On Brad Paisley’s New EDM-Inspired Album “Moonshine in the Trunk”
…and I swear, if anyone says, “Yeah, but he’s a really great guitar player,” I’m going to personally come to your house and urinate on your furniture.
I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry when I read that comedian and country music performer Brad Paisley‘s new album due out August 26th was called Moonshine in the Truck and “sees Paisley adapting the modern technology of EDM and dubstep to the classic country formula.”
Just read this following quote from Brad Paisley, if you can somehow comprehend it and make it all the way through, while understanding this is supposed to be a country music artist, and one of the “good guys” at that.
“When you hear a banjo through stutter edit, it’s the coolest thing you ever heard,” Paisley told Billboard. “I have a song that’s a basic love song, it’s got a great groove, and I cut this guitar part that gets distorted when I turn the nob up. I would say to Luke [Wooten, the producer], ‘Oh, that should’ve been done 20 years ago, but they couldn’t.'”
You’re making crazy talk Brad that I don’t exactly understand, but I’ll take it as a sign that yet another one bites the dust, gives up the ghost, pulls a Benedict Arnold, and has migrated to the other team. Please turn in your cowboy hat on the way out the door.
READ: EDM Replacing Rap As The Scourge of Country Radio
This is the problem folks. You try to be a pragmatist. You try to find some common ground. Hey, Paisley is a likeable guy: funny, smart, and yes, a great guitar player. But everywhere you look, as someone who simply cares a little bit about the sound that traditionally is considered to be country music, just paying scant attention is an exercise in getting socked in the nuts while being told you’re a closed-minded idiot who just wants all music to sound like Hank Williams. “You know, music has to evolve, man! They said Waylon wasn’t country either! Patsy Cline was pop too!”
Yeah, yeah.
And then it gets even worse from Mr. Paisley if you can believe it.
“The rulebook’s gone, or was there ever one?” Brad says. “They try, but I don’t play by it.”
Oh come on Brad, you played by the rulebook for fifteen years, and now by going in some “EDM” direction, you’re conforming to the rules more than ever. Breaking the rules on Music Row these days means actually playing country music. That’ll get you 86’d from your major label deal and knocking on the doors of Americana faster than anything. It’s like what songwriter Luke Laird recently said to The New York Times: “Right now, to write a country rap, it’s almost predictable. It’s more of a risk to write a traditional country song.”
And possibly the worst commentary about all of this is that it’s not even shocking that Brad Paisley’s next album will be “EDM inspired.” Of course it will be. It’s predicable, and expected, and virtually required. And meanwhile the dissent that was being levied last summer by many worried artists about all this madness in country music has gone hush.
What’s the solution? I don’t know. I guess we should just wait for the bass to drop.
May 29, 2014 @ 10:04 am
With Brad Paisley turning out an EDM record and Tim McGraw in the final stages of full-blown AIDS, what are the pop-country aficionados to do? I guess they just have to hold their breath until Garth Brooks comes back and cuts a rap album.
May 29, 2014 @ 11:26 am
You bring up a very good point, the AIDS comment notwithstanding.
Country music spent roughly a quarter century borrowing ever so increasingly from rock, and darn near half a century borrowing from pop to grow and stay relevant. Yet it took country music roughly three years for rap to become dominant in the genre, a 6 months to fully integrate EDM to where now it’s commonplace in most “country” songs. The next question becomes, where does country go from here? They’ll have played out the entire deck of ripping off other genres in the span of Obama’s 2nd term, and since artists and label owners are bad mouthing the traditional sounds of country music, they really don’t have a right to return to it. It all looks like the latter stages of a genre implosion. (See: rock music).
May 29, 2014 @ 11:46 am
Hey, its just a guess. Its either that, or he’s been hanging out with Jeremy Mayfield….
May 29, 2014 @ 12:13 pm
The Accidental Dubstepper….
May 30, 2014 @ 5:24 pm
“Integration” into rap carries the connotation that this is two sided. It is not. Rap has not embraced country music. They, like so many lending their services to country music, is cashing country music checks.
May 29, 2014 @ 2:13 pm
Is it true Tim McGraw has AIDS ? We thought he looked quite unhealthy watching him perform several weeks ago ….like he’d aged very quickly ?
May 29, 2014 @ 2:32 pm
It was a joke, but he does look horrible. He can’t weigh more than 150 pounds and looks sick and tired. Supposedly he gave up the bottle, but who knows. He is a pale shadow of his former self.
May 30, 2014 @ 11:12 am
He’s actually a pretty tan shadow of his former self.
May 30, 2014 @ 11:19 am
Touche. Its probably just his liver shutting down.
May 29, 2014 @ 10:10 am
I’d bash the instruments of any of my Bluegrass buddies who think like that.
May 29, 2014 @ 10:18 am
LOL “”¦and I swear, if anyone says, “Yeah, but he”™s a really great guitar player,” I”™m going to personally come to your house and urinate on your furniture.”
Great stuff, Trig!
May 29, 2014 @ 10:24 am
Okay, let’s pause for a second here.
Yes, given whatever the hell Jerrod Niemann was doing on ‘High Noon’, there is reason to be concerned – but at the same time, just because Brad Paisley is bringing elements of EDM and dubstep onto the album doesn’t mean it’s automatically going to blow.
Why? Well, partially because this is Brad Paisley – he hasn’t made ‘traditional’ country music for nearly a decade and he’s clearly looking to push the genre as far as he possibly can – like it or not, he’s bored of traditional country and has been for some time now. This isn’t so much of a betrayal as an inevitability. In my opinion, he mostly made things work on ‘Wheelhouse’ – an album that featured all types of stylistic flourishes that were the furthest thing from traditional country. And sure, not all of them worked at all – ‘Accidental Racist’ – but I’m not going to hammer on Paisley for experimenting, especially considering he’s the primary creative songwriter behind all of his material. And yes, he’s a good songwriter and guitarist – that does become relevant here.
