They called it the “Beyoncé Bowl,” and it was promoted as Beyoncé’s first live performance from her supposed “country” album, Cowboy Carter. But Cowboy Carter is not a country album, and the performance wasn’t live.
All you have to do to turn your friends and family into Turnpike Troubadours fans is to play them the music. If there was one artist, one band out there that can bridge all gaps between your pop country friends to your hard rock buddies, it’s Turnpike. Young or old, male or female, city, country, or suburban, the music resonates with all.
Over the last decade and beyond, it has not been humanly possible to book more godawful performers for the centerpiece of the NFL’s Thanksgiving schedule than what we’ve seen take center field during the halftime of the Dallas Cowboys’ football game. It’s like they purposely conduct a study to find who is the most dreadful performer of the day.
Yesterday, Philadephia Eagles wide receiver Riley Cooper was caught up in a public controversy when video surfaced of him saying, “I will jump that fence and fight ever nig**r here!” at a June 8th Kenny Chesney concert held at Philadelphia’s Lincoln Financial Field. Characterizations of country music fans as racist hillbillies have spread with it, becoming a subplot and discussion point about the incident.
On Monday night, the anger of many country music fans boiled over when they finally woke up to the realization that their favorite country stars had been swapped out for scab “replacement” stars by the country music industry, with many of the replacements being castaways from pop. Fans took to social media to vent their anger, posting “meme’s” and citing specific artists and songs they are hearing on the radio.
In a time that calls for bold ideas, fresh blood, and innovation, country has decided to stick even more vehemently to their unimaginative formulas, while cutting costs ahead of unnecessary contraction to keep ill-conceived infrastructure in tact. Country is not void of talent, far from it. It is void of ideas of how to mine and evaluate that talent, and then educate its consumers on what to listen for, like listening at all. I listened to Taylor’s performance, but could barely hear anything.
This Sunday at the Super Bowl, Carrie Underwood will very likely be lip-syncing the National Anthem, whether she wants to or not, and it is mostly the fault of the king of pop country, Garth Brooks. This story starts way back in 1993 at Super Bowl XXVIII in Pasadena, CA. In 1993, Garth Brooks was […]