We’ve run down the Song of the Year nominees, the Single of the Year nominees, as well as the Album of the Year nominees for 2024. Now it’s time to give the WORST offerings in “country” music their fair due.
If you’ve ever wondered who those zombies are whose idea of a good time is to frequent Lower Broadway and spend five hours hopping between corporate bars, this song is exclusively for them.
Right now the iconic American chain restaurant is going through a reckoning that draws similar parallels to country music. On the surface, perhaps these things don’t have any similarities at all. But digging a bit deeper, they do.
As you can imagine, the news of the #1 has been met with with praise for Beyoncé breaking down barriers and shattering glass ceilings in country. But this is more about a megastar worth $800 million cutting in line.
Perhaps there’s never been an individual inhabiting the Earth that has felt more safe and happy in the enveloping arms of corporate America while suckling off the industry teat of high fructose corn syrup than Walker Hayes.
This week, the Tyler Childers song “In Your Love” appeared at #50 on the MediaBase country radio chart, as well as #50 on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart, marking the first appearance for Childers on either index.
The horror on this poor woman’s face says it all. What could cause this reaction? Let’s look at some of the worst case scenarios in country music.
Platforms like Twitter and Tik-Tok have been instrumental to the rise of artists outside of the musical industrial complex by connection them directly with fans, and circumventing the need for major labels or mass media to help performers find a sustainable audience in many instances.
If we’re being honest, country music continues to improve across the board, including in the mainstream as we continue to get farther and farther away from the Bro-Country era. But there are still some stragglers and terrible songs out there that are worth exposing to the sunlight and watching them whither.
When the Ernest Tubb Record Shop on Lower Broadway in Nashville was under threat of being closed down permanently and sold off earlier this year, a few were predicting sarcastically that they might turn the historic business and property into a Walker Hayes-themed Applebee’s restaurant.
“It’s more radio-oriented,” Dillon says. “I hate to say it, but more one-hit wonder-ish kind of thing now, as opposed to back then when we strived to write great every time. I don’t think that holds true now. I think what holds true is radio candy, I call it. You can call it whatever you want…”
Ever since Billboard tweaked their formula for how songs are slotted on the Hot Country Songs chart in 2012, it has given rise to heavyweight tracks that sit atop the chart for weeks and weeks on end. All the more reason that the current song to get stuck at #1.
Shit! No, not necessarily these nominations. Well, kind of the nominations as well. But the fact that by some obligatory sense of duty by the powers vested in me as the owner/operator of a country music website, I must convey the nominees of the 2022 ACM Awards, which have fallen so far down in relevancy […]
‘Tis the season to set ’em up, and tee off on the worst “country” songs released in the last calendar year, and boy, were there some doozies in 2021. It still feels like country music in the mainstream continues to improve. But that doesn’t mean some stinkers still don’t slip in.
Nominees for the 2022 Grammy Awards were announced on Wednesday, November 23rd from the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles, with some big names receiving some important nominations, a few obvious omissions, and the “who” being nominated as opposed to the “what.”
I know what you’re going to say. “NeW yOrK CiTY!” like that guy in the old Pace Picante Sauce commercial. Or if you pride yourself in having any sort of semblance of taste, maybe you’re wondering why anyone in 2021 would still be listening to mainstream country radio at all.
When you hear certain albums from some of country music’s mainstream performers, it’s patently clear to large portions of the audience that these albums aren’t pop country, they’re just pop, period. But in the pop world when artist dabble in country influences, they tend to be more honest about how the end result is still pop.
Bad pop star Walker Hayes recently infiltrated the mainstream country ranks after unleashing the terrible hit “You Broke Up With Me.” Now this hack is going out on tour, and since he has no original thoughts, Walker and his PR team have chosen to put the task of naming the upcoming tour in the hands of the unwashed masses.
Whether it was our vehement protestations, or simply patience revealing a more balanced perspective, the recent additions to the Randy Travis Spotify playlist have done a complete 180, and deserve recognition, if not outright praise.
The effrontery of whomever is really responsible for compiling these five songs together and presenting it as an expression of Randy’s tastes or desires is appalling. This is ridiculous, and everyone involved in the perpetration of this ruse must think we are all incredibly gullible, and should be called out publicly.
Dear Saving Country Music readers, country music listeners and lovers, fellow journalists, and especially fans of Walker Hayes and the work of country music producer, Shane McAnally . . . On December 18th, 2017, I wrote a “rant” entitled, “‘Boom’ By Walker Hayes Is The Worst Album In ‘Country’ Music History. Full Stop.” . . .
We were so swept up in praising ourselves for all the gains made in the independent realm of country music in 2017, it wasn’t until here in the dwindling moments of the year that we realized just what a dreadful era 2017 posed in the mainstream.
Friends and neighbors, I know you would rather spend your time reading about something a bit more positive in nature than the rabid attitudinal protestations of some twisted up music critic spouting off about this grotesque specimen of audio diarrhea, and during what is supposed to be a festive season no less….
Man did Music Row in Nashville turn in a whole slew of stinkers this year, setting new lows for the substance, and non-country-ness of “country” songs in 2017. This year was a great example of how you should never think it can’t get any worse, because it can, and did, and by a long stretch.