Radio Programmers Sound Off on State of Country
The Season of Discontent in country music that has marked one performer after another and even Big Machine Records’ Scott Borchetta coming out and criticizing the sameness and lack of substance in today’s country music, has now stretched into 2014.
In today’s Billboard Country mid-week newsletter, “The Stark Report” with Phyllis Stark polled a selection of important and influential country music radio programmers from across the country and asked them what aspect of the country music business they hoped would change for the better in 2014. The people that pick what the masses are exposed to through radio surprisingly sounded off on how they wanted more substance, better variety, and new blood in the country radio format, tasking the country music industry to deliver them a better product.
Mark McKay from WGH-FM in Virginia Beach, VA said, “From a creative standpoint, I hope some substance returns to the music next year. I like fun, party songs as much as the next guy, but I fear that with so many of them in the last 18 months, we’re at the saturation point.”
With many of the same music writers penning many popular hits, KMPS Seattle’s Program Director Ed Hill said he wanted to see “more writers use a wider variety of lyrical themes in the songs. I would [also] like to see some sonic differences in the production.”
Program Director Bob Walker of WCTK Providence, R.I. says, “As long as artists and labels make a big portion of their money from touring, we are going to continue to get a lot of disposable songs that pound out beats per minute, and burn just as quickly. If we do not have a solid library of gold from this era, we will pay the price in a few years.”
“Phathead” of JVC Media addressed the lack of new, rising stars in country, and the lack of equitable talent evaluation, saying, “I’m holding out hope that some of the amazing new or unknown acts in country will gain some traction.”
Radio consolidation is also weighing on the minds of program directors according to Sue Wilson of WQMX Akron. “Although I have much respect for the big groups, I’m always sad at the continuing downsizing and the monopoly that is corporate radio. I’m happy Cumulus has brought country to New York, and yet, feel bad about that NASH brand overtaking local programming in so many markets. People continue to lose jobs. I hope that smaller groups can pick up some of these stations that are getting spun off, and we see a return of local radio, local air talent and more live bodies on the air serving their markets.”
January 9, 2014 @ 5:59 pm
It seems change will soon be in the air if it is not already. I hope the labels are listening to what fans, artist and professionals in the industry are saying. Sine Big Machines PR guy actually came on here and responded on that article I think our voices are being heard. But very soon it will be time to turn out what we want and not just say we are going for more substance or different songs sonically. I know it is a long process to write/record/distribute new music but they may want to speed it up a bit to get something to market before the market shrinks any more.
January 9, 2014 @ 6:14 pm
The industry tends to be 18 months behind the curve, so it may take some time for “bro-country” etc. to work its way through the system, and it probably won’t disappear entirely. But I don’t think all of this is just lip service. You don’t see this type of volume and consensus without there being something fundamental behind it. Things are changing, and it is because people were willing to speak out and let their grievances be known. From, fans, artists, radio people, all the way to Scott Borchetta, people are fed up, and now we may start to see the results. There’s a lesson in this.
January 9, 2014 @ 6:42 pm
I’ll keep on my mission and hope so younger folks will catch on.
January 9, 2014 @ 6:50 pm
While it does take awhile for these trends to play themselves out entirely the one way it can start to happen a little faster is in choice of singles from already released or nearly released albums. Plus some of these acts are nearing the end of their album cycles (Blake Shelton on fourth single, Aldean on fourth single) so they will be heading into the studio soon with eyes on releasing a first single in the summer or early fall ahead of a new album.
And I predict that Florida Georgia Line will go the way of Gretchen Wilson with a quickly deteriorating level of chart success as the trend changes. They just don’t have the chops to pull off anything consistently beyond their usual fare.
January 9, 2014 @ 9:30 pm
I disagree. I think Borchetta has already given Florida Georgia Line the memo too.
Why? Because this past November they released the deluxe edition of their debut album titled as “Here’s to the Good Times: This Is How We Roll”. The track listing of the added tracks consists of only one song that panders to the “frat boy country” bandwagon (the to-be released title track).
