johnny Cash passed away. I love the new underground stuff, but mainstream america wants nothing to do with it.
June 10, 2011 @ 11:37 am
100% written by 2 Georgia boys, performed by 2 Georgia boys: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIUzq7X020A
June 10, 2011 @ 3:51 pm
doesn’t make me proud, but it doesn’t make me hang my head in shame either. just not my style
June 9, 2011 @ 4:39 pm
I said it on my blog and I’ll say it here: If country music is dead, one might characterize last night’s spectacle as screwing its corpse.
June 9, 2011 @ 5:05 pm
that’s what makes it even worse
June 9, 2011 @ 6:06 pm
Although it may seem hopeless it’s not…while this crap was going on last night we were less than a block away at The Ryman getting a steady dose of hardcore traditional country by Marty Stuart and his Fabulous Superlatives, The Quebe Sisters, Ricky Skaggs, Doug Kershaw, Mel Tillis, and Connie Smith….absolute incredible show!!!
June 9, 2011 @ 6:27 pm
When will the True Country Artist be so embarrassed that they leave Nashville for good? Good Country Music is still Alive and well in Texas. We have our share of wannabees but for the most part the Artists are well grounded and love making music even more than they love making money.
June 9, 2011 @ 6:58 pm
I guess embarrassment takes a back seat when you paid millions to be a part of this crap.
June 9, 2011 @ 7:26 pm
I actually enjoy the idea of country rap, when done right. Which dosen’t happen with mainstream acts. GangstaGrass however has a great album out combining hip hop and blue grass called Lightning On The Strings, Thunder On The Mic
June 10, 2011 @ 5:43 am
I checked that out on YouTube and it’s kinda catchy. I think I like it. Weird. I feel like that Ron White line: “I did not know that about myself”.,,
June 9, 2011 @ 10:39 pm
It’s sad to see that a country that should be proud of its music, is losing its richest musical style: Country Music. Real Country Music is called now Americana, or Alternative Country. Isn’t that ridiculous? Willie Nelson releases an album called “Country Music” and it is nominated for Americana Album of the Year. Awards, associations, big radio stations, Billboard, CMT and all those bastards are killing the music. But history repeats itself and let’s hope a new crop of artists comes to the rescue, just like the Outlaws did in the 70s or the Neo-traditionalists in the late 80s. Choose the term that you may like but I’m sure that the pendulum will swing this way again. There’s so much talent in Texas alone to come to the rescue and the music industry will realize that when people get tired of the Lady Antebellums and the Jason Aldeans that are created by producers.
Get something clear: Real Country Music is very much appreciated in Europe, Asia, Australia and even in some parts of South America, specially Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay, where I live. I host a country music show on the radio and I play 80% Texas music, honky tonk, rockabilly, western swing, roots music. No Taylor Swift, no Kenny Chesney. I do it because I have the freedom to play what I want, nobody tells me what to play.
And I also welcome artists who come from other musical genres into Country Music and they do it with respect, trying to reach a wider audience and not just for the money: Ray Charles, Aaron Neville, John Fogerty, Bruce Springsteen, Mark Knopfler, Van Morrison and many others who make Country Music with respect.
Saludos!
June 10, 2011 @ 7:27 am
AWESOME! This is exciting to me. I found the same thing to be true when I was in Europe last summer. And I didn’t read your comment til after I penned mine above. I couldn’t agree more that no matter how much US folk may roll their eyes at “NPR Music” (acts that are appreciated by the so-called liberal media), world music is really where “OUR” version of country needs to find its brethren. Country and bluegrass were originally musics of the people. If you look around the rest of the world, these genres (while in danger of being obliterated by US cultural imperialism) still flourish in some areas. The battle waged here at SCM to “save” country music can really be viewed through the lens of cultural survival. Folks like Wade Davis http://www.ted.com/talks/wade_davis_on_endangered_cultures.html who champion cultural preservation the world over need to pause and take a look at what is happening here at home in the US.
June 10, 2011 @ 7:58 am
I don’t know “how much US folk roll their eyes at NPR Music”. I know I do, but I think it is quite well-received by their listenership. I usually like the artists and bands they play. Or at least I did until they cleaned up their sound to pander to the over-educated elite white demographic. And NPR has an amazing knack for taking the best artists, and even good albums, and finding the absolute worst tracks on that album to play. It is because they are news people, not music people. Stick with what you know.
I also find the term “world music” very offensive to other cultures. It suggests that America is the dominant culture, and everything else is so subordinate, that we toss it all under a catch-all phrase. At least regionalize it. Latin music is much different from Asian music. Indian music works under it’s own system on tones, chords, and progressions. If you have a program that caters to music not from America, to Americans, call it, “Music from around the world”.
