No, Pop-Punk Is Not Country Music’s Next Frontier
Hey, have I seen that piece on Pitchfork proclaiming Pop-Punk is Country Music’s Next Frontier? From the two dozen or so emails I’ve received, and the permeation of links to the story I’ve seen on social media, my guess is many of you have. Though I question how many actually took time to read it, or if they just saw the provocative title, and the incensing graphic of emo hair adorned with a cowboy hat floating in a pink background and decided it didn’t matter what the article said, the symbolism and premise was damning enough.
Look folks, pop-punk is not going to be the next frontier in country music, and to even spend time debating the finer points and nuances of that argument is already giving the idea more credence than it deserves. There is nothing “punk” about mainstream country music, whether it’s pop-punk or otherwise. There’s not really anything much country about mainstream country music at the moment either. Nor is there any significant or even minor signifyers that would seem to foretell some sort of movement in the pop-punk direction for mainstream country, big or small, including the the supposed examples asserted in the Pitchfork piece.
If anything, the examples given in the Pitchfork article point to mainstream country’s further homogenization and adherence to the monogenre where no significant influence or direction in the music can be espied whatsoever. Today’s mainstream country is just a blanket garble of electronic beats, urban annunciations, rock guitars, and possibly a country-esque lyric in one verse or the always insulting token banjo in an attempt to keep it honest to the genre. But lately, even these formalities have been deprecated for pop arrangements and mutt influences by pop producers who’ve infiltrated the country world.
Instead of being a think piece like the title implies, this Pitchfork article really is a puff piece for a very specific up-and-coming mainstream country music artist—that being second generation songwriter and performer Tucker Beathard, who is the son of Casey Beathard. The idea here is that Tucker grew up in the stately confines of Franklin, Tennessee listening to Paramore and Blink-182, and now he’s bringing those influences to country music. The only other artist even named to hold up this idea that pop-punk is country music’s next frontier is Cassadee Pope, who won The Voice half a decade ago, and whose country career has been spinning its tires for a few years now (her last single stalled at #55).
The idea that either these artists, or their music, or a few other examples cited like a 2014 Kenny Chesney single have anything to do with pop-punk is ridiculous. Is there some pop-punk influence in certain artists or singles? Sure, but only because there’s every kind of influence in everything since there are no more gatekeepers, boundaries, pure influences, roots, or even reasonable definitions to help artists or the public define what genre a song is in the mainstream. And this is about the only point the Pitchfork piece gets right.
“‘Country’ is what country labels release and country radio plays and country fans buy,” asserts the article’s author Nick Murray. “That’s why questions about what country music is—as in, what are the characteristics that make music ‘country’?—has no set answer. Yet what critics often miss, even when they reach this conclusion, is that answering the question doesn’t dissolve it. It’s an illusion to think that there’s something essential at the bottom of country music, but it’s this illusion that holds the genre together, gives it coherence.”
And that’s exactly what is so worrisome about the current state of country music. If all you have is an illusion holding country music together, and no even basic sonic parameters or identifiable sound, then you have nothing. It has been said many times before, but when rock ceased to be able to define itself, that is when it imploded as a legitimate industry and radio format. Now, the only major artists left in the rock arena are ones from past eras when the term “rock” meant something. Country music is also barreling down that same path of indefinable irrelevancy due to its desire to be all things to all people.
In fact in the Pitchfork piece, a songwriter by the name of Jonathan Singleton admits that you don’t even have to follow the most basic rules to sell a song as country anymore. “When we started, Tucker had a lot of rock songs that we were trying to figure out how they were country songs,” Singleton says of the younger Beathard. “Then we changed our thinking: He’s from Nashville and his dad’s a country songwriter, so whatever he does, maybe that is the new country. We quit trying to put acoustic guitars and banjos on there.”
So the only thing that makes Tucker Beathard’s music country is the fact that his dad is employed as a country songwriter? So knock yourself out, do whatever you want, and feel free to call it country music? Many assert this is the way of “evolution” and the rabid creative freedom of today’s country music medium. But frittering away what makes different styles of music sound different isn’t a celebration of diversity, it is the death of it.