However, the remaining five tracks steer clear of that particular trend in favor of generic love song and nostalgia tropes. Granted “People Back Home” is an embarrassing spectacle of country rap mixed with stadium rock, but even the lyrics there are basically a thank-you letter to their fans, friends and family that also signal a departure from the frat-boy “country” pandemic.
Joey Moi’s production is still ear-bleeding and Tyler Hubbard’s painfully exaggerated twangy vocals still get on my nerves, but I’ll give them this: even they are not stupid business-sense wise and know the neverending party gig is up. So they’re wisely sidestepping from that particular topic in favor of other lowest-common denominators.
January 9, 2014 @ 10:14 pm
I’m not saying they won’t try I’m saying they won’t be able to pull it off. As you say their attempts at more serious material is weak in it’s own way.
To use another genre as an example, New Kids On The Block and other teeny bopper acts tried to make the transition to more serious material and a) they couldn’t pull it off talentwise and b) their audience didn’t care or want to hear that from them.
The fans of Florida Georgia Line (generally speaking of course) like them for the party d-bag act and not any serious music so they won’t want to hear that from them and the more discerning mainstream country fan will look to more substantial acts.
January 9, 2014 @ 9:38 pm
I will add it is depressing, however, that Florida Georgia Line’s idea of “deep” is their current insufferable hit that is a cover of Black Stone Cherry’s “Stay” (“I’d sell my soul just to see your face, I’d break my bones just to heal your pain…….” REALLY?)…………and the likely future single “Take It Out On Me”: a song where the narrator tells a woman in distress due to an ugly, perhaps abusive relationship that she can take out all of her pent-up emotions on him anytime and have angry sex! =X =X =X
Songs this wrong almost leaves me tempted to say “You know, as annoying as you both are, I like you better when you’re writing lunkheaded party songs because you at least sound like you’re having fun, so please keep doing that if that is all it takes to keep you from writing terrible “deep” songs EVER AGAIN!” -__- -__- -__-
January 10, 2014 @ 9:20 am
Another example of taking song lyrics too literally, IMHO.
January 10, 2014 @ 10:46 am
The point is, with regards to “Stay”……….the lyrics are laughably disingenuous. I understand the desperate emotions that often come with break-ups, but even acknowledging that Black Stone Cherry’s attempt at doing so is lyrically atrocious and they just come off looking like oblivious douchebags.
And is that not what “Take It Out On Me” is about? I know overall some of the lyrics on their own come across as another one of those You-Can-Count-On-Me-When-You-Need-A-Shoulder-To-Lean-On-Compassion-Songs………….but then you have Hubbard asking the subject to “put your lips on mine” right there in the chorus, and in the bridge continuing: “I’ll lay you down and love you just the way you should be. Baby, so now that you’re ready, take it out on me.”
That’s evident enough that the narrator in “Take It Out On Me” is more interested in having angry, revenge sex with her than genuinely caring about her feelings at any deep level. =/
January 9, 2014 @ 7:02 pm
Thanks trigger for your input. you always have great insight. I think your right about this not all being just lip service. It will be interesting to see what artist ( maybe some smaller ones) who can benefit from this. Change is coming thats for sure. Too much smoke not be a fire somewhere.
January 9, 2014 @ 7:14 pm
As long as “Corporate Country Radio” giants like Clear Channel and Cumulus control the airwaves in major market cities, I don’t expect the situation to change until their listeners begin to demand it. Only drops in the stations ratings would motivate the corporate program directors to look around for the next big thing. As long as non-discerning listeners remain enamored of the sound-alike mediocrity propagated by Top 40 AirHead Country Radio, and ratings stay at current levels, what motivation would they have to change?
I’m amused by the fact that people within the very radio industry that created the current environment are now complaining about it! Labels with the nerve to release interesting country music singles with substance to Top 40 AirHead Radio are usually rewarded by having those songs and artists completely ignored. (Artists like Ashley Monroe and Chris Stapleton are good examples.) In this tight economy the labels play it safe and stick with the tried and true and who can blame them?
