The Country Music Collaborator / Interloper Field Guide
It appears we’re entering an age when pop, rock, and hip-hop stars will be collaborating with country artists like never before, opening the door for even more “gone country” moments by non genre stars looking to exploit the star power and popularity of country music. Collaborations are the new hot thing throughout mainstream music because it allows producers and labels to double up on the star power to promote new singles. The problem is when these performers collaborate across genres, they drain the diversity out of popular music until it all becomes one big mono-genre blob.
This week it was announced that Florida Georgia Line has been in the studio with the Backstreet Boys. Is anyone really surprised? Florida Georgia Line working with the Backstreet Boys is just about the most Florida Georgia Line thing Florida Georgia Line can do.
Pharrell Williams recently released a pop record with Little Big Town, and we kept being told how it was all okay because Pharrell is from Virginia and loves country music. That begs the question: if Pharrrell loves country music, and is allowed to make country music simply from being born in the South, then why did he make a pop record with Little Big Town instead of a country one?
Clearly this trend of cross genre collaborations is only going to deepen, so with a servant’s heart and a sincere desire to help the collaborators and interlopers with their “country” efforts, Saving Country Music has constructed a pocket reference field guide to help these cross-genre collaborators navigate through their country music experience.
Country Music Collaborator/Interloper Field Guide
***Download / Print Out in PDF Form***
Welcome current/former/washed-up rock/pop/R&B/ hip-hop star to the loving confines of country music! Whether you’re here on a lark, here to collaborate with a current country star, here to rehabilitate your dwindling popular music career, or are just a raging narcissist who can’t stand the idea of living outside of the spotlight, all are welcome in country music because of the industry’s insufferable and long-standing inferiority complex with its place beside other genres, and because all of our gatekeepers are either dead, been put out to pasture, moved on to Americana, or are summarily ignored.
Generally speaking, you can expect the pliable and convivial country music fan to be very inviting and open-minded to your music, regardless if it comes close resembling anything near country. But if by chance you do find someone who questions your inclusion in the genre, just cast them off as closed-minded, or explain to the individual that country music must evolve, and your pithy, derivative pap is just the key to carrying on this forward-looking momentum. If this doesn’t work, here are a few more tricks.
Claim Affiliation with The South/Small Towns
Forget that for decades to make it in country music you had to pay dues and study the discipline for years and years, many times under the apprenticeship of legends before you dare even consider to take center stage by yourself. All you have to do today to be embraced warmly by country music is claim any loose affiliation with either the South, the West, the Bakersfield or interior valley of California, or really any rural landscape in America, regardless of its orientation with the Mason Dixon Line, and assert that it is your birthright bestowed by your geographical origination to be involved in the country genre, even if the true nature of your upbringing was in the intercity or a “new” South white flight suburb, sheltered and coddled from the true rigors and tribulations of Southern or agrarian life.
And if you don’t have any true affiliation with any of the aforementioned environs, claim a kinship with them because your grandparents or parents grew up there. And if you can’t claim any of these once-removed virtues of country credibility, just make one up. Nobody’s fact checking here.
You’ve Always Loved Country Music
To further ingratiate yourself to country fans, make sure to explain how you’ve always been a country music fan. Don’t worry that you’re not on record saying such until you’re trying to peddle some mislabeled, watered-down single that has absolutely nothing to do with country to the format, just explain how some member of your family listened to country music and you were exposed to it from an early age. Again, nobody’s checking facts, and make sure not to go into too much detail about your country fandom, lest someone call your bluff by asking you a simple question about country music we all know you can’t answer. Better to just say “George Strait is the King,” and smile!
You Can’t Get Enough of Those Country Legends
Just as important as proclaiming your country music fandom is pledging allegiance to very specific country music legend or legends. Dolly Parton and Willie Nelson are great picks for their widely-known status and universal appeal. Hank Williams and George Strait are other good picks. Steer clear of folks like Waylon Jennings or Townes Van Zandt—way too obscure. Make sure to spend a minute or two brushing up on the biographies of these legends on Wikipedia before you assert your fandom, so you can namecheck one or two of their songs to really ingratiate yourself to the complicit country music media when questioned.