Because let’s face it, there’s been a lot of genre hopping in country this year, and how well those albums worked depended less on the genre shift itself and more on the songwriting and execution. Sturgill Simpson went psychedelic and it paid huge dividends because he had a firm grasp on what he was doing and went all the way. Eric Church went towards progressive metal halfway, and the confused direction of the album eventually degenerated into an over-ambitious mess.
So when Brad Paisley said he’s making an EDM-inspired album, my first question comes to the producers and collaborators he’s going to be working with, because I bet if he’s going to do this, he wants to do it right. I’d place money on Kesha showing up on the record thanks to her own country roots, her natural affinity for genre hopping, the fact ‘Timber’ exists, and that she’s going to be a mentor on the same reality show Paisley’s doing. I’d also bet on Avicii showing up on the record in some form – and as much as I don’t think he’s a great EDM producer, he’s got a solid grasp of Americana driven beats and he’s a solid melodic composer.
Outside of that… well, Paisley will be charting new territory, and up until I hear it, I’m willing to place a degree of faith that he won’t fuck it up royally. Of the mainstream country musicians who experiment, he’s got one of the better track records.
May 29, 2014 @ 11:30 am
I agree that just because he’s using EDM influences doesn’t mean it’s going to be bad. And it may only be a few songs (his first single is a pretty standard summer/radio song). Don’t count on Avicii being on it though, or even Kesha. Avicii right now is one of the biggest EDM names in the world right now and is touring the world playing clubs, festivals and working on a sophomore album thats not going to be bluegrass/american influenced.
May 29, 2014 @ 11:34 am
Not saying I won’t give it a listen Mark, and if it’s good, I’ll have no problem saying so. I also don’t think that it’s out of the realm of possibility that someone can mix country and EDM and have it be something worthy of ears. But it’s those “No rules” remarks that are especially troubling; the fact that he wants to mix “traditional country” with EDM, but basically tells us the foundations of traditional country are bunk. That’s the problem with most of these mainstream cross-genre mashups. They basically take one genre they have no respect for, add in another genre they’re a novice at, and the end result is garbage that they sell as being “evolved” simply because it’s different.
The reasons that Sturgill Simpson worked is because he came from a position of both respect and proficiency for the sounds he wanted to integrate.
May 29, 2014 @ 11:43 am
Mickey Newbury was writing “psychedelic” country songs 45 years ago, and blending country with rock. I don’t think that Sturgill Simpson was breaking new ground from that perspective. Its just a damn good song and damn good album. If you look at Skynyrd’s more obscure album tracks and unreleased (at the time) songs, some of their best work is genre-bending, moving from rock into blues, covering Merle Haggard, and stripping it all down into a string band sound. Some of their later tracks were almost pre-metal… All of those genres are related in one way or another.
May 29, 2014 @ 5:05 pm
This is kind of like when I get sent YouTube videos of YouTube stars and people say, “OMG! He is so funny. Watch this.” And I watch it and it is just some kid being random for the sake of random EVERY TIME. Monty Python are pretty much the KINGS of random comedy for me so I admit I am jaded, or maybe have refined tastes is a better word. But itf feels like the same to me with country music. And I agree calling something something country music when it has no inkling of the traditions of the genre left is pretty much like Fanny Mae lying about home loans.
I also think this mono-genreing is an easy way for some people who don’t like country to claim they do to seem more open-hearted in their music taste but when I sit them down and play them Jean Shephard tor Joe Maphis or even Jessi Coulter they almost always say, “This sounds old.”
And the way I translate this is: “This sounds country”. And they don’t like it.
May 30, 2014 @ 9:44 am
But it”™s those “No rules” remarks that are especially troubling
Yep. When you hear people talking about “no rules,” “no limits,” or “no genres,” it’s always, without exception, going to be used to justify their selling out and getting away from what made them so beloved in the first place ”” if not right then, then eventually. From the sounds of it, Paisley’s not wasting any time doing it.
May 29, 2014 @ 12:42 pm
Experiment on your down time. Release it on an album when you have a grasp on it.
The problem with incorporating EDM and hip-hop elements into country isn’t that they’re experimenting, it’s that they suck. These artists do not understand EDM, they do not understand hiphop. FGL’s understanding of hiphop extends as far as cliches like “this is how we roll” etc. They know nothing of sampling, crate digging, rapping with flow, making rhythm with your mouth, clever wordplay and obscure references.
Brad Paisley’s most recent efforts give me no hope that this will turn out well. His songwriting has progressively dived off a steep slope. I would love to meet a sucker to make a bet on how many horrid and uncreative bad puns Paisley will write into the average song on his new album. Paisley, you are no Roger Miller. Either stop with the puns, or get better at it. Or if that bet doesn’t look attractive, give me a day to come up with the most cliche and stereotypical phrases associated with hiphop and EDM and we’ll see how many of them make it onto the new album.
Country musicians, have you heard that saying “jack of all trades, master of none”? Do what ever you want but don’t leverage country radio to finance your amateur EDM efforts.
I do not need to wait and see how bad this album will be. It will suck. Paisley is not qualified to conduct this “experiment”.
May 29, 2014 @ 1:31 pm
“The problem with incorporating EDM and hip-hop elements into country isn”™t that they”™re experimenting, it”™s that they suck. These artists do not understand EDM, they do not understand hiphop. FGL”™s understanding of hiphop extends as far as cliches like “this is how we roll” etc. They know nothing of sampling, crate digging, rapping with flow, making rhythm with your mouth, clever wordplay and obscure references.”
You just hit the nail on the head.
All the complaints about pop country over the years, at least the music and songwriting used to be decent, if not to everyone’s taste.
This EDM-hip-hop hybrid stuff thats saturating the market these days is just… bad.
May 29, 2014 @ 12:45 pm
Of course it will blow! EDM has absofuckinglutely no place in Country Music!
May 29, 2014 @ 2:07 pm
The issue isn’t that the music will definitely be bad.
It’s that the biggest artist of the past 10-15 years, an artist who’d held fairly true to country roots, at least for the most part, is jumping ship and joining ranks with the McGraws, Bryans, and Neimanns of the world.
Brad Paisley has more talent in a fingernail than all three of those artists combined, so why should he waste it on incorporating inferior genres into a superior musical format?