What country radio really needs is a whole new set of listeners with a bit of good taste and intelligence to replace the shallow, pop culture obsessed dimwits who now populate the demographic…
January 9, 2014 @ 7:34 pm
If artists are complaining, labels, are complaining, and programming directors are complaining, it seems to be one of these situations where the system is gaming the participants, and they need to change the rules to keep from systemically screwing themselves. For example, in professional sports, owners will lock players out to get their unions to sign on to salary caps so the owners don’t outspend themselves competing with each other. You would think the owners could do that on their own, but they can’t. They need a systemic governor to make sure it doesn’t happen. How do you do that in music? I have no idea.
Interesting that about the only place we are not hearing complaints from at the moment are songwriters and publishing houses. It’s been easy money for them the last few years. Just find things to rhyme with beer and truck, set it to a drum machine so you don’t even have to select chords and watch the checks roll in.
January 10, 2014 @ 2:13 pm
Too true. A lot of lazy songwriters around. But part of the problem is the prevalence of singer/songwriters, which makes more money for the artists, publishers, record companies, to not have to share royalties. Being a great performer does not mean a person is a great songwriter, and many great songwriters are not great singers. It use to be you had music record producers match up good performers with good songs.
January 12, 2014 @ 8:58 pm
For songwriters trying to make it, its now dang near impossible. The established writers write with each other, the publishing companies set up co writes with each others writers and various artists or up and coming artists. Though this has always been the norm, publishing companies have limited staff writers these days (unlike the 90s). They control the money, the lyric, and the sound. The very few songwriters that are in the circle that write the majority of the songs on radio aren’t complaining, but laughing all the way to the bank. The songwriters that that are trying to make it are up against bigger odds than ever.
January 9, 2014 @ 8:28 pm
Since finding this site (and, by the way, thank you for what you do Trigger) I have gained a wealth of knowledge. I respect all of what is published here, both the articles and the comments. However, I come at this from a completely different angle from most here.
This recent infusion of “bro country” (or totally unimaginative regurgitation of musical feces) reminds me of what happened to rock music in the late 80’s/early 90’s.
Hair metal was at it’s apex. Get four or five good looking guys with long hair who could marginally play their instruments and a guy who could hold a tune, put out some anthemic guitar rock, throw in a couple of power ballads and call it good.
A lot of bands got grouped into that sub-genre. Some that didn’t belong, like Whitesnake, AC/DC, Scorpions, Guns ‘n Roses. However, they definitely benefited from the trend and were not wont to discredit it at the time.
The cream always rises. Out of the ashes, Bon Jovi, Def Leppard, Motley Crue still sell out arenas world wide. Britney Fox, Nelson and Firehouse, not so much.
Right now, country music is ripe for It’s own version of Nirvana and Pearl Jam. But first it needs It’s Guns ‘n Roses to shake things up.
I’m not immersed enough into country music to even pretend to know where that may come from, but I have a feeling we are on the precipice. And when it happens, it will be good.
January 10, 2014 @ 8:38 am
Well put Michael, however the difference in the Rock/Metal era and what has happened to Country is slightly different. The hair metal fellas were still playing rock dressed up a little but stayed true to its genre where-as todays country music isn’t country music it is more or less light/fruity 70s pop/rock with fiddle and banjo hidden underneath to add the “Country” sound which is complete fucking shit. As I see it where things went wrong is when the country industry wanted to reach out to non-country fans and gave up its soul and music to be a trendy appocolypse of over exhaust shitty music to gain popularity. In the world of rock young artists and the industry praise the forefathers and respect them and the music and play there songs as they have become staples of rock. In country the new artists dont know dont care and show no respect towards the history and forefathers cover “Rock” songs and are more or less trying to forget the past. To put it in black and white, at a rock music awards show you are more than likely going to see older rock artists and they are highly respected, and at a new country music awards show you will not see nor hear about the older artists, but you will see rock performers and a bunch of new country morons pretending to be rock stars!