Tucker Beathard’s one and only successful single “Rock On” is held up as an example of how country music could be headed in a pop-punk direction in the Pitchfork article, but there is little to nothing indicative of Green Day, Blink-182, or even early Paramore in this particular song. Instead, it’s indicative of every single other generic mainstream country music single sung by a male, including electronic accoutrements, the same exact drum beat Jim L. exposed as being “the beat” for today’s country hits, a rising chorus, and Ebonic phrasing of the lyrics. In fact the only reason the single reached #2 on radio is because it was a beneficiary of iHeartMedia’s “On The Verge” program.
I hate this dueling think piece business, but what Nick Murray’s Pitchfork article establishes is not that pop-punk will be in country music’s future, but that country’s future will be even more bleached of the influences and signature sounds that make country music unique in the marketplace. And if it continues down that path, country music may have no future at all except for just the symbolic name people call music that emanates from Nashville.
June 10, 2017 @ 9:24 am
That quote by that Singleton guy pretty much sums up the thinking of most in the mainstream country establishment I guess.
If your dad wrote a country song, that makes you country.
If you grew up in the south, that makes you country.
If you once attended a party in a field involving a truck, that makes you country.
It’s all superficial surfacy stuff. I guess that’s fitting for our culture circa 2017.
June 10, 2017 @ 3:48 pm
It really is. Our society just generalizes everyone nowadays.
If you voted for Trump, you’re a racist.
If you’re Muslim, you’re a terrorist.
If you’re Hispanic, you’re an illegal immigrant.
June 11, 2017 @ 1:39 pm
Yeah, I mean just because most Trump voters are inbred imbeciles, doesn’t make them racists.
And just because the overwhelming majority of terrorists are Muslim, doesn’t mean every single Muslim is a terrorist.
And since Hispanic is a classification by language, the majority of Hispanics are not Mexican.
June 11, 2017 @ 5:57 pm
Anyone remember Uncle Tupelo? I’m being facetious because I’m sure people do, but that was about as good a synthesis as country pumped through a punk aesthetic as we need. If someone wants to play in that pool they should be required to do better than UT did. Since they won’t, they should be ignored.
June 12, 2017 @ 10:08 pm
Dwight Yoakam and Jason and the Scorchers are examples of punk and country working together. No one else needs to attempt it. They did it and it’s now been done.
Pop-Punk? Who the hell would WANT to emulate such as that???
June 10, 2017 @ 9:50 am
I am always wary of hyphenated musical genre descriptions. It is usually a marketing technique for the bland and mediocre.
June 10, 2017 @ 11:01 am
As long as you make money for the label…you are country!
You are a quarter-finalist on TheAmericanVoiceTalentIdolWhatever…you will be signed by a Nashville label!
You think Jason Aldean invented country music…you are ready to become the next big superstar!
You go to the gym 7 times a week & can dance like a chippendale…here is your record contract!
Fiddle or steel-guitar? Hell no…you are a country music star!
June 10, 2017 @ 11:39 am
If you can make money, then you’re a country singer. This statement sums up most of mainstream country nowadays.
June 10, 2017 @ 11:47 am
I have a copy of Tucker’s EP in the car right now, as it ain’t that bad, but one thing that has never popped into my mind while listening to it is, “Wow, listen to all of those Weezer influences!”
As you hinted at, Trigger, and as several of my music journalists friends have said: this reads like something one of Tucker’s friends pitched to Pitchfork in an attempt to get his name out there to more people. I mean, good looking out for your friend, but I don’t know that too many people within Nashville that read this didn’t think after they were done, “…wait, what?”