May 29, 2014 @ 2:28 pm
McGraw should not be lumped in with Byran or Niemann either.
May 29, 2014 @ 10:24 pm
You know what? You’re right, because he sold out way harder than either of them.
May 30, 2014 @ 1:09 am
When Brad first came out back in ’99, with his rinestone jackets and cowboy hats, talking about how all he ever wanted to be was “Country”, I believed him. After all, his first two albums were pretty darn good for that time, and he covered Buck, Vern, Don, and George in his live shows. He gave me a little bit of hope that Country Music might get back on track. From his third album til now, his lyrics have gotten cornier and cornier, and the arrangements have sounded more and more Pop. This guy has been a huge letdown for me.
Brad actually reminds me of a place in the Bible where Jesus was rebuking the religious hypocrites of that time, telling them that, “they praised God with their lips, but their hearts and actions were far from him”. Brad Paisley is quick to praise Country Music and it’s legends with his lips, but his heart is far from it/them.
May 29, 2014 @ 10:24 am
I’m sure Brad’s doing this is because the unwashed masses will buy it, radio will play it, and advertisers will license it. It’s vile and vulgar but I understand the reasoning. If there was a huge market for our music none of this would be happening, but money talks and we’re the odd ducks out. Remember when classical music was massive? It wasn’t that long ago, people went to the theater, it was big news when a new conductor was hired for the symphony, there was a big section devoted to it at the record store (remember those?) We’re the new classical music, slowly being marginalized by a society of boobs.
The only way to combat it is to spend your money better by supporting artists who get it, and thanks to this website and many others we all have a venue to get the word out on artists who are still fighting the good fight.
May 29, 2014 @ 10:25 am
I really hoped this was going to be a parody peice…
Like (I think) you mentioned before, Brad seems bored. If he wasn’t worried about record labels and Billboard rankings and so forth, I believe he would switch genres simply for something else to do.
I think he’d make some wonderful bluegrass if he was surrounded by the right players.
May 29, 2014 @ 12:17 pm
You mean like this? “Life’s Railway to Heaven”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iI1yCKCkNHY. It isn’t quite the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, but you’re probably right about him putting out a decent bluegrass piece.
May 29, 2014 @ 10:31 am
I can see an “I’m Gonna Miss Her” parody about Brad going EDM:
“Well I love her but I love dubstep
Spend all day dropping bass and hell is all I catch…”
May 29, 2014 @ 10:41 am
I’ve been a Brad Paisley fan and defender for years, but not anymore. After hearing the single “River Bank,” I knew he was heading in the wrong direction (and I rightly ripped through that song on my own blog). And then I read those quotes above in Billboard and that destroyed any faith I have in his next album being good. Sure he could make EDM work like Mark suggested above, but I’m not confident that he will. I understand Brad is bored. But that doesn’t mean destroying your credibility by following the mainstream crowd. Brad’s fan base seems split on “River Bank.” Some say it’s a great song and “return to his old sound” (?) and then there’s people like me who feel like he has “sold out.” I don’t why he couldn’t experiment like Zac Brown Band is with Dave Grohl. Rock country sounds better than EDM country.
May 29, 2014 @ 11:32 am
The Grohl Sessions Vol 1 was fantastic. Loved all four songs.
May 29, 2014 @ 11:38 am
It used to be artists were more scared of eroding the legacy they spent their entire years creating by jumping the shark or selling out their principles than they were of being put out to pasture by the industry. They lack of that fear is what is leading to these unfortunate decisions by artists like Tim McGraw, Jerrod Niemann, and potentially Brad Paisley.
July 10, 2014 @ 11:59 am
I”™ve been a Brad Paisley fan and defender for years, but not anymore. After hearing the single “River Bank,” I knew he was heading in the wrong direction (and I rightly ripped through that song on my own blog). And then I read those quotes above in Billboard and that destroyed any faith I have in his next album being good. Sure he could make EDM work like Mark suggested above, but I”™m not confident that he will. I understand Brad is bored. But that doesn”™t mean destroying your credibility by following the mainstream crowd. Brad”™s fan base seems split on “River Bank.” Some say it”™s a great song and “return to his old sound” (?) and then there”™s people like me who feel like he has “sold out.” I don”™t why he couldn”™t experiment like Zac Brown Band is with Dave Grohl. Rock country sounds better than EDM country.
I’m a Paisley fan as well and while he’s nowhere near a favorite, one used to be able to count on him for quality country with a hint of pop. The level of respect he used to show to classic songs and performers was downright invigorating and made it hard to hate him, even if a song here and there was annoying to the ears (for me it’d be “The World” or “Ticks”). Not that I claim to be anything resembling a psychic, but I knew from the sound of “Southern Comfort Zone” and the press releases surrounding Wheelhouse that Brad had changed his heading for a new direction. I wasn’t personally impressed by that offering but it also wasn’t anywhere near as offensive to the ears as I was expecting, it just struck me as a bit misguided (I always liken it to Eric Church’s The Outsiders).
As for a “return to his old sound,” I have a theory on that. It seems to me that there are two types of knee-jerk reactions; though negative ones tend to be what is associated with the expression, there are also positive ones as well. I think when someone hears a song and likes it they’re quick to give it praise, however unfounded or shallow it might be at the time (i.e. they didn’t think it through very much). So, having heard “River Bank” and liking or loving it in a similar manner as some of Paisley’s older material or just liking it in general, people throw out the “back to their roots” comments. I myself am a huge Big & Rich fan and the same thing happened with their most recent single called “Look at You.” I myself like the song but was also disappointed with it, as the lyrics and arrangement are much more atypical than anything else that the duo has sent to the radio (with the possible exception of “Lost in this Moment”). It’s a nostalgia ballad about a girl with blue eyes and blonde hair with a hip hop beat intro that mentions a truck and drinking. Regardless of one’s opinion of B&R, one thing their music has NEVER been is vanilla, which is exactly what this is. Imagine my surprise when I start reading reactions from other fans in which they start dropping such praise as the song being a return to their “classic sound,” just like with Mr. Paisley. It’s quite baffling, to say the least.