January 10, 2014 @ 11:11 am
Interesting analysis, but I think you have it backwards. Bro-Country is the “Hair Band” era of country music. They are bringing new energy to the High School and College crowd. Just like the Hair Bands, the Bro-Country bands have little or no substance in their output. It will die out, just as the Hair Band era did, but like rock music, Country will not reinvigorate itself until there is a bigger alternative country scene (and no, I don’t mean the current alt-country genre).
The same thing is evident in the bluegrass genre. The radio stations play Dailey & Vinvent, Del McCoury, Steel Drivers, etc. All good, mostly traditional bluegrass, but college kids are listening to Yonder Mountain String Band, Greensky Bluegrass, Trampled by Turtles, Infamous Stringdusters, etc. These “new” bluegrass bands blend in alternative genre’s that are closely tied to the ethos of bluegrass (you must be a talented picker), and expand the musical pallet via jamming, and some jazz influences. Both Sam Bush and Jerry Douglas joind Yonder Mountain String Band for their New Years run and the music / jams are extraordinary.
Country is just fine with a couple of amplified chords, and that’s where the Bro-Country bands are filling their pockets. Like their hair band predecessors, they are virtually identical in both appearance and substance. I’m not knowledgable enough to guess where country goes after the bro-country era, but it will be somewhere that the younger generation wants, with more musical substance than a couple of power chords and lyrics that celebrate a bit more than beer, babes & broncos.
January 9, 2014 @ 8:42 pm
“more writers use a wider variety of lyrical themes in the songs. I would [also] like to see some sonic differences in the production.”
“As long as artists and labels make a big portion of their money from touring, we are going to continue to get a lot of disposable songs”
It takes some chutzpah to blame the artists and songwriters when there are plenty of high-quality singer-songwriters who would love to have their songs played on radio. Ultimately, these radio companies are to blame for the sorry state of mainstream country.
January 9, 2014 @ 9:23 pm
I did notice over the last month that both Luke Bryan and Florida Georgian Line have made (fake) attempts to “change” with both promoting softer and (slightly) more traditional songs. Flipping by a country radio station I actually heard the tail end of some interview clip where the FGL guy was saying something like “We’re not all about party songs, we have a sensitive side too). I almost ran off the road gagging on that one.
I don’t buy it from either one of them and I don’t think it’s going to work for either one of them long term though. Luke Bryan has type cast himself. People that would have cared won’t touch him now, and the people that have been buying his crap music for the most part won’t care about his attempt at more serious music.
I just through it was interesting both of those big main stream acts started trying to go down the slower road like that at the same time. At the last CMA awards Taylor Swift did that accoustic version of Red too (although after two years on the same Red album that only had a small number of marketed hits and the mass volume of award shows she’s been on, she’s completely burned out all of her material). She pulled off a good one getting Vince Gill and Allison Krauss to join in with her. I really would have like to fast forward through that one but I was sucked in. I have a massive soft spot for Allison Krauss.
Anyway… I’m not buying it FGL and Luke Bryan. It’s too late for either of you to ‘recover’ in my opinon.
January 9, 2014 @ 9:51 pm
TRANSLATION:
“Hubbard: We’re not all about party songs. We have a sensitive side too. Like……….songs about the hangovers you have after awesome parties…………or songs about running out of ice on hot summer days to keep your beer ice cold………….or songs about the depression we feel when we want to make out with hotties at our shows only to find out they’re underaged…………or songs about the Grammy Awards not nominating us…”
Kelley: “Yeah, those last two had us crying on and off and writing then deleting Tweets for days…”
*
😉
January 10, 2014 @ 7:08 am
🙂
“Or songs about how sensitive my our thighs get from the giant over-sized wallet chains rubbing against them. And man we have a real real sad song about how sensitive Brian Kelley gets about them always turning his Mic volume down to ‘1’. Heck this one day the keg ran dry and we had a flat tire… good lordy that was a sad emotional day.”
January 10, 2014 @ 11:08 am
Hubbard: (struggles through tears) “Dayum right that was brutal! And, like………….we hooked up with eight other writers to write this song about getting blueballed because our skinny jeans have put too much stress on our balls!”
Kelley: (crying uncontrollably) “It was horrible! I felt like I was going to die that day!”