Support The Troops
If nothing else works, ramrod home your love and appreciation for America’s service members with vim and vigor. We’re not talking about a perfunctory check to the Wounded Warriors project. Really get out there and talk about how much you love the troops, wear camo and dog tags on stage, get your picture taken with service members, and make sure your publicist documents all of these escapades and blasts out dedicated press releases for each instance dovetailed with social media mentions. That way if anyone has the gall to question what the hell you’re doing in country music, others will assert as your surrogate, “Yeah, but he/she loves the troops!” …and you’ll be off the hook for any wrongdoing.
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And most importantly, don’t forget to enjoy your stay in country music, and we’ll see you collaborating with Thomas Rhett/Kelsea Ballerini/Rascal Flatts at the CMA Awards!
NOTE: The Country Music Association may send you a survey about your experience in country music after your single falls off the charts.
June 30, 2016 @ 9:17 am
Dumb rednecks are some of the last people who spend $$ freely on music..that’s why everyone is going “country”
June 30, 2016 @ 10:59 am
Definitely, because supporting artists you enjoy makes you dumb. And what, might I ask is wrong with being a redneck?
July 1, 2016 @ 8:30 am
Country fans are known to be loyal, which in the old days reduced the economic pressures on established artists to change their style to conform to the latest fad. I’d guess that the trend towards hip hop influenced bro country over the past few years is bringing in more young males who are less loyal and less likely to pay for their music.
Aside from older country fans, the other group of consumers who are willing to spend $$ on music are the demographics that made T-Swift so commercially successful, at least in the earlier years. Cult follower fangirls and moms who buy albums for their little girls are probably less inclined to download their music illegally.
July 2, 2016 @ 6:54 am
Hasn’t illegal downloading dropped dramatically in recent years as music streaming services have become more prevalent, better and easier to use (more powerful phones, better/faster networks, etc.). I know the streaming services don’t pay out a ton to artists, but I am guessing that illegal downloading is significantly less prevalent and less of a problem than it once was. The main problem the music industry has now is how do you adjust your bottom lines when the consumer is only spending (if they aren’t using a free service) $10 a month on music, when back in the heyday of CD’s they were spending that PER WEEK.
June 30, 2016 @ 9:19 am
Awesome, i’ll be a star in no time! Oh wait, Im actually from the south, and actually know who Jimmie Rodgers is… I guess I wont make it.
June 30, 2016 @ 9:41 am
Sooooo right on Trigger .Used to be the pop stars were the only music business whores selling out to anyone and everything in order to chase a trend . Now the ‘country’ wannabes are the same …willing to sing, write, record and perform with anybody who seems to have access to $$$$ or a fan base regardless of the quality of the product or how damaging it may be to the genre. How do you live with yourself when you’ve traded your heart’s artistic vision for a shot at five minutes of fame through some generic piece of meaningless musical fluff marketed to unknowing un-discerning and uncaring teenagers who’ll be brainwashed by the next hip thing within days ??
June 30, 2016 @ 10:16 am
“I don’t believe in money, but a man could make him a killing / Cause some of that stuff don’t sound much different than Dylan. I hear down there it’s changed you see / they’re not as backward as they used to be. He’s gone country!”
June 30, 2016 @ 10:37 am
I’d add:
*
5) Flex Your Blue Collar-Consciousness By Name-Dropping A Non-Wine (Because That’s Too High Class) Alcohol Brand And A Truck Brand
June 30, 2016 @ 10:59 am
And if it’s a beer, make sure it’s mass produced and domestic.
June 30, 2016 @ 11:02 am
Bonus points if you name-drop Wal-Mart and convince listeners everything they stock is made in the U.S.A.
June 30, 2016 @ 10:43 am
As for the Florida Georgia Line/Backstreet Boys coupling………………..it honestly is among the more natural examples of collaborations as of late because they’ve been saying for a long time how the Backstreet Boys were among their earliest musical influences. So I gather it’s a genuine showing of respect to their idols unlike, say, Hot Chelle Rae’s foray into country.
June 30, 2016 @ 10:59 am
FGL and Backstreet boys? Music labels be like “I don’t care who you are, where you’re from, or what you did, as long as you love country.”