While I can’t think of any off the top of my head, it wouldn’t completely shock me if there are more than a few up-and-coming mainstream acts with Paramore influences, just due in no small part if nothing else to growing up within the same zip code as much of the band. As Vince Gill told me once, if Merle Haggard was coming along now there are very slim odds that he wouldn’t have some rap influences, coming out of Bakersfield in his 20s in the year 2017. But you need some hits or some “names” for a movement to take hold in country music, and when the biggest guy in your article is only known for having a famous daddy and a decent regular spot at the Listening Room’s songwriters night…that ain’t really enough.
June 10, 2017 @ 12:19 pm
The real question is why people are still reading Pitchfork, a site that exists solely to be contrarian.
June 10, 2017 @ 12:58 pm
Not quite the case anymore. Conde Nast owns them now, and ever since it’s slowly going down the Rolling Stone route to irrelevance.
June 10, 2017 @ 12:29 pm
I saw Tucker Beathard open for Brantley and I’d already had the EP which is so so in and of itself. I don’t know how “Country” it actually is but I wouldn’t call it Pop Punk or Rock (not sure what I’d call it) never the less he was ok live, kind of boring. He came on after Luke Combs and in my opinion it should’ve been the other way around with him having only 6 songs out. Luke blew him way. A lot of these guys if their voice has even a bit of southern accent the business goofballs think “that’s good enough to get on a Country playlist” let’s sign em.
June 10, 2017 @ 1:22 pm
pitchfork’s knowledge of Country is skin-deep.
June 10, 2017 @ 11:12 pm
This is the problem with Pitchfork, Noisey, and some of these other newish and hip periodicals. They want to throw their weight around in the country music space, but they’re unwilling to commit true editorial or staff resources to the genre, and instead rely on freelancers, or writers to primarily cover other genres to report on country stuff. Ultimately what you get is flawed logic in print.
June 11, 2017 @ 8:46 am
Pitchfork lives in a strange little universe of what they think is cool. They seem to delight in covering acts no has ever heard of and then soliloquizing on how said artist is the greatest thing ever. Its ultimately a wasteland site devoid of anything useful in my world. I once sent them a rather critical email in which i went off in a scathing denunciation on their extreme narrow-mindedness and total lack of interest in covering anything people have heard of. I received in reply…crickets…
June 10, 2017 @ 1:48 pm
Bands and artists like Lucero and Hank III are about as close as country and punk get to each other, in my opinion.
June 10, 2017 @ 3:09 pm
Probably can throw Social Distorion into that mix.
June 10, 2017 @ 3:11 pm
My mind immediately went to Hank III on someone who does both country and punk lol and yeah even though I haven’t heard his songs yet I would agree with you from what I read about him.
June 10, 2017 @ 3:45 pm
You have heard Jason and the Scorchers?
June 10, 2017 @ 5:01 pm
As vast as my musical knowledge is, I’m ashamed to say I haven’t before now. About to look them up!
June 10, 2017 @ 5:03 pm
They were referred to as a Cow punk band. One of my all time favorites.
June 10, 2017 @ 6:13 pm
EVERYONE should hear Jason and the Scorchers.
June 12, 2017 @ 3:59 am
In addition to Jason and the Scorchers, who were originally named the Nashville Scorchers, I always liked the Kinman brothers and their band, Rank and File. Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rank_and_File_
June 12, 2017 @ 5:11 pm
Listening to Rank and File now. I should have been listening to them before now.
June 12, 2017 @ 5:54 am
Absolutely Sweet Marie is the all time best cover of a Dylan song that most have never heard.
June 12, 2017 @ 5:05 pm
I really like the video too.
June 10, 2017 @ 4:02 pm
When acoustic guitars do appear, they’re often drawn from unlikely sources. “We do sometimes go, ‘That Weezer song “In the Garage” has the acoustic guitar that poked over the big distorted guitars. Maybe we can do that trick,’ Singleton says. “The examples we were using were Nirvana songs and Weezer songs and Kings of Leon songs—instead of what we usually do, which is, ‘Oh, that old Tim McGraw song that does this thing, let’s do that.’”
Man, if that bit doesn’t perfectly portray the rot that has so thoroughly penetrated Music Row, I don’t know what does.