May 29, 2014 @ 10:41 am
“”¦and I swear, if anyone says, “Yeah, but he”™s a really great guitar player,” I”™m going to personally come to your house and urinate on your furniture.”
Truth is, he’s a horrible guitar player. All he does is try to cram 80 notes into a one bar of space. Talk to any REALLY GOOD guitar player and they’ll say that he’s terrible.
May 29, 2014 @ 11:47 am
There is a video of him, Urban, Steve Wariner, Marty Stuart, and Ricky Skaggs doing Working Man Blues at the Opry. Paisley’s solo spot was the worst of the 5 by far and you could tell he was trying. Urban wasn’t far behind. The other 3? Nailed it like the legends they are.
May 29, 2014 @ 11:55 am
“Truth is, he”™s a horrible guitar player. All he does is try to cram 80 notes into a one bar of space. Talk to any REALLY GOOD guitar player and they”™ll say that he”™s terrible.”
“Horrible” is a strong word .” Overrated” isn’t…. and that’s closer to the truth where Brad’s guitar playing is concerned .
He’s more than competent , he’s skilled and can even approach ‘interesting” at times . But he is sloppy and doesn’t seem to have a sense of how to just PLAY THE SONG and not the notes …( all those NOTES , for God’s sakes ) A good songwriter marries lyric to music effectively . This is called Prosody . A good instrumentalist will do the same . You need to play the song …not just the notes. Brad’s guitar pyrotechnics live are more than just ‘over the top ‘ …..they are too loud , too busy , to self-obsessed and more often than not just WRONG for the context . I’m happy to read that someone else understands this about Brad’s playing .
May 29, 2014 @ 11:58 am
Thank you! I do think he’s talented on the Tele, but nothing he’s ever done on the guitar has ever really moved me. I find his playing style real annoying.
June 1, 2014 @ 12:30 pm
His solos all sound the same to me these days ….. I can spot a Paisley solo after just a few notes. I think he prerecords loads of them in advance and just pulls the tape off the shelf and says to the engineers, “Just stick that one in after the second chorus”, and then he farms any spares out to his mates as “guest appearances”!!
May 29, 2014 @ 12:49 pm
Agreed. Technically he has abilities but his style is emotionless and devoid of soul.
He’d make a good mimic, just give him the notes to play and tell him to stick to the script. I saw him do a tribute to Jerry Reed and was very impressed with him pulling it off, because he was mimicing Reed. Compare that to his efforts on Working Man’s Blues, which suck because he was trying to interpret. A good watch is him and Vince Gill presenting Working Man’s Blues at the Kennedy Honors. Brad injected two tons of flash into his guitar solo and it ended up a hot mess that made Haggard grimace. Vince came out and lit a fire that had the whole audience hot and bothered.
May 29, 2014 @ 2:09 pm
Speaking of Vince Gill’s talent on the guitar, he does fantastic guitar work on the “Midnight Rider” cover on the Allman Brothers tribute album. He has a solo at the end that knocked my socks off.
June 2, 2014 @ 4:13 pm
As another reader said, “horrible” is a strong word.. and dare I say, completely incorrect. Brad is incredibly talented as a player. His approach, however, has little (if any) place in country music, and is overbearing most of the time. But horrible? No way.
In all honesty, in an era that lacks proper guitar heroes, I do appreciate Paisley. Most of the nameable touring boys out there now can barely handle the four open chords they are required to play two or three times a night. (And I don’t mean the hired guns that back them). I know country is “three chords and the truth”, but I tip my hat to the guys that can do it all.
May 29, 2014 @ 11:01 am
When I first came across that Billboard article, my first thought was, “Son, I am disappoint.” O_O
It’s one thing to push and challenge yourself, to experiment and expand your sound; but just giving in to the fashionable nonsense of the day is quite another.
May 29, 2014 @ 11:08 am
This is rather disappointing. However, Paisley’s first song isn’t bad like what we have seen before in country music.
Who knows? When the album is released, and if it is crap like the rest of the EDM/Country herd, then I’ll leave my batton as a Brad Paisley fan. Until then, I’m leaving some bits of hope that the guy doesn’t sell out
Call me naive if you want, but I still think Brad Paisley knows better than the rest.
May 31, 2014 @ 9:06 am
However, Paisley”™s first song isn”™t bad like what we have seen before in country music.
Really? I thought it was right up there (or down there, whichever) with all the crap Trigger’s been ripping the last couple of years.
May 29, 2014 @ 11:22 am
I have always wanted to agree with and promote the whole “but he’s a great guitar player” angle for Brad, but I really can’t stomach anything put out on the “top 40” level. I tried for five minutes but I had to cleanse my mind by listening to some French Canadian station for twenty minutes of the assault on my country music lovin’ senses. If Brad wants to hear some amazing banjo sounds he should pick up a Roscoe Holcomb album.
May 29, 2014 @ 11:36 am
Saw the title and was really hoping this was going to be a joke article. Disappointing, because Brad use to make some really good music.
May 29, 2014 @ 11:37 am
“Welcome to Doucheville”, with open arms Mr. Paisley is greated by new best friends FGL, Luke Brian etc, etc……”You might as well put your guitar away you won’t be needing that anymore”
It’s a shame to think that Paisley has one of the best and talented road bands, and they are now going to get turned down EVEN MORE in the mix!
May 29, 2014 @ 11:38 am
When I first heard these comments played over on the late night After Midnight with Cody Allan, I was disappointed. I was actually hoping “Moonshine in the truck” was going to be ironic. I had hoped it would be Brad being a comedian and making fun of those types of songs. Until I heard he was going EDM. Then my heart sank. I have always liked Brad’s music. He has been one of the mainstream country artists I have enjoyed since I got into country. Yes he experiments with his music. But I think going in the EDM direction is a huge mistake. It reeks of jumping on the band wagon to put something out there that will sell and make him more millions.
May 29, 2014 @ 11:49 am
The sad thing is, he doesn’t HAVE to do an album like this. It’s not like he doesn’t have the talent to do better stuff. Truth is, though, I quit following him after the American Saturday Night album, or whatever it was called. I didn’t even bother to listen to Wheelhouse, either. His songs just all sound the same to me, anymore.