June 30, 2016 @ 12:47 pm
*as long as you love making us money
June 30, 2016 @ 11:07 am
I think you need to do this in a handy flow chart–kinda like this, only good:
Washed up? No -> KEEP CASHING CHECKS
– yes -v
Do you have no shame? No -> Can you bank on your rep? No -> YOU’RE SCREWED!
– yes -v
Have you ever done a ‘country’ album? Yes – > YOU’VE SHOT YOUR WAD!
– not yet! -v
Can you hire the ‘hot’ producer? No -> Purchase Branson Theater –> HANG ON BY NAILS
– yes v
Make ‘Country’ Record’
– – – – v
Does Anybody Buy It?
– no – v
Get On Country Awards Show
– – – – v
Still Nothing? Nope -> YOU’RE SCREWED
– a little – -> KEEP CASHING CHECKS . . .FOR NOW . . .
June 30, 2016 @ 11:12 am
Maybe you can add a section to the field guide covering songwriting and recording suggestions such as : 1. Always write the song with a collaboration team of no less than 14 .2. More credibility earned if you can name check some ” country ” activities within the song such as sitting on a tailgate, drinking beer, dancing in the moonlight etc. 3. Include the word “girl” at least 8 times in your song and likely it will be a hit with the chosen female demographic you are targeting, this could work well for Backstreet Boys and FGL.4. Don’t unduly concern yourself with trying to make it sound authentic or old timey. According to Blake Shelton that’s for old farts like your grandpa. Just stick to what you know and keep it basic…EDM style…drum machines, synthesizer and keyboard magic is the thing. Voice modulators and hip hop beats are strongly recommended as young people find it mesmerizing.Okay, if you wanna put in a random steel guitar or a banjo somewhere have at it but go sparingly, maybe just a note or two to demonstrate how country you are….but not too much lest you wanna be in the old fart club with Ray Price and the rest of them dinosaurs.
June 30, 2016 @ 11:19 am
I’ve had it. I’m so tired of this bro music. I’m not calling it bro-country because that would imply that there is something remotely country about it when there’s not. For the week of June 5th, 1990, this was the chorus for the number one song in country music for country airplay:
Love Without End (Amen) by George Strait
And he said, “Let me tell you a secret about a father’s love,
A secret that my daddy said was just between us.”
He said, “Daddies don’t just love their children every now and then.
It’s a love without end, amen, it’s a love without end, amen.”
This was the chorus for 2016’s “T-Shirt” for the same week
T-Shirt right there
Your hair messed up like a Guns-N-Roses video (btw Guns-N-Roses was an early 1990’s traditional country music band for those of you who are not familiar #saracasm)
Ooh ooh so hot
Still got it up in my head, you were moving around in the TV light
I ain’t ever seen anything like, your dress, my floor, the way you wore, my my T-Shirt
I get that it was 26 years ago…and it is a little cherry picking…as “Achy Breaky Heart” was no.1 in 1992 for that week…but still….
T-Shirt is just too country for my taste (more sarcasm). BTW “ooh ooh so hot” may be one of the greatest lines in country music history…I’d move it ahead of “He said I’ll love you ‘til I die.”
What is up with this name-dropping of non-country artists like Guns-n-Roses? Keith Urban does the same thing in his newest no. 1 single “Wasted.” How many times does a non-country performer have a country performer perform with them on an award show? Yeah, that’d be 0. It’s almost as if country artists have to be cool in their minds and name-drop and/or sing with other NON country artists. Don’t get me wrong I like all types of music. I’m just not understanding why we have to blend it. It sucks.
What is really unfortunate is that I totally expected the songwriters of T-Shirt to be early 20-somethings who wouldn’t know country if it bit them in the you know. But, no they are three songwriters (I’m going to be nice and not include their names/google it) who are all in their late 30’s or early 40’s and they should know better. I’m 32 and the only conclusions I make are: 1) they don’t care; 2) they didn’t listen to country until 2000 maybe…I don’t know how much they drank or smoked or if it was a cruel joke but I guess it worked for ‘em.