Hubbard: (hugs Kelley sobbing too) “And……….and………….we wrote this song about heading over to Wal-Mart to get our moonshine, only to find out that…………..it was temporarily out of stock! (cries and slams fists on knees)
Kelley: “That just made us look bad, to all our fans who expect us to get our shine on with them!”
Hubbard: (blows nose)………….but even worse, just the other day, the boss man forced us to write a new song using proper grammar, lack of urban slang and, get this: not mentioning either a jacked-up tailgate, daisy dukes, iced cold beer, Bocephus and parties! (sobs uncontrollably) We’re only human! It’s soooooooooooooo hard!
Kelley: (consoles Hubbard) “I know it is……………….I know it is!”
*
😉
January 9, 2014 @ 11:50 pm
So radio programmers long for change and say the music has to improve with substance & more lyrical themes. I agree 200% and it’s real easy to do. Start by playing Kellie Pickler again and to #1 because The Woman I Am has more great vocals, music, substance, and lyrical themes than many albums radio plays combined. And it has at least 7 very radio-friendly songs radio clearly should be playing but aren’t only because they don’t play most (all except for 3) women and keep playing weak, average, and bad songs including many from brand new acts past her on the chart, keeping her songs around #50 instead of #1 where they belong. That is what has to change. Radio, not just the music, needs to improve. Play more women to top 10-#1, stop playing the weak, average, and bad songs and play the much better songs already available to you.
January 10, 2014 @ 1:44 am
Pardon me, but who listens to radio anymore?
January 10, 2014 @ 4:29 am
I still do:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KTFW-FM
It’s not the perfect situation as they play modern country but they play a lot of good country (like Randy Travis and so on). I actually heard them play “He Walked On Water” yesterday. Heck, I’m willing to sit through an occasional Jason Aldean song if they’re playing a lot of good country too.
Clear Channel and Cumulus don’t own everything yet.
January 10, 2014 @ 8:27 am
Many millions of people, however more and more are switching to alternatives like Pandora because they play better music like radio used to. They even have a “Women of Country” station. Country radio gained me as a listener by playing great country songs then drove me away with the pop and bad songs I avoid. I’d love to listen again but am waiting for them to stop playing pure pop and play more better and country songs and women again. Who threw quality control out the window? Big corporate country radio needs a quality control department staffed by people who actually care about and know what great country music sounds like, to make sure they play more women, better songs, more country, less pop and reject the average and bad songs. Because until they reject the bad they will keep getting bad. They are embracing the weak-bad and refusing to play a lot of the good.
January 10, 2014 @ 9:31 am
Nope. They play what makes them money. Either that is through very heavy listener demand, kickbacks through Indies (promotion funny money) or how much star power is lent to them by other means to promote their stations. The only thing in control is money (or fer of loosing it).
January 10, 2014 @ 10:04 am
They are taking these pop artist, who are getting lost in the pop world. Throwing them into country with their pop followers, They start out with their sales no different but it looks bigger on the Country charts, because of their pop followers. They just building from there to make them look like they are becoming big Country hits. Well avoiding the true Country artist. Who truly wants to be there. People like Kellie Pickler, Kacey Musgraves, Brandy Clark and Ashley Monroe. People who heart is Country, and not pop rejects. Radio wants to change, well there you go. Before you loss all your listeners.
January 10, 2014 @ 10:32 am
I don’t know about that at all. It’s more of real country artists selling out. You could really only say that about Darius Rucker, Sheryl Crow and (now) Cassadee Pope. No one else is really taking up chart positions. I’ll give an exception to Sheryl Crow as well. She’s been involved with country music for decades now (real country duets with artists like Dwight Yokam, etc. from long ago).
Luke Bryan started out country (to an extent) and sold out. Blake Shelton up until his greatest hits album sounded like a real country artist and then sold out to pop and trash country. Look at how Tim McGraw started out and what his music sounds like now. And, so on…
January 10, 2014 @ 11:43 am
Pop Rejects to sale outs, it’s still all crap. It’s all about the money they can get from the pop world, well forgetting about the true Country fans.