But yes, cultural preservation, along with cultural progress, is the aim here.
June 10, 2011 @ 9:04 am
I think a lot of people talk about such bands as the (Caroline Chocolate Drops for example) as NPR darlings as if this takes away from their authenticity. Sure, “world music” is a complete insult as is the overly analytical and newsy presentation of music by NPR. But the thing that NPR and other mainstream news organizations are attempting to do is to embrace music with a bit more thought than CMT or BET. Is thought ultimately elitist? I certainly hope not. I don’t think it is elitist to use proper English or to use your analytical skills to discuss music.
And if you haven’t noticed, American cultural imperialism is a very successful project. The term “world music” is only germane to US audiences. The people I’ve spent time with in Africa, for example, don’t think of their music as “world music”…but it is a term used by US audiences to categorize that genre…like XXX could be here in the future, eh? 😉
The point I was trying to make here is that if you detach from our media and our cultural understanding about what “real” or “good” country music is supposed to be…if you back off and look in from the outside…from an etic perspective if you will…you can see that what you are fighting for here is a bit like what people the world over are fighting for in terms of cultural preservation.
But here is the catch…and Big A above points this out well…in a globalized society and economic system, people are often more than happy to sell off their own authenticity or their own cultural artifacts for cash. If the goal is for everyone in the world to obtain a level of subsistence similar to that of the US, then of course people will give up what is uniquely theirs in many contexts in the name of gaining access to the economic and material world that the US has dominated for so long.
The same losses that we are lamenting on this particular blog are the same losses that people the world over face on a regular basis. Their music is only a touch of the cultural devastation that plagues the planet. Imagine an entire language being lost? It’s happening every day.
June 10, 2011 @ 2:35 am
Oh boo-hoo-hoo, country music is dead. Ya know, I try sometimes to explain the topics and conversations going on within this genre to people that live outside of this internet fandom movement and I typically feel like a douche for trying to explain why something so menial (entertainment) is considered and stressed to be so important and seems to somehow affect so many people. I mean, trying to explain this all to people like my parents….they’d look at me like I’m a brick wall. Isn’t there a point where we just have to stop and smell the roses while doing our best to ignore the smell of shit that our neighbor has just laid down as fertilizer?
June 10, 2011 @ 5:45 am
I Knooooooow, it sucks to have to explain our stuff to our Beatles lovin parents….
June 10, 2011 @ 7:19 am
LOL! Keith!
June 10, 2011 @ 11:24 am
Haha, even with my best friend JTB. I’ll be telling him something and he gives me that look that says “This is completely fucking stupid and I can’t believe you’re wasting your time telling me this but I’ll pretend to pay attention cause we’re friends.” Yall ain’t ever got that before?
June 10, 2011 @ 12:20 pm
All the time…
The people I work with are trying to save lives, towns, cities, nations or entire races of people. When I publicly whine about this stuff, they look at me like I’ve taken momentary leave of my senses…but hey, someone has to care about each thing, no? Otherwise the world would be far more apathetic than it even is today.
June 10, 2011 @ 8:01 am
Read the quote at the top of the page. This is about more than entertainment.
June 10, 2011 @ 11:23 am
Read it many times before. Just about everytime I hit this site. Where’s it from and why should it be believed? Did Napoleon strangle all the music of his time with a tiny fist and thus cause the downfall of his country?
June 10, 2011 @ 10:02 pm
It’s from Dave the Webmaster, and you can believe it or not. And I’m not foretelling the fall of modern civilization, but I’m sure you could find some parallels between now, and the fall of Rome, partially brought on by hedonism and banality in popular culture.
I’m not really sure what you’re getting at here. This topic may not be important to you, or to some friend you’re talking to, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t important. There is more interest in this article than any other I have written in over a month, so clearly it is important to someone. Maybe not from you, but that is fine, move along. To shake your fists at the viability of making such an argument is very unusual to me. Nowhere in this article did I say country music is dead. I was simply pointing out the significance of the performance and giving my opinions on it. And no, I did not directly tie it to the downfall of civilization. This is a music blog, specifically a country music blog, and specifically one called “Saving Country Music”. To me it would have been wholly irresponsible to not broach this subject, and apparently many people agree. I give a more public voice to the ideas and feelings of many people who otherwise may not have it. The objective of this article was analysis and camaraderie.
June 10, 2011 @ 11:06 pm
And I was merely completely drunk last night when I posted that.
But about the quote, I was legit curious where it came from and the context of it. Thanks for explainin.