Anyone heard Rhett’s new gem, “Vacation”? Speechless. #When ya daddy is a hit songwriter.
June 30, 2016 @ 12:56 pm
LOL “Achy Breaky Heart” is downright Shakespearean compared to what’s being played on country radio nowadays.
June 30, 2016 @ 3:17 pm
@Fat Freddy’s Cat: sad but true.
June 30, 2016 @ 11:41 am
Oh and I nearly forgot! When you get on that award stage and hoist your ” collaboration of the year” award high…don’t forget to thank the collaboration team of 14 who wrote the ” song” for you. ALSO: thanking your Mama and Jesus is a nice added touch to further ingratiate your fan base to you and it helps in proving you are indeed country!
June 30, 2016 @ 3:18 pm
I’m not knocking believers. I believe in a higher power. But it really makes me shiver when I hear Luke Bryan pull that. So God gave you the inspiration to sing “Strip It Down”???
July 1, 2016 @ 12:33 am
Luke Bryan: (wipes tears before proceeding) “I’d also like to thank God for whispering what would be the lyrics to my latest single ‘Move’ into my ear! Yep, it was all Him! Hands down! ‘Move’ would have never existed if not for our Lord! You should have heard Him! He was saying ‘Hey Earthly bro, how’s it buzzin, cousin? Hey, your music makes me hot and bothered in general, but you know what would REALLY excite me? If you sang something about a pretty thing who once had a Yankee strut but then hooks up with Southern belles and becomes the life of the country party! You can even spell the title of this song in your pre-chorus as a lyric! Here, I’ll whisper the lyrics to you and you do my bidding, bro!’ Yeah, no one knows how to get loud like God-Man!” =P
July 1, 2016 @ 11:57 am
luke bryan is the nickleback of country music
June 30, 2016 @ 11:44 am
I want to see Sam Hunt and Lady Gaga!
Miranda Lambert and Marilyn Manson!
Blake Shelton and that singer from No Doubt (oh wait shyt)
Jay Z and Willie
June 30, 2016 @ 4:53 pm
Note that Jay Z is opening a Nashville office, per a Boot article…
June 30, 2016 @ 12:16 pm
I drive a Chevy Truck, Drink Miller Lite, listen to George strait, wear boots to work, known to don a cowboy hat, play guitar, drive tractors, drive in dirt and mud, work outside, love Jesus, Love Mammas cooking, respect elders, ect…… I am a stereotype…….
June 30, 2016 @ 5:55 pm
Better not to mention a cowboy hat – too “old fart and jackass” for today’s country audiences. LOL
June 30, 2016 @ 12:57 pm
I fucking knew it! It’s those damm girls that propped up the boy bands in late 90’s and early 2000’s that are screwing up country music with that shitty nashville pop. I knew it, I knew, it I knew it.
Just go to one of these clown’s concerts and its majority women. They grew up but they still want that pop.
June 30, 2016 @ 3:34 pm
Yeah. Lord knows I’ve never seen any guys listening to FGL or Sam Hunt…
Come on, now.
June 30, 2016 @ 1:51 pm
Don’t forget the pioneers of country-boyband collaborations: Alabama.They sang the awful “God Must Have Spent a Little More Time on You” with ‘N Sync 17 years ago.
June 30, 2016 @ 3:20 pm
And I liked (and still do) like Alabama…but yeah. Cringe.
June 30, 2016 @ 2:17 pm
Also do not forget to bring lots and lots of pablum…………..for all the pukers you will be associated with until they wake up.
June 30, 2016 @ 3:06 pm
This is why I love you.
June 30, 2016 @ 3:22 pm
These are my rules if I was a dictator and was able to control what was played on Country radio.
1. If you use oooohhhhh oooooohhhhh. You are not getting played. Period.
2. We will have a fiddle or steel guitar in at least every other song played on the radio.
3. If you are more concerned with your spray tan and “gainz” than the actual lyrics of your songs, you ain’t gettin’ played. That should effectively eliminate about every bro artist out there.