January 10, 2014 @ 1:26 pm
Kelly Clarkson took up a few positions with her pure pop songs Mr. Know It All and Tie It Up, which flopped but took up spots from far better country songs for months. Were Dan + Shay ever country because their first single 19 You + Me sounds just like any pop boy band and they look the part.
“Before the duo’s foundation, Mooney was a solo artist on T-Pain’s Nappy Boy Entertainment label, and Smyers was a member of a group called Bonaventure.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_%2B_Shay
Guess that explains it. Make it rain.
January 10, 2014 @ 9:27 am
As do I.
WMPI in southern Indiana tries to do a good job with their playlist. Like as noted above, though–they still play some of the crap bro-tastic Hick Hop.
http://i1053country.com/
January 10, 2014 @ 6:07 am
Program Director Bob Walker of WCTK Providence, R.I. says, “As long as artists and labels make a big portion of their money from touring, we are going to continue to get a lot of disposable songs that pound out beats per minute, and burn just as quickly. If we do not have a solid library of gold from this era, we will pay the price in a few years.”
Well, the majority of the money’s gonna come from touring anymore. That’s just the new model of the business. But that last sentence was exactly right. I’m glad to see someone who at least somewhat gets it.
The cat may well be out of the bag as far as that goes, though. I’m not sure I could name a single song from the last two or three years at least that could be considered “gold.”
January 10, 2014 @ 7:17 am
Yep, for example, when’s the last time anyone heard “Achey Breaky Heart” on the radio?
It’s funny how some of the biggest songs are the most shallow and least able to stand the test of time (at all). I’ve noticed lately on Clear Channel country stations they only play what is the very newest music and then maybe a few classics (they still play a lot of Garth Brooks and Brooks & Dunn for example).
Trigger had the good article explain that (the sugar high of pop music that goes away fast). I think they should really just call modern pop-country the ‘junk food aisle’ of country music.
January 10, 2014 @ 7:42 am
We may see surface changes and maybe some good stuff once in a while like Pickler or Musgraves or Ashley Monroe but it will still be the same core group of nashvegas pop country albeit with less beer and pick up truck songs for awhile. Frankly I could care less there is plenty of great music out there to be heard. Clear Channel, Cumulus and the Nashvegas music establishment you are no longer needed or wanted by lots of folks. Go support independent music !
January 10, 2014 @ 8:39 am
It’s sad, but the core group of fans will not venture out into the deeper waters.
There are so few foghorns sounding out alerts and breaking news….it’s difficult for independents to be heard. That’s why we’re here. It’s working.
January 10, 2014 @ 8:59 am
The hard reality is that commercial programmers respond to what sells and like it or not young people buy alot of crap. I think someone mentioned that country music needs a Nirvana and I think Nirvana’s success makes the case for programmers responding to what people buy. Nirvana wasn’t cooked up by some industry commercial braintrust and with minimal exposure they blew up because young em effers bought product, pure and simple.
Of course the devil in that detail is where do consumers turn to examine product to make their purchasing decisions?
January 10, 2014 @ 9:35 am
Whatever the major labels release, the radio stations will overplay it. Cases in point:
When ‘Give It All We Got Tonight’ by George Strait came out, I heard it 5 times as I was station-flipping among the 6 country stations that I can get–on just a 20 minute drive.
This morning I got to ‘enjoy’ the new Darius Rucker single simultaneously on three different stations at the same time.
If Scott Borchetta decides the next ‘big thing’ is barnyard flatulence, get ready to hear chicken farts 20 times a day on your daily commutes.
January 10, 2014 @ 10:36 am
Ha.
The other aspect is flipping by a pop station and hearing a Taylor Swift pop song and then hearing the exact same pop song on two country stations at the same time.
January 10, 2014 @ 10:01 am
All of that horrible metal crap didn’t just go away by itself – Nirvana and the rest of the grunge movement put a stake in it’s heart and killed it. Is something like that necessary for Country’s current mess? Not sure.
January 10, 2014 @ 10:43 am
I’m getting rid of Sirius. Although Outlaw country is good I’m tired of paying for one channel that i like. I don’t have any local country stations, does anyone have a recommendation for a good country station i could stream from the internet?