June 11, 2017 @ 2:05 am
Exactly! This quote too:
“According to Singleton, they walk this same tightrope in nearly all his work. “When we started, Tucker had a lot of rock songs that we were trying to figure out how they were country songs,” says the writer. “Then we changed our thinking: He’s from Nashville and his dad’s a country songwriter, so whatever he does, maybe that is the new country. We quit trying to put acoustic guitars and banjos on there.” ”
Could you imagine if you knew nothing about the mainstream country industry and how it works and you read this? It makes no sense – if they’re rock songs, then they’re NOT country songs. Since he’s from Nashville and his dad writes “country” songs, then whatever he does is country? Huh?
June 11, 2017 @ 10:27 am
Yeah, that really bothered me too. I would not be surprised in the least if that’s how Thomas Rhett tries to justify calling himself a country singer.
June 10, 2017 @ 5:24 pm
I think the biggest movement right now is music moving from spaces in rock, merging with authentic country. I believe this most explains the successes of guys like Isbell, Sturgill and Stapleton ( as well as many others). The more and more shows I attend of these artist the more fans I notice of, say, the Allman Brothers, Pink Floyd, Dead, etc. then cowboy hat wearing “country fans”(nothing wrong with).
As for modern country and pop punk….who cares. Call it whatever you want. “Country” radio is one of the only major radio platforms left to serve mainstream America. Rock stations are mostly classic rock playing Steve Miller and Barracuda 27 times a day. Therefore country radio is going to play whatever it takes and that will never make it country music.
June 11, 2017 @ 9:30 pm
Well the Dead and the Allmans were more country than most pop country is these days. The Bellamy Brothers summed up rock fans listening to (real) country with “Old Hippie” 30 years ago.
June 12, 2017 @ 4:58 am
No doubt… and exactly why I believe folks who like those bands, and are attracted to those rock/blues/country sounds, listen to a guy like Sturgill and say “damn this isn’t the kind country I was thinking of…..[I’m in]”
June 10, 2017 @ 6:20 pm
Jonathan singleton isn’t just a writer but was a singer too with very limited success. He had a band call Jonathan singleton and the grove. I can’t even remember a single or song so can’t be too successful.
June 12, 2017 @ 7:21 pm
Tucker Beathard co-wrote with Jonathan Singleton three of the six tracks on his fabulous EP FIGHT LIKE HELL: “Momma and Jesus,” I’ll Take On the World With You,” and “Fight Like Hell” … all excellent.
In addition, Jonathan Singleton co-wrote Tim McGraw’s “Diamond Rings and Old Barstools,” Josh Turner’s “Why Don’t We Just Dance,” David Nail’s “Let It Rain,” Tyler Farr’s “A Guy Walks Into A Bar,” Gary Allan’s “Watching Aiplanes,” and Billy Currington’s “Don’t.”
June 10, 2017 @ 7:59 pm
I mean… pop punk and country music have been bedfellows for quite a bit, I’d say. Not in the register that this article mentions but in smaller niche scenes sprinkled throughout the country. As someone mentioned above, Lucero is a good example of a band that continues to share stages, tours and festivals with pop punk bands. Not pop punk in the sense this article is using, but in the sense where the operative word is more punk than pop. Hell, even Ben Nichol’s was in a pop punk band before Lucero called Red40 which was pretty much a rip-off of early Jawbreaker.
Chad Price, co-vocalist of the alt-country band Drag the River was once the lead singer of All which is all members of the band Descendents sans Milo and they pretty much laid down the blueprint for what is now considered pop punk. And their other singer, Jon Snodgrass, has toured, shared a stage with, and released a split with Joey Cape, lead singer of the pop punk band Lagwagon.
A lot of the bands we call “alt-country” are heavily influenced by that type of pop punk and continue to share a scene with them. Just look at the line-up for now in its 16 year music festival in Gainesville, Florida, The Fest. Chuck Ragan, an alt-country musician is a founding member of influential band Hot Water Music which is closely tied with the pop punk scene.