4. If you have a rock voice (Brantley Gilbert) you ain’t gettin’ played.
Those are the starters…
July 5, 2016 @ 6:22 pm
5. You can’t be 40 and sing about spring break chicks. Or sing about spring break at all.
June 30, 2016 @ 3:45 pm
Yes It has gone way to far but It’s not something new anyone who remember this…?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPjggN-KByI
Here’s article about it…
http://www.ew.com/article/1992/02/07/tammy-wynette-and-klf
June 30, 2016 @ 4:18 pm
Should probebly add that nobody back then tried to call it Country….
June 30, 2016 @ 6:31 pm
@Kent. Oh my word. I’ve never seen or heard that. What in the world was that? If you ever are debating between her and the other female artists- just pull that clip. Wow.
July 1, 2016 @ 12:48 am
“If you ever are debating between her and the other female artists- just pull that clip”
If you think I would hold this against her, sorry, I wouldn’t do that. because I think she did this mostly for fun. And the most important thing is neither she or anyone else tried to call it Country…. And to me that’s a big difference compared to today….
July 1, 2016 @ 2:54 am
@Justin
And just clarify thing more:
( I started to regret I posted that video… And I do wish my writing skill in English would be better. Because even if Tammy isn’t my favorite singer I do have a LOT of respect for her both as a singer and as a songwriter.And I do not want to throw any dirt on her).
Neither She or that band KFL is trying to MERGE Country and hip hop I mean Tammy is singing and phrasing the song exactly as she would a Country tune, there’s NO hip pop phrasing, no rapping. And it is an important difference compared to the todays pop country artist because they are trying to MERGE Country with other genre. And the most obvious exampel of that is Sam Hunt and FGL…
July 2, 2016 @ 8:49 pm
Just for arcane chart matters, it’s worth noting that “Justified And Ancient” is Tammy’s biggest pop hit, reaching #11 in early 1992. Her only other Top 40 pop hit before that was, of course, “Stand By Your Man”, which got up to #19 in January 1969.
July 3, 2016 @ 5:03 am
“Just for arcane chart matters…”
Yes, i knew that and I don’t care that much about those chart, even though I am of course happy when an artist I like make it to the top chart. And it’s fun to study them….But I guess it’s a bit strange that “Stand By Your Man” entered the POP-chart, but on the other hand it also reached #1 on the country charts.”Justified And Ancient” did not….
June 30, 2016 @ 4:45 pm
I, personally don’t care where an artist is from.Just make good music. Gillian Welch is from New York and she doesn’t suck.
June 30, 2016 @ 5:04 pm
I think that we are a crossroads sort of tipping point.
Either Country goes the way of Chris Stapleton and returns to a similar golden era as it did with the Outlaws of the 70’s, or it goes down this road and faces dire consequences.
We shall see.
June 30, 2016 @ 5:53 pm
Apart from going for the Easy Money, the bean counters in Nashville probably don’t care just how bizarre a lot of these “collaborations” are, because there just doesn’t seem to be anything truly artistic about them. Or is it because they’re scared of the backlash that is slowly but surely building steam? That Florida-Georgia Line/Backstreet Boys collaboration is truly one for the record books in the Wretch Department: the worst of Bro-Country, and the worst of “boy bands” (and that last term is an insult to actual “boy bands” like the Beatles or the Beach Boys, in my opinion).
If there is one particular collaboration I think a lot of people would probably have paid to have had happen, it is one that would have teamed Trisha Yearwood with Linda Ronstadt, who, while not really a country artist in the strictest sense of the term, is a spiritual mentor to Trisha and tons of other rock-slanted female country artists. Unfortunately, Linda’s Parkinson’s condition made any further recordings impossible because it destroyed her ability to sing. To me, that would have been a collaborative effort that nobody would have found a legitimate reason to object to.
June 30, 2016 @ 8:41 pm
Has anybody considered that someday, many trends from now, many of these douchebags…Luke Bryan, Jason Aldean, Thomas Rhett, etc will be the old guard and considered legacy/classic country? I didn’t really consider Tracy Byrd or Aaron Tippon classic when they came out but they sound pretty darn good these days. It happens in all forms of music…Van Halen, Run DMC were the new thing at one point, now they’re classic.