January 10, 2014 @ 11:15 am
I feel very fortunate when it comes to radio. The Anchorage area has 4 country stations, and two of them are independent. One plays exclusively “classic” country from the 50s to 90s, and the other plays a mix of modern country, classic country, and southern rock.
January 10, 2014 @ 12:00 pm
country music needs a Nirvana
Personally, I am extremely wary of such a characterization. Sure, everyone gives Nirvana and grunge in general credit for killing hair metal, but the flip side to that was that it made people throw away the other sub genres of metal too, even the less mainstream stuff. I really wouldn’t want that to happen with country music, because who knows what could be a casualty?
January 10, 2014 @ 5:39 pm
OK, mine was the original post that brought up Nirvana. And I totally agree with what you said. There was a lot of good stuff that got left in wake because it was even associated with Hair Metal.
Tom Keifer and Cinderella is a good example. They were always much more AC/DC than Poison. Tom Keifer could write, play and sing.
This is something I heard on on a series on VH1 Classic called Metal Evolution:
A record company guy (don’t know his exact position) played some demos by Cinderella to some higher-ups. They loved it. Asked who it was. Cinderella. The Hair Band? Yep. Not interested.
So, yeah, your concern is very valid.
January 10, 2014 @ 9:17 pm
In my opinion, Poison was better from a songwriting perspective than AC/DC. Is there any AC/DC song that can match “Every Rose Has Its Thorn”?
January 10, 2014 @ 10:00 pm
Yeah and now Bret Michaels is a has been desperate enough to go on the Apprentice with Donald Trump Twice and start a reality show where he ‘pimps’ RV’s (ug, the shame)
So sad…
BTW the music industry is filled with people that co-wrote one great song they could never follow up on, and AC/DC has a better catalog that’s stood the test of time far better than Poison.
January 11, 2014 @ 1:27 am
I can’t think of a single AC/DC song that I would characterize as “great”. Everything I have heard from them seems flat and excessively noisy.
January 11, 2014 @ 9:09 am
Yep, that sort of thing is exactly what I was talking about. I know metal eventually experienced a resurgence in popularity, but at the time there was arguably plenty of reason to be afraid bands like Metallica, Iron Maiden, and Queensryche were going to be condemned to the dustbin of history.
(Yes, I know. Everyone nowadays hears the name Queensryche and they think “Ooh, ‘Silent Lucidity’!” But there was so much more to them than that. I would argue they were the most underrated metal band to come out of the ’80s, maybe up until 1988 anyway”¦)
January 11, 2014 @ 10:17 am
In America, maybe, those bands could have been thrown into the dustbin, but Metallica and Iron Maiden have always and will always be huge in Europe and in the case of Iron Maiden, South America as well. I don’t think they were ever in any danger.
In the case of Queensryche, their early albums were much more in the vein of Maiden than everything following “Silent Lucidity”, when they took a more prog rock turn. So, I agree they were one of the more underrated bands of the 80’s. Along with Y&T, which had the unfortunate hit “Summertime Girls”. Y&T’s stuff prior to that was very, very underrated, but they got caught up in the Hair Metal backlash as well.
January 11, 2014 @ 10:49 am
Fair point about folks like Metallica and Maiden, even taking Blaze Bayley into account. (That was just doomed to failure, IMO.) I had almost forgotten about how big metal is over in Europe. South America too.
(As an aside, that new Queensryche album with Todd La Torre on vocals is freaking phenomenal. Easily the best thing they”™ve done since Operation: Mindcrime.)
I don”™t even think country needs something as earth-shaking as its own Nirvana. Hell, I think another George Strait or Ricky Skaggs would the trick just as well. The Urban Cowboy error, er, era died out on its own while the likes of Skaggs and Strait were toiling away in the background, and in they came to save the day. I”™d like to see that sort of thing happen again. Who would play the roles this time around I don”™t know, but it”™s certainly something to hope for.