I think it would be great if he would do something similar to what Alan Jackson did with “Under the Influence”, but I don’t see it happening.
May 29, 2014 @ 12:26 pm
All things considered. American Saturday Night was a pretty good album. Was it traditional country? Not in the slightest, but it was well made and I’d be remiss if I started going around saying it was bad. At least there was a thematic point to the cross-genre influences on that album, as opposed to trend-chasing (there also weren’t any laundry list songs).
May 29, 2014 @ 11:52 am
I used to defend Paisley’s cheesy stuff based on him wanting to be like Jerry Reed and Roger Miller. Now not so much. It seems like in the last maybe 4 albums he’s incapable of not just being a novelty artist.
May 29, 2014 @ 12:01 pm
There’s nothing wrong with Brad Paisley wanting to make an EDM-influenced record. I don’t what county+EDM would sound like, but if done well, maybe it’ll work. The album would not be a pure country album and that’s OK. Music has to evolve. Some artists have to try new things and make mistakes in order for the next generations to get it right.
And frankly, now that we are discussing the mix of country music with other genres, I think Taylor Swift, a pop artist with prominent country influences, makes better music than any of these mainstream country artists because I don’t like the general sound of mainstream country (yeah, I don’t consider Taylor Swift a mainstream country artist because I don’t even consider her country).
May 29, 2014 @ 12:28 pm
I think you have that backwards. Even when her music still had a slight twang to it, she always struck me as a country artist with prominent pop influences, not the other way around. Then “Love Story” came out and all but confirmed it for my ears.
May 29, 2014 @ 12:39 pm
We already know what blending country and EDM sounds like:
And yes, Taylor Swift is better.
May 29, 2014 @ 3:20 pm
This is a song from the same guy who brought us “What Do You Want” and “I Hope You Get What You Deserve.” It’d be laughable if it weren’t so depressing.
June 1, 2014 @ 11:35 am
Trigger, I swear you have a soft spot for this girl. Brad is a better singer, and a better musician, than Taylor. I am not happy with everything that Brad has done in his music career. My main complaint is that he is a follower and he changes his style to try to be popular. Taylor on the other hand has the fame, and the self confidence, to do something different from the rest of the crowd if she wants to. But still she chooses to put pop and EDM sounds into her music (I wonder why, might the almighty dollar have something to do with it?). She had EDM influences in her music before Brad and most of the other male pop country artists did.
June 2, 2014 @ 5:43 pm
I don’t know if it ever occurred to you that Taylor Swift might be putting pop influences in her music because *drum roll* that’s the kind of music she wants to make, music that combines elements of both country and pop music! *gasp* Well, that’s the kind of music she’s been making since Day 1. The fact that the country to pop ratio differs from an album to another doesn’t change the fact that her music has always been country-pop. If she wanted to make traditional country music, she could have, and she certainly has enough success/commercial power by now to go fully country if she likes to…But maybe she doesn’t like to?
May 29, 2014 @ 12:54 pm
Your a funny guy!
“There”™s nothing wrong with Brad Paisley wanting to make an EDM-influenced record”
Ha ha ha ha, I almost pissed my pants, unless your serious then you may want to consult a physician and remit from operating machinery.
May 30, 2014 @ 2:38 pm
Why so rude? It’s just my opinion. You don’t have to agree, but at least disagree respectfully. And yes, I stand by what I said, there’s nothing wrong with Brad Paisley want to make an EDM-influenced record. He’s first and foremost an artist, not a country artist. Genre comes second to artistry in my opinion. If an artist feel like they want to make a record influenced by a genre of music that isn’t the one they usually perform/make, then they should go for it. Artists shouldn’t let genres limit them.
May 30, 2014 @ 3:17 pm
This site is called Saving Country Music, if you enjoy the awful sounds of hip hop and rap mixed with this new shitty so called country music thats fine, but leave your comments on Destroying County Music’s site. The reason the people here bash this dribble is because we ARE Country music fans and EDM has no fucking place in Country music.
May 30, 2014 @ 5:14 pm
The problem with your whole “music must evolve” argument is that this is not evolution. This is a complete disrespect for tradition and destruction of the music we hold dear. And we are not going to stand idly by and let it happen. We will fight it, and we will fight you and your ilk, to the very end!!!
May 31, 2014 @ 7:52 am
I’m open to the evolution of a genre if it’s artistically driven. I am highly skeptical of this being an artistic decision by Brad Paisley. Rather, I think he’s probably following an industry trend in an attempt to stay “relevant.”
May 29, 2014 @ 12:22 pm
Not trying to stir the pot too much, because I think this will be awful, but didn’t Sturgill Simpson basically say the exact same thing about Metamodern Sounds?
During our hourlong conversation, Simpson claimed that he attempted to introduce an EDM influence into his music during Metamodern Sounds”™s most bruising passages, only with “real” or standard country instrumentation re-creating those wubby drops. (“I don”™t want to piss people off, but I think Skrillex is great,” he said with a conspiratorial grin.)
http://grantland.com/hollywood-prospectus/the-new-age-outlaw-country-of-lydia-loveless-and-sturgill-simpson/
May 29, 2014 @ 12:58 pm
Not even close. The EDM in discussion here is the hip hop boom boom shitty fucking rapper/dance music loops. I don’t recall hearing anything relatively close on Metamodern sounds.
May 29, 2014 @ 2:31 pm
I listened to all of the songs on “Metamodern Sounds” and did not detect any audible use of EDM. The maximum extent to which the album deviated from country was with a rock sound on some of the songs.
May 30, 2014 @ 4:09 am
…and since no one has heard any of Paisley’s music yet, we can’t really compare apples to apples. We can only compare quotes and stated intent – which seem to be identical between Brad and Sturgill.
May 30, 2014 @ 4:43 am
Fair point, but when the lead single from the album sounds as bad as it does, that’s not a good sign. At all.
May 29, 2014 @ 12:38 pm
Is it bad that I rolled up to this post with respect for Brad Paisley and just a few paragraphs later, have almost none left?