Tim Barry plays country and was in the melodic punk band Avail. Austin Lucas, Cory Branan, Matt Woods, John Moreland, Lee Bains III… OK I’m getting to the point where I’m not naming artists who were actually *in* pop punk bands but were associated with similar scenes. To me, the punk/pop punk/hardcore scene is all-encompassing and are not necessarily separated and there is a huge contingent of artists who moved on to country music or have always fused those aforementioned styles with country for as long as they’ve been associated with it.
June 10, 2017 @ 11:18 pm
Yeah, I’ve seen a lot of folks here and other places bringing up names like Lucero and other cowpunk bands in an attempt to say, “Hey, this has been going on for years.” But that is SO far away from the type of “pop-punk” that is being portrayed by Pitchfork in this article. In fact you could consider it almost the exact opposite. They’re talking about huge mainstream arena pop-punk bands like Paramore and Blink-182. A band like Lucero is so far in the opposite direction of those bands, it shouldn’t even be brought up in this context.
June 11, 2017 @ 5:27 am
FTR, I wasn’t comparing this guy to Jason & the Scorchers in anyway. Just making an observation about the punk country thing. The bands I think of were not mixing “pop” punk with country. Another prime example was the first two Uncle Tupelo albums.
June 11, 2017 @ 7:08 am
It kinda bothered me that Paramore, Blink and Hot Chelle Rae were the examples they gave of pop-punk. Paramore and HCR have a huge pop influence and most of their discography wouldn’t even be considered pop punk.
Interesting that they didn’t mention the big pop-punk artists of today such as The Story So Far, The Menzingers, State Champs or The Wonder Years. Probably because today’s country artists have no clue who those bands are.
June 10, 2017 @ 10:31 pm
Listen to Harry Luge Band (formerly known as Harry Luge and Haywire) his music is great and he is from Phoenix, Arizona. He sounds like ross between Travis Tritt , Marty Raybon from Shenandoah, and Chris Knight. I saw him when I went to Phoenix International Raceway. I saw Harry 3 times when I go to Phoenix from California.
June 10, 2017 @ 10:34 pm
It’s cross not ross sorry about my typo. I recommend Harry Luge if you want to listen to him He sounds very good and sings good country music.
June 10, 2017 @ 10:43 pm
It’s all illusion and perception. I grew up in Utah then moved to mid-Missouri at 15 and picked up a slight/moderate accent. Went to college back in Utah and everyone assumed I was some redneck fucking cowboy even though I’d only been gone from Utah for 3 years.
Kinda pissed me off people putting me in a box cause of how I talked even though I grew up in Clearfield, UT, but the girls seemed to like it so whatever.
There were no gatekeepers, they just heard a slight accent and made assumptions. People are stupid. And I’m drunk. And still more country than Sam Hunt.
June 11, 2017 @ 7:01 am
As a pretty big pop-punk fan, this article made no sense to me. First of all, I’m surprised they identify Tucker Breathard and Cassadee Pope as trend-setters considering that neither has advanced past playing a 25 min set before Brad Paisley’s more famous opening act.
Secondly, as a guy that LOVES Saves The Day, I don’t hear any similarities between the Chesney song and Saves The Day’s music. I wish Saves The Day was influencing Chesney but I doubt he’s ever heard of them.
Basically, since pop punk was really popular 15 years ago, and many country artists were in middle or high school 15 years ago, some of them are influenced by Blink-182. That’s about all of the pop-punk influence country has. I’d add that listening to Blink doesn’t make you a pop-punk expert at all.
Also, listening to Pope and Breathard’s radio hits, I can’t find any substantial pop-punk influence. It’s just generic pop-rock mixed with a little country.
Punk and country can go great together but today’s new artists aren’t punk or country.