January 10, 2014 @ 3:16 pm
I agree that country needs a Nirvana. Somebody needs to show up and knock everybody’s socks off and start a new, better trend. They will need significant album and single sales to force the industry to pay attention. It didn’t work for Kacey Musgraves (yet) because she took on tough subjects like pot, religion and homosexuality on her debut album. She gave too much, too soon and it scared radio enough that they couldn’t warm up to her. It also hurt that she’s a female which is not cool in country right now.
The new artist to bring change will likely need to be a young, attractive male artist. His image will need to be similar to most current male artists (jeans, T shirt, no cowboy hat) and he will need to come off as a down to earth, guy next door type. He also can’t take on controversial issues on his first album, that could spook radio programmers. If he records well-written songs with tasteful production and they sell in huge quantities, he could start a change.
The tough part is that you can’t be too different, too early. Image-wise, they should fit in with the current artists, but music-wise they need to be much better.
Hopefully things can improve. I want country to be good again.
January 10, 2014 @ 3:38 pm
I’ve talked about the idea of an artist rising up and shaking up the country genre many times over the years. I talked about it specifically when naming the Artist of the Year:
https://savingcountrymusic.com/saving-country-musics-2013-artists-of-the-year
“And within this mythos of country music, and residing in the hearts of millions of despondent country fans is this idea, however fanciful or misguided, that an artist, or a group of artists, could rise up and return sensibility, substance, and the roots of country back to the music. Eric Church once mocked this idea in a song called “Country Music Jesus,” laughing at both the idea that country music needed to be saved, and that we needed some artist to do it.”
I think the difference now might be that it may not just be real country fans on the search for this artist, you might see labels on the lookout for this artist. To some extent, I think this is where Kacey Musgraves comes from. Regardless of her commercial success, which has been moderate, she has had nothing but industry support from her label, getting nominated for big awards and being able to play on big tours and big events. I think where Kacey may have failed to be “the one” is her label somewhat softened and pigeonholed what she did to be “the other one” instead of letting her flourish and putting her best foot forward. She also has a timidness about her. She’s not a lion, or at least, not from what we have seen from her yet. Now maybe a softening is what needed to happen to have the public warm up to her and for her to receive the commercial success she has had, and he next album will be a casting off of the reigns.
Either way, I think the theory of “the one” is alive and well, and if labels and program directors are serious about returning substance to the format, the likelihood of it happening is greater than it has been in quite some time.
January 11, 2014 @ 2:24 am
“I think where Kacey may have failed to be “the one” is her label somewhat softened and pigeonholed what she did to be “the other one” instead of letting her flourish and putting her best foot forward.”
I don’t understand this line of criticism. Her album was critically acclaimed more than almost any other country album of 2013. What makes you think that she is not “putting her best food forward”? Surely this cannot be based on her omitting two songs from her album?
January 11, 2014 @ 11:39 am
That’s exactly what it’s based on. Two of her best songs, including one that fit with the trailer park theme of her album, were not selected while two fluffy filler songs were. Not saying it’s not a good album, or Musgraves doesn’t deserve the accolades she’s been receiving. I just think it could have been better, and it makes you ask why were those songs omitted?
January 11, 2014 @ 9:37 pm
Perhaps she is saving them for her next album.
January 10, 2014 @ 8:35 pm
I agree. There is great country music not being played by female artists that is out right now. Radio does not care what fans want to hear from what I have experienced. Kellie Picker has an awesome album, The Woman I am and you should see all the facebook comments from her fans – why won’t radio play your new songs for us? I’m glad I have a CD player in my car. .
January 10, 2014 @ 9:56 pm
I had this memory pop up in my head. There was some article I read back in the late 80’s about Stephen King buying a radio station just so there would be a radio station that played the kind of classic rock music he liked (that no radio station was playing at the time or something like that)..
(fingers crossed there’s some country loving millionaires out there)
January 13, 2014 @ 4:27 pm
I am sure that there are lots of Texas oil men who have a great taste in music (though not necessarily in politics, IMO).
January 12, 2014 @ 4:02 am
An unbelievably overlooked songstress and musician – Lindi Ortega.