Dammit, Brad. Unlike the majority of your peers, we KNOW that you love classic country and respect the genre. We get it; you’ve essentially conquered country music. But don’t destroy it, please. It’s funny in a sad way that just one album ago, Brad released This is Country Music. It’s hard not to look back on that album with a sense of irony now that we’ve seen where he ended up. Essentially, I guess with that album he’s said all he has to say on real country music (even if it was still a bit poppy). Wheelhouse shook my faith in the man but it didn’t destroy it, even though deep down I knew that he wouldn’t ever return to his older sound. For some reason, pop country never regresses, it just finds newer ways to remind us of how terrible the majority of it is.
This announcement makes me want to go sell my Brad albums, even the ones I DO like/love, just because of how disappointing it is. What happened to the artist that made albums like Part II, Brad? Do you remember the song called “Too Country” off of that work? Maybe instead of writing letters to your past self, you should have written one to your future self in warning. Heck, if you were going to do this why didn’t you just retire like Garth instead of going all Chris Gaines on us?
May 29, 2014 @ 3:25 pm
What happened to the artist that made albums like Part II, Brad? Do you remember the song called “Too Country” off of that work?
Oh my hell, Acca Dacca, I ask myself that question every damn day anymore. No lie. I hear what he’s doing now, and I think of Part II, and wonder, where the hell did the Brad Paisley who made THAT cd go? The title track, “Too Country,” “I Wish You’d Stay,” all of those songs were great. I even liked “Munster Rag,” the instrumental track on there. And “The Old Rugged Cross,” with just him and his guitar at the Grand Ole Opry”¦that song was freaking transcendent to my ears at the time, and it still gets me. Such potential and talent, and he pissed it all away in an effort to show he’s more “open-minded” than anyone else.
May 29, 2014 @ 3:18 pm
Even with tracks like “Accidental Racist,” I still found “Wheelhouse” to be an overall satisfying album due to some truly spectacular album cuts. Up until now, while a lot of his singles have leaned toward comedic efforts, overall, he’s still managed to put out relatively solid modern country…not exactly traditional, but he never seemed to go the full pop route.
But this? EDM? Seriously?
Come on, Brad, put out another album like “Who Needs Pictures” or “Part II.” Something simple and truly country. I understand the desire to experiment with sound, but EDM? That’s not experimenting, Brad, that’s flat out just changing the sound altogether.
May 29, 2014 @ 4:35 pm
At the core of any country song worth playing or singing across generations is ” three chords and the truth”. That isn’t just a catchy phrase for a T-shirt or ball cap . Its a time-honored distillation of what makes a great country song . Not ‘ three , four or six chords and a modulation buried under heaps of trendy effects , boutique guitar pedals , auto-tuned everything , drum loops , fruit loops, or Marshall stacks hiding the fact that there’s no truth there to begin with . No amount of promotion , technological magic , stage volume or sexy presentation can hide the fact that you have NOTHING to say with your 3 minutes and change of airtime or stage time and eventually THAT fact will be your undoing …not fate ,finicky fans , fashion faux paus or even critics ( sp ) . EDM , Hick-Hop , Bro-Country Rap-Country , Baby Country …..none of it will have any sustainability 5 minutes after its last radio spin if it has nothing to say . And that’s a GOOD thing.
May 29, 2014 @ 4:51 pm
I think Brad Paisley is just bored at this point. I mean, he had ten consecutive number-one singles (17 consecutive top-two singles, 19 if you discount the bastard country chart), 7 number one albums and is on the back end of his career. He’s basically done everything you can in country music without getting a single mainstream pop radio hit or number-one Billboard 200 album. I think he wants to mess around with stuff and doesn’t really care about how it charts – just look at this recent single choices. His last two singles from Wheelhouse didn’t even go top 15.
May 30, 2014 @ 12:11 pm
I think Brad Paisley is just bored at this point….He”™s basically done everything you can in country music without getting a single mainstream pop radio hit or number-one Billboard 200 album.
I would absolutely agree that Paisley’s bored with country music, but I don’t think that justifies what he may be doing with this album. (Not saying you do think it, Eric, just an observation on my part.) If Paisley’s bored with country music maybe he should just step away from it until he’s not bored anymore instead of aiding and abetting in the bastardization of it.
And yeah, maybe Brad Paisley has accomplished a lot ”” but then George Strait and Alan Jackson have both accomplished everything he has and then some (including Billboard 200 No. 1 albums), but you never saw either of them resorting to these types of shenanigans.
July 10, 2014 @ 11:42 am
I don’t know about him “not caring” how his music charts. I think Wheelhouse underperformed according to his own expectations. The proof is in the reality of the situation: his last two singles didn’t go top ten. Now, for the first time in YEARS, he’s put out another album just over 12 months after his last (and if we’re being technical, the only other times he has EVER done this are with a Christmas album, a instrumental album “experiment” and a hits compilation/live album, but never two standard studio works back-to-back). Next, with this new album he’s started announcing in a cryptic way that he’s essentially following trends. It’s hard for me to imagine an artist as successful as Paisley worrying about his status in the industry, particularly since he seems to easy going and personable, but he might very well be. He’s been on top of the mainstream country crop for years at this point and I don’t think any of his singles have missed the top 15 since his first two albums.
May 29, 2014 @ 5:08 pm
I liked this guy, for a long time. Yeah, Brad was making commercial music, but he had talent and chops. I was willing to cut him some slack. But after a while it grew tiresome, one album after another following the same formula. Artistic growth? Sadly, not for Paisley. Sometimes an artist sell out so eagerly that there’s no hope for reclamation and redemption, and I think that’s the case with Brad Paisley. EDM is just the last straw. He’ll be lucky to rebuild his career in Branson.
May 29, 2014 @ 5:52 pm
This has nothing (or maybe everything) to do with article at hand, but I just found the following ironic:
When I clicked on this article, I just happened to listening to Y&T’s 1981 record Earthshaker. Why is this ironic? Because Dave Meniketti is one of the best combo vocalist/guitarists around and he’s stayed true to his roots for 30+ years.