June 11, 2011 @ 7:01 am
You was laid up in a country state of mind
June 10, 2011 @ 3:57 am
What is really funny to me, this song actually has a point behind it, then Ludacris comes out talking about feeling like a million dollars, singing with Jason Aldean, referencing some other country items and some stuff that doesn’t make sense, then at some point someone told him put “smoke rollin’ out the window” in there and then all of a sudden it’s over before you can care. It comes off as something he was payed to do and doesn’t give a damn about. I’d be surprised if he even heard the song one time before doing that in the studio (oh, and they DID release a studio version on iTunes).
June 10, 2011 @ 3:59 am
Payed? Damn it’s early….I meant paid.
June 11, 2011 @ 1:11 am
Yeah well the song is doing pretty well on itunes so end of story
June 10, 2011 @ 7:12 am
i was at work during this award show so i was spared the embarassment of trying to watch it but when i heard that Beiber girl/guy whatever won an award i hung my head. somebody told me “what’s the big deal?” and i said to her that putting sugar in water doesn’t make kool-aid, it makes sugar water. so putting beiber and rascall flatts together doesn’t make country music, it makes POP music. and it is a sad day that POP music won a COUNTRY music award. WTF?! i’m all for people doing whatever songs they want to do in however manner they please. but don’t call a donkey a cow and won’t call you a dipshit!
June 10, 2011 @ 7:42 am
I think (hope) it’s a mistake to attach too much importance to the CMT Awards and I know it’s rich fodder for bashing Nashville. Trigger, I enjoy your website immensely and you are a clear thinking, talented writing, truthfully listening island of sanity for me. I’m not challenging anything you say about the CMT’s being a money-grubbing, mono-genre-ing ridiculous spectacle. But that’s all it is. It’s the American Idol formula presented as an “awards” show. A bunch of different pop genres cynically pasted together for one purpose: money. It’s more LA than Nashville.
As Scott pointed out, Marty Stuart was keeping True country music alive a block away at the Ryman while Justin Beiber and Ludacris were whoring to the middle of America, the great mass of people who don’t understand or give a shit about actual country music. I attend Marty’s Jam every year and I’m always knocked on my ass, hearing greats like Ralph Mooney given the respect they deserve. And relative newcomers like the Quebe Sisters keeping Bob Wills’ tradition alive. And old favorites like Doug Kershaw given a chance to play again.
The Americana Awards will be happening at the Ryman in September. Now that’s a real awards show! The IBMA’s were fantastic and will be great next year, too. There’s real country in Nashville, if one seeks it. Hell, any average night at The Station Inn or even Robert’s Western World will blow away any given performance at the CMT’s. Go to the 5 Spot and hear Hellbound Glory, or Fubars to hear Wayne Hancock. That’s real Nashville, that’s where us locals go. The CMT’s are for tourists. And that’s why you’ll hear Rap and see Beiber and Ludacris–it has little or nothing to do with Nashville.
June 10, 2011 @ 8:14 am
I hope I didn’t come across as bashing Nashville itself in this article. I don’t think I mentioned the town, and only mentioned Music Row once. I think it is great that Marty Stuart was offering an alternative in town, and we did here on SCM LIVE as well, playing real country and blues Wednesday night. I think it is important to not just bitch, but to offer alternatives and promote the good stuff.
June 10, 2011 @ 7:50 am
Sorta off topic, but if you want to see the -other- big show that was in town during the CMT’s, click on my pen name. By the way–the show was well attended by our brothers and sisters from OZ. The Aussies are the biggest group of fans after us Americans. And I heard French speakers, Eastern-Europeans, and other foreign voices at the show. It was an affirmation that this music is important to the World, and not just us continentals.
June 10, 2011 @ 8:24 am
Thanks, Trig. I don’t mean to be too hyper sensitive, but I do hear a lot of generalized Nashville bashing in the comments (and not really from you). I understand it’s more directed towards the Nashville industry and not the town itself. Truth be known, I’m really embarrassed by crap like the CMT “Awards.” I wish they’d move that shit to Vegas or LA. The performers wouldn’t have to travel as far, and my town wouldn’t be inundated by idiots…
June 10, 2011 @ 10:45 am
This is good hip hop and country going pop now metal can come up from the darkness and take over the world lol
June 10, 2011 @ 1:31 pm
It’s happening to POP country and quite easily too because POP country is already two genres infused to dominate record sales.
Money. So they say…
June 11, 2011 @ 1:15 am
its the same thing with rap music…everyone is complaining hip-hop is dead and it is…its the same as country…this days music is about making money and selling hits…
June 11, 2011 @ 7:04 am
I may sound like a crazy person here but I see Justin Beiber singing at the Ryman within a year.