June 11, 2017 @ 8:18 am
This whole topic gets on my last nerve and Ive gotta vent! I am absolutely sick and tired of 20 something hipster “music journalists” or even older established music journalists who want to compare every hot new artist or trend to “punk” as if that is the singular definition of “cool”. I was just reading a review of Nikki Lanes latest album, I love Nikki lanes music! This reviewer was the throwing around the term “punk”freely, insinuating she has more in common with punk than country. Wrong on all counts! I have seen her live more than once, met her, had pictures I took of her published, watched her Saturday morning and late night tv appearances and I tell you, she is country! Not Punk! This gal is country to the core! Why do these idiots who call themselves journalists so desperately need to make everything about punk? Its like they think the only way to talk someone young into liking an older genre of music like country or bluegrass is to say that the artist is “post punk”, “punk inspired”, prototypical punk and so on. It comes across to me as a giant slap in the face. Like saying Country music is grandads music and only for old farts, so to justify why you should like it, just know that the cool new band is really more “punk”than country so its actually ok to listen to.
And for that matter, why is “punk”held up as being the end-all, be-all ultimate music genre??? Seriously??? Punk is the ultimate pinnacle of musical accomplishment??? Truth be told, on a technical level, its one of the easiest and simplest music forms out there. ( Dont get me wrong, I grew up loving Ramones and Clash, they had great songs, epic songs for sure ) Real hardcore country music has had its share of seriously talented virtuoso musicians like Buddy Emmons, Joe Maphis, Don Rich, Jerry Reed, Chet Atkins, kenny vaughn, Marty Stuart, , Pete Anderson , Buddy Spicher, Johnny Gimble, Fats Kaplin etc. None of these folks could ever be described as “Punk”. I remember when Old Crow Medicine Show came out. First words out of most music critics mouths were “these guys are punk inspired, post punk…yada yada. Really? Okay, so Ketch Secor liked Nirvana when he was a kid…Yeah, everyone did, no big whoop. Doesn’t make OCMS music punk though. What about calling them what they are? A string band rooted in Dylan, Guthrie, and old timey mountain music, jug band, with a bit of bluegrass. Nope, gotta label em punk, cause that’s so much more cool from a branding point of view. Makes me sick!
As to the Jason and The Scorchers thing, there was indeed a California movement called Cow-Punk. True. And I like Jason and The Scorchers but not because people wanna compare them to punk, but because they made fun music called Rock and Roll. I never saw them as a country band. As for Lucero, Love em! Yes they play a “Jawbreakers” song called Kiss The Bottle which btw is a good song! Whatever, it doesn’t make Lucero “punk”. Truthfully their first record was very country sounding. Since then they have slowly morphed into a first rate Memphis Rock and Roll band with horns. But I would never put the term “punk”out there when describing them. In fact, they are Southern Rock in my book. I’m sure some of you will argue because you love punk and genuinely need everything cool in your world to have a “punk”label. Whatever. I’m not talking to you. I’m talking to people who are passionate about the glorious, beautiful, uniquely original art form known as Country Music. It stands on its own as a genre, it does not need hip-hop, rap, punk, edm or other genres mixed in to make it relevant. Country music is a genuine American art form and will stand the test of time as such.
Now, can we please…get off this Punk kick.
June 11, 2017 @ 10:20 am
Part of the reason they say punk is often in reference to a DIY spirit to music. A key to “real punk” is not working with major labels, producers, writers etc.. and just making the music you want to make. Also, simplicity is a key to punk.
In that sense, a group like Lucero could in some ways be described as having a punk influence but more in the approach they take to music and not so much in sound. Punk is an attitude and approach to music as much as it is a sound.
Which is just another reason why calling Tucker Breathard punk is ridiculous. He is the product of a major label, worked with professional Nashville writers and probably didn’t play guitar on his own recordings. Least punk thing imaginable.
June 11, 2017 @ 10:24 am
In country music the DIY has an established name….Outlaw Country.
June 13, 2017 @ 5:46 am
I believe that Tucker Beathard played both guitar and drums on the 6-track EP FIGHT LIKE HELL songs.