Save for the unfortunate “Summertime Girls” Y&T has put out consistent hard rock music over the years. While never all that popular, Dave has stuck to his guns and has a very loyal following. There’s something to be said for longevity and a loyal following.
Just for grins, while typing this, I put on the most recent Y&T studio record from 2010. Dave’s voice is a little worse for the wear, but the chops are there and there’s no rap/edm/country/pop/etc. It’s all rock and all Y&T.
That is all, carry on.
May 29, 2014 @ 7:02 pm
TCS, that’s one of the reasons I am so much into metal anymore: the folks who do it are who they are and they’re not ashamed of their genre.
Well, except for Geoff Tate, but THAT’S a whole ‘nother story. 😀
May 29, 2014 @ 9:38 pm
And here I always thought Brad would be one of the only super pop country stars to hold out and continue to make something half decent.
May 30, 2014 @ 6:01 am
Well at least he isn’t trying to be sneaky about it and he is straight up saying ‘EDM and country’. I gave up on the radio a bit ago. At first I was like ‘no one can actually like this stuff. It’s worse than regular pop music.’ Then I talked to my ‘country’ loving friends and they just think it’s the best.
What’s really funny though is I remember reading a Paisley interview a while back where he complained about music being too perfect with every kick exactly on beat thanks to computers and now he is using EDM stuff which will always be edited to be exactly in time or else it wont work.
May 30, 2014 @ 6:17 am
Maybe he’ll “swing” the quantization for that “natural feel”
May 30, 2014 @ 6:07 am
Whoaaaaa.
“”¦and I swear, if anyone says, “Yeah, but he”™s a really great guitar player,” I”™m going to personally come to your house and urinate on your furniture.”
I have been calling Paisley out for sometime now for his “commercial jingles” he calls songs. His formula, pick a word and write a song about it….ticks, water, alcohol, future….list goes on and on.
But Trigger, you have responded verbatim, that Paisley is a great guitar player and suggested that gives him a pass and somehow he is bored or pigeon holed into the music he does.
Paisley is a good guitar player, but so are many others….as a singer/songwriter, I think he is a hack. His boy next door looks got him his payday.
May 31, 2014 @ 12:58 pm
But Trigger, you have responded verbatim, that Paisley is a great guitar player and suggested that gives him a pass and somehow he is bored or pigeon holed into the music he does.
I don’t know how anyone could have interpreted Trigger’s statement there that way, as that was the complete opposite of what he was getting at, but okay…
May 30, 2014 @ 6:09 am
When Brad first came out back in ”™99, with his rinestone jackets and cowboy hats, talking about how all he ever wanted to be was “Country”, I believed him. After all, his first two albums were pretty darn good for that time, and he covered Buck, Vern, Don, and George in his live shows. He gave me a little bit of hope that Country Music might get back on track. From his third album til now, his lyrics have gotten cornier and cornier, and the arrangements have sounded more and more Pop. This guy has been a huge letdown for me.
Brad actually reminds me of a place in the Bible where Jesus was rebuking the religious hypocrites of that time, telling them that, “they praised God with their lips, but their hearts and actions were far from him”. Brad Paisley is quick to praise Country Music and it”™s legends with his lips, but his heart is far from it/them.
May 30, 2014 @ 6:16 am
Brad Paisley is officially a sell out. I liked all his stuff up to and including ‘This is country Music’ .
May 30, 2014 @ 7:36 am
If new age pop (anti)country stars want to mix rap, hip hop, or EDM into their music, fine go ahead. But please, just market it to the adolescent (physically & mentally) audience that it’s meant for, and leave references to old school country (music & lifestyle) out of it. Moonshine in the Trunk. Like Bo and Luke, or Junior Johnson, or even Al Capone would listen to this while making their runs from still to warehouse/clients. Maybe a better title for your audience would be Meth in the Trailer.
May 30, 2014 @ 8:44 am
I like some EDM and I like country. But I think mixing the two genres together is a horrible idea and I’m really disappointed that Paisley is doing this. hopefully its a huge flop and hes forced to go back to his original music
May 30, 2014 @ 11:14 am
possible explanation: Brad may have seen these numbers”¦.
“The World”™s Highest Paid DJs 2013
1. Calvin Harris ($46 million)
2. Tiesto ($32 million)
3. David Guetta ($30 million)
4. Swedish House Mafia ($25 million)
5. Deadmau5 ($21 million)
6. Avicii ($20 million)
7. Afrojack ($18 million)
8. Armin van Buuren ($17 million)
9 (tie). Skrillex ($16 million)
9 (tie). Kaskade ($16 million)
11. Steve Aoki ($14 million)
12. DJ Pauly D ($13 million)
13. Diplo ($13 million)
There is something happening here
what it is aint exactly clear
May 31, 2014 @ 4:47 pm
At the risk of repeating myself from another thread , there’s a very good reason why EDM is creeping into so many genres :Ist 4 on the floor disco – YOU CAN DANCE TO IT !!! Ever since country turned its back on two steps , waltzes , shuffles …even , dare I say it , country rock grooves and that ol faithful “the Boot Scootin Boogie” and opted instead for southern rock half time grooves , NO ONE can dance to it . No one dances to rap …they shake around a bit but no one CAN dance to that stuff. And no one dances to country unless its the classics and standards . Dance-ability was a huge reason trad country was so successful in dance halls , honky- tonks and clubs for decades. EDM might just put people back on the dance floors . But then we’ve REALLY got some serious issues .
May 30, 2014 @ 11:18 am
I also maintain, that disco, which edm is just another name for, has never gone away.
I wonder/and suspect that it is the most successful music style in the history of pop in the world over the last fifty years.
sales wise that is.
Other than that it’s basically accompaniment for mating rituals.
that is a hilarious video thanks.
May 30, 2014 @ 11:48 am
Brad Paisley hasn’t cut a traditional album in years. Easton Corbin’s first two albums had a great traditional sound and yet he is seldom mentioned on this website. I think it’s time to start embracing artists like Josh Turner and Easton Corbin (though Easton’s new single is questionable).