June 30, 2016 @ 9:00 pm
I don’t think we’ll ever consider it “classic country”…but I do believe that we will look back 20 years from now and go “it’s worse now…I mean Luke sang with a hint of a twang….he was from the South…he did grow up on a farm.” I remember my grandmother in the early 90’s going “that ain’t country” while listening to the music from that time and as a long time (then subscriber) to “Country Weekly” that topic was ALWAYS coming up…”is it too pop now? What about the legends, they don’t play the legends anymore.” Shania Twain is evil yada yada yada. Certainly, there will always be a group that will believe the only day better than yesterday was the day before that. Kinda like how LeBron can never pass Jordan no matter what he does for some people. The problem I have is that we’ve never seen anything like this for country music. And it is never coming back. Ever. Aaron Tippin, Tracy Byrd type voice you bring up: forever extinct. It’s only a matter of how much worse it will get.
July 1, 2016 @ 1:49 am
Actually, Kevin…this bro/frat shit will be condemned to the same scrap pile as “hair metal.” And it will rightfully be subject to the disrespect and ridicule it so deserves!!!
July 1, 2016 @ 6:55 am
There where a few good Hair Metal Bands that have stood the test of time for me, ie Poison, Ratt, Motley Cruz and a band that has been going strong for thirty years Bon Jovi and ranks in my Top Five favorite musical artists/acts of all time.
July 1, 2016 @ 9:14 am
Sorry, it is either NWOBHM or Thrash for me….or it’s nothing at all!!!
July 1, 2016 @ 7:38 am
For what it’s worth, Rolling Stone listed Kane Brown as one of “10 new country artists you need to know” July edition. Feets don’t fail me now as I flee…
July 1, 2016 @ 8:12 am
Mike…you got the wrong site man. No hair metal here bro….oh wait …I forgot, Stephen Tyler and Brett Michaels are now country artists. Whoops, my bad…silly me, hey maybe it’s time for Motley Crew to do a country album too…they can collaborate with Jamey Johnson and call it ” Hair Country” !
July 1, 2016 @ 9:17 am
Heck no. But maybe a country music remake of GBH’s “War Dogs” might be pretty cool!! Oh wait, that song talks about mercenaries….It’s not “Support the Troops” enough to be “country” these days!!!
Or maybe a Sturgill Simpson/Celtic Frost collab might be cool too…I dunno.
July 1, 2016 @ 8:36 am
I think there is a lot of truth to this article. Especially the last part, pop artists who want a piece of the country music economic pie should keep talking about how much they support the troops, so that it would be unpatriotic for anyone to criticize them no matter how bad their music is.
July 4, 2016 @ 2:44 pm
Call me crazy, but I miss the good old days when country was country and Hootie was Hootie. I need a hot tub time machine….
July 6, 2016 @ 8:09 am
So apparently the new Kenny Chesney album has been pushed back to October so that he can record a duet with Pink that, according to Chesney, represents the “best part of life.” I have nothing against Pink; I like a couple of her songs and she occasionally has some smart lyrics. I’ll admit I loved the “Stupid Girl” video. But, yeah, not too excited for this.
July 6, 2016 @ 11:22 am
Yet another example of how the next major trend in music is going to be collaborations with pop/rock/hip-hop stars. Double up on the star power to sell more downloads and get more streams. Expect an announcement like this every week from here on out.
July 7, 2016 @ 9:52 pm
Expertly written, as always! That FL-GA Line thing has me gigglin like crazy.
July 9, 2016 @ 6:33 am
With so much untapped great female country singer songwriters, it angers me that these male artists keep going to these pop stars for projects. I get it is financial but it still sucks! That Brad & Demi song makes me cringe as well be/c the 20 yr age difference & the song lyrics but I guess that is for another time.
July 21, 2016 @ 2:09 pm
I would like Carrie Underwood to collaborate with a pop star like Katy Perry and make a pop song. Why? Because Carrie Underwood needs to be a crossover country act so she can finally make pop music for pop audiences while she remains country. This is gonna be fun.
July 24, 2016 @ 5:44 am
The day that Luke Bryan, Florida Georgia Line, and Thomas Rhett are called “Classic country” is the day I irreversably lose all faith in humanity!!!!!!