June 13, 2011 @ 6:27 pm
I had to break from the article to come down and LOL about glitter shooting from nipples!!! that’s great
June 22, 2011 @ 4:07 pm
Ludacris is a Country Boy from Georgia so I find it fitting that Jason Aldean had him perform. Would this had been an issue if Jason Aldean had collaborated with Steven Tyler or if he were alive Michael Jackson? I LOOOVE country music I love newer artist as well as the veteran artists such as Merle Haggard, Charlie Pride, Johnny cash etc.
I have a friend now who happens to be Black and she is from NYC, with family roots in Alabama but she is a New Yorker none the less with a LOVE for music and she wants to be a country artist because she LOVES Country music. So my question is should this girl not reach for dreams because she is black and from NYC?
As an artist you are going to evolve naturally and want to try and incorporate new things. What is wrong with that?
June 22, 2011 @ 7:36 pm
Probably about as wrong as white people wanting to be rappers. Very few will be excepted. Eminem. Beastie Boys. The list is short. She wants to be a country artist because she loves country music. That’s great! But what about country music does she love? The Taylor Swift/Kellie Pickler/Carrie Underwood/sugarland/Little Big Town country or the Loretta Lynn/Tammy Wynette/Patsy Cline country? Just curious.
Like or not, there are barriers to music and that’s the way it is. I guess trying to make one genre called MUSIC can happen, but you have to take away free will and personal taste and level of appreciation. I find that hard to ever imagine happening.
June 25, 2011 @ 3:17 pm
Denice, I’ am sure that Loretta Lynn has as great respect for Taylor,Carrie, Kelly, Little Big Town and Sugerland, and I feel confident that Tammy and Patsy would feel the same.
June 25, 2011 @ 3:01 pm
People of color are sadly under represented in country music. No one has more claim to being country than rural blacks. The country artist community is not racist and any black person or any other race should be afraid to bring it to Nashville.
June 23, 2011 @ 10:14 am
She likes Carrie Underwood, not at all a Taylor Swift fan, really likes Sugarland but she is for sure a Dolly,Reba,Martina,Loretta Lynn,Patsy Cline,Barbara Mandrell LOVING country girl!!! Her Parents are from Alabama and that is the music she was raised on along with soul music and church which all are sounds in Country Music. I don’t think that she should be discouraged to reach for her dream of being a country singer simply because of where she is from and the color of her skin!!
June 24, 2011 @ 6:36 am
Country, throughout its history, has forever been going through a metamorphosis. They used to blame the demise of country on Les Paul for inventing the electric guitar and It was in the early 50’s, I think , before they allowed electrified instruments on the Opry. Many of the old Country artists I hear spoken of with such great affection were, then they first came on the scene, thought to be the beginning of the end for country music.
Hank Williams was radical. People like Ray Price were looked down upon for incorporating orchestral arrangements into their sound and enunciated clearly without much southern accent. Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis were first known to me in the fifties as Rock and Roll singers.
TV,radio and school busing have all contributed to the homogenization of american culture.
Most, probably all, of the country artists of the past few decades grew up listening to the beatles, the rolling Stones, Dylan( Who opened the door for country/rock), rock, acid rock, glam rock, heavy metal, southern rock, Michael Jackson and more recently rap apparently.
I recall, in the eighties, going to The Station Inn( A strictly Blue Grass venue in Nashville) to hear the Buck White and the Whites. There were a bunch of young buck dancers( Eight to twelve years old) there and they were given the stage during The Whites break to perform their buck dancing stuff, which they did very well. When they finished, The whites were not back yet, and the juke box was playing. To my amazement, all the boys from the buck dancing troupe started moon walking and break dancing, which is that hip hop dance where you spin around on the floor. I don’t know, maybe one of those kids was Jason Aldean.
June 24, 2011 @ 6:50 am
I meant to mention, I don’t care for Jason’s rap, I prefer the talking songs of Jimmy Rogers.
June 24, 2011 @ 7:44 am
Jimmie Rogers 🙂 Can you imagine someone askin’ Jimmie to get in the back of his car and look sexy? But that’s the marketing ploy. Women get used like that, now POP country guys?
No Thanks.
Everlast & The Chemistry of Country & Hip Hop « Saving Country Music
November 18, 2011 @ 1:01 pm
[…] it ceases to be country, and instantly becomes hip-hop. When I talked about how country was taking a submissive role to hip-hop in the formation of the mono-genre, this may be one of the reasons. Everlast uses steel guitar, fiddle, banjo, and country themes in […]