May 30, 2014 @ 1:06 pm
I’m really looking foreword to hearing new music from easton corbin and josh turner. I think that Easton’s album will be good. If he were going to sellout he would’ve done something much worse than clockwork. I’ll give him a break on that one. Everybody needs a song for radio I guess
May 30, 2014 @ 4:25 pm
I enjoy both of these artists and they do deserve more recognition. However I didn’t like “Clockwork” from Corbin. Too pop for me. I hope his album is better. I haven’t heard anything new from Turner lately. It’s been two years since he’s put out new music, so hopefully new material is coming.
May 31, 2014 @ 12:50 pm
Unfortunately guys like Easton Corbin ( traditional subject matter , traditional vocals , great arrangements and session players ….at least until THIS new single ) are under the most pressure by labels to get serious airplay on the radio today and obviously ” Clockwork ” was an attempt at just that. Its just another homogenous ‘list song’ with no substance , no ‘fresh’ no ‘clever ‘ , no challenges for him vocally and no memory of any of it for a listener 30 seconds after it evaporates into the air . On the good side …no mention of trucks or drinking . But then again I can’t remember the lyric ..its been 35 seconds .
It doesn’t get any better than ” A Little More Country Than That “, his release from several years back .
May 31, 2014 @ 9:37 pm
Maybe it’ll be terrible, maybe it’ll be groundbreaking musical genius (har). Either way it’ll sound terrible to my ears because I don’t like EDM and I listen to country BECAUSE I don’t like stuff like EDM. I’m no stone purist; I like some pop-country like Lady Antebellum. All I know is I need actual instruments and warm, true vocals to really enjoy a song and I haven’t listened to the radio in five years. I don’t like nightclub culture, I don’t like the impersonal sound of electronic music, and I want to curl up in Alan Jackson’s hat and go to sleep til this is all over.
June 1, 2014 @ 6:29 am
“I listen to country BECAUSE I don”™t like stuff like EDM”
Amen.
The country music industry seems to be forgetting that most of the increase in popularity that it experienced in the last decade happened precisely because fans of classic pop and soft rock wanted to find an escape from modern pop.
To use a political analogy, the pop country of the last decade was to country music what Obamacare was to the Democratic Party (i.e. a dilution of principles to appeal to a broader set of interest groups while still roughly maintaining the central ideal), whereas bro-country is to country music what free trade agreements were to the Democratic Party (i.e. a complete selling out of principles and adopting the opponent’s agenda wholesale while stabbing one’s own base in the back).
June 1, 2014 @ 1:21 pm
Eric, that is a good analogy, though I think country music is more analogous to the Republican Party than the Democratic Party.
Mainstream pop country is similar to the Republican country club establishment, which has become increasingly dependent on government programs, causing them to gradually become more like Democrats. Traditional country is analogous to the religious right and Tea Party conservatives. Americana and “alt country” plays the role of the libertarians – they have appealing ideas and can be a breath of fresh air, but have not gained much mainstream acceptance.
Taylor Swift was a country artist in about the same way that Charlie Crist and Arlen Specter were Republicans.
Brad and Carrie are compromisers who follow the mainstream. They are more like Boehner and McConnell than like Obama, i.e. they go along with the pop trends in order to be relevant to pop audiences, but they are not on a mission to fundamentally transform country music. If the commercial reality had been different, if George Strait were still the best selling current artist in country music, I think Brad would be keeping it traditional.
June 1, 2014 @ 1:32 pm
Some more Republican analogies: Bro country represents minorities and immigrants. Taylor represents single young women who feel insecure and want Big Brother to protect them. Lady Antebellum represents suburban soccer moms. They all cater to pop country constituencies. And the Republican Party establishment is concerned about trying to win over each of those demographic groups, so that the party can stay relevant.
Country music traditionalists are similar to the constitutional conservatives that make up the Republican base. They have a distinct preferences that do not overlap much with the other demographic groups that the party establishment wants to reach out to. The Republican base cares more about ideology, while the Democratic base cares more about financial benefits and group identity politics. Similarly, country traditionalists care about the substance and the sound of the music, while pop country acts are more concerned about appealing to younger demographics and maximizing sales.
June 1, 2014 @ 8:08 am
Desperation.
“Don’t your feet get cold in the winter time?
The sky won’t snow and the sun won’t shine
It’s hard to tell the night time from the day
You’re losin’ all your highs and lows
Ain’t it funny how the feeling goes away?
Desperado, why don’t you come to your senses?
Come down from your fences, open the gate
It may be rainin’, but there’s a rainbow above you
You better let somebody love you, before it’s too late”
June 1, 2014 @ 9:54 am
WHAT HAPPENED TO MY COUNTRY
I grew up playin’ my guitar
To Haggard , Jones and Cash
First song I learned was “Ring of Fire”
Man I loved the Man In Black
I met my bride on the dance hall floor
We’d waltz to country songs
But they don’t write waltzes anymore
And the dance halls are all gone
What happened to my country
Can’t believe what I don’t hear
The DJs don’t play nothin
They played back in those years
They’ve forgotten all about me
And the songs I held so dear
I wish somebody’d tell me
What happened to my country
My first tour of duty
Was back in ’69
And “Okie from Muskogee”
Took me back home every time
Willie’s songs would make damn sure
She was “Always On My Mind”
And when George sang “He Stopped Lovin’ Her ”
You’d have seen a grown man cry
I know this world is changin fast
I know time marches on
But it seems those songs are all that’s left
Of the world where I came from
What happened to my country
Can’t believe what I don’t hear
The DJs don’t play nothin
They played back in those years
They’ve forgotten all about me
It’s like I’ve disappeared
I wish somebody’d tell me
What happened to my country
June 3, 2014 @ 6:44 am
Heard this track yesterday. I wish someone was there to take a picture of my expression, because I think it was somewhere between pain and embarrassment.
June 5, 2014 @ 3:43 pm
Paisley is a man of the people and a true creative artist, if he wants to experience with slight EDM effects let him! If you don’t want to listen to it or other creative artists go buy old records and sit back in your rocking chair and never turn on the radio or the television. Times are changing, sorry.