June 11, 2017 @ 7:30 pm
It’s not that punk is some pinnacle, it’s just that there is a subset of country music that artists such as Nikki Lane and others, whether they actually grew out of it or not, that is aligned or associated with punk music. By definition a lot of alt-country was inspired or evolved from punk music. Uncle Tupelo is a band that laid the ground work for that sound and they have literally talked about their perception of punk and country music following similar ideological veins.
Lucero isn’t just punk inspired on a spiritual level but on a literal level. Listen to Brian Veneble on the podcast Turned Out a Punk talk about all the bands that he grew up listening to and how he’s a huge punk/hardcore vinyl nerd. And Lucero COVERS JAWBREAKER (Kissed the Bottle).
June 12, 2017 @ 7:30 am
I’m a Lucero fan. Look back at my comments. I acknowledged The Jawbreakers. I have personally talked to Brian as well. I understand that Ben and Brian listen to lots of other music growing up and now. Truthfully we all do. I call it musical ADHD. I have the same syndrome, believe me. I can’t think of many under the age of 55 who didn’t listen to a variety of music growing up including punk and metal to some degree. That said….Lucero actual musical output is more sophisticated than punk. These days they incorporate memphis horns and a lot of piano.Even the song structures are more along the lines of Memphis rock and roll with soul sprinkled in. They aren’t country. The first record Tennessee was their most country sounding.Again, read my comments above. They are a beautiful southern rock band. Not Punk. I am also an Uncle Tupelo fan as well as Son Volt. I don’t consider either band country although there were elements of it there including covers of The Carter Family. Son Volt is rock and roll with some pedal steel. Just saw them play a week ago. Feel free to disagree, that’s my take. Let me use a far out example for laughs. Assuming I was raised on Polka music, I wasnt, but pretend I was. Then I start a country band in my early twenties and I have guitar, pedal steel, fiddle in it. I even sing with a southern accent. Maybe I put accordians on my record in a couple songs, kinda like Dwight did with Flaco Jimenez. Would you then promote my sound as Post Polka, Polka inspired? Of course not, that’s not gonna be a good marketing tactic to appeal to youth. But declare I’m punk inspired and voila! Perceived instant cool cred. That’s where I’m coming from.
My real point is found in the comment above. Country music will sell itself. We don’t need to make it cool or palatable for the hipsters by stating that the hot new band is so punk.
June 12, 2017 @ 3:17 pm
While I wouldn’t call Lucero anything other than alt-country/southern rock, they have a number of songs that sound like straight up twangy punk rock to me.
June 11, 2017 @ 10:35 am
Why hasn’t there really been an attempt to mix Country and Indie Pop and Indie Folk? First Aid Kit seems to be the closest, also Kacey Musgraves seems to be more popular with “alternative” kids than “country” kids.
June 11, 2017 @ 7:31 pm
It’s not that punk is some pinnacle, it’s just that there is a subset of country music that artists such as Nikki Lane and others, whether they actually grew out of it or not, that is aligned or associated with punk music. By definition a lot of alt-country was inspired or evolved from punk music. Uncle Tupelo is a band that laid the ground work for that sound and they have literally talked about their perception of punk and country music following similar ideological veins.
Lucero isn’t just punk inspired on a spiritual level but on a literal level. Listen to Brian Veneble on the podcast Turned Out a Punk talk about all the bands that he grew up listening to and how he’s a huge punk/hardcore vinyl nerd. And Lucero COVERS JAWBREAKER (Kissed the Bottle).
June 11, 2017 @ 7:33 pm
Ooooops. I’m sorry, I don’t know how I posted this reply to this comment!!!
I mean to reply by saying listen to the album Cardinal by Pinegrove. They seem to be an “indie rock band playing country-influenced music”
Perhaps more purely though and more established, listen to Songs:Ohia, Lambchop, Smog, Cat Power. All of them a very country music influenced.
June 11, 2017 @ 10:46 am
I thought emo and country was already a thing with Connor OBerst of Bright Eyes?!?
June 11, 2017 @ 10:53 am
Re. “Cowpunk”–it probably does a bit of good to also offer up mention of this mid-1980s band named Lone Justice, which combined a kind of “punk” sensibility with 1960s Bakersfield and early 1970s L.A. country-rock, and which benefitted from having a fairly fierce lead female singer named Maria McKee. They were never a big hit machine by any stretch, but musical heavyweights like Tom Petty and Linda Ronstadt liked them.
Back to the issue of “pop punk” influencing country–well, to me it’s a non-issue. And even as a concept, it’s just a plain non-starter, because it’s a mere fad–something, I’m sorry to say, Nashville is good at following for the short times that such fads last.
Seriously, this generation of Nashville mainstream artists (Aldean, Ballerini, Bryan, etc.) seems to be the first one in the history of the genre that seems to have no appreciation, knowledge, or understanding of country music and its history, but they’re all out there borrowing stuff from other genres and blithely saying how “country music must evolve”. Well, country music HAS evolved in the past by integrating other influences while staying true to its roots, because the practitioners of it, both inside and outside Nashville, understand those roots. But how in the world can it “evolve” if it detaches itself from its life-blood? How does it “evolve” if rap/hip-hop production, squealing arena rock electric guitars, and electronic drum machines drown out the genre’s basic sounds of Telecasters, steel guitars, fiddles, banjos, and the like? That’s not evolution, it’s artistic and cultural suicide (IMHO).
June 11, 2017 @ 11:23 am
“Frittering away what makes different styles of music sound different isn’t a celebration of diversity, it is the death of it.”
That is the most profound thing I’ve read in quite a while.
June 11, 2017 @ 1:06 pm
they’ve been caught using the computerized banjo too many times. By ‘pop punk’ I think they are referring to the power chords that are up front rather than acoustic guitar. all that build up about sounding like blink 182, and it sounds exactly like kip moore. maybe ally mcbeal era bon jovi loll it’s my liifeee
June 12, 2017 @ 4:19 am
Country music these days is much like the description offered by Chet Atkins back in the late 60s:
Chet was asked to define ‘the Nashville sound’. Atkins reached into his pocket, pulled out some coins and rattled them in his hands. ‘That’s the Nashville sound,’ he said with a slightly rueful smile. ‘Money.’
While recording “Walk Away Joe” with Trisha Yearwood, producer Garth Fundis was asked why the song was considered a country song. He replied “it was recorded in Nashville.”
These two explanations pretty much apply to defining today’s country music.
June 12, 2017 @ 5:11 am
Pop punk is a shitty, authenticity-stripped, commercial whore version of a bona-fide genre. Sounds country to me.
June 12, 2017 @ 9:02 am
Is Green Day more country than Sam Hunt? I mean…possibly?
June 12, 2017 @ 3:22 pm
Well, Billy Joe Armstrong of Green Day DID put out a record of Everly Brothers covers with Norah Jones a few years ago.
June 12, 2017 @ 1:16 pm
This June 7 Pitchfork.com article by Nick Murray points out that for Tucker Beathard, country music, like punk rock, means fidelity to who you are: “Country means a revised form of authenticity–not fidelity to the sound of country music’s past, but fidelity to the persona created by the artist.”
Tucker states, “Country is about expressing a song emotionally through a lyric and telling it like it is, and actually standing for something,” which, he continues, is the same idea with punk rock: “Punk rock is punk rock because it’s standing for something. And it’s a movement … Punk and being cool and being badass, in my opinion, is nothing more than sticking to what you believe in, no matter if anybody is doing that or not.”
Tucker Beathard’s songs excel by their authenticity and integrity of spirit, which is the soul of country music. Tucker’s music is highly creative, insightful, and affirmative. I agree with this article that Tucker is taking country music to a new, more meaningful level.
PS: This article states that Tucker was born in 1994, but Wikipedia states that his birthdate is Jan 24, 1995.