Wait, All Of A Sudden Hootie & The Blowfish Is “Country” Too?
Look. It’s true that Darius Rucker makes an easy target when you want to go off on a tangent about all the interlopers in country music these days. As a pop rocker from the 90’s that turned country in 2008 to attempt to salvage his lagging career, he’s a country music carpetbagger if there ever was one. But if we’re being fair and honest, Darius Rucker has never been a part of the problem in country music, a few of his more questionable singles aside.
When Darius Rucker first made the switch to country, he was arguably more rootsy and twangy than many of his mainstream country counterparts. Some people love to roll their eyes over his cover of Old Crow Medicine Show’s “Wagon Wheel,” and more recently his take on Drivin’ & Cryin’s “Straight to Hell,” but covering these iconic songs is a hell of a lot better than collaborating with Justin Bieber or Marshmello like some of the other characters in “country” music are doing these days.
But how in the name of country music did Hootie & the Blowfish proper all of a sudden become a country band? Is it just because Darius Rucker is the front man? The group reunited this year to celebrate its 25th Anniversary, and booked 44-dates on their “Group Therapy Tour.” Okay cool, so Rucker took some time off from his country career to helm his nostalgia act for its 25-year-old celebration. That’s understandable and innocuous. No harm no foul.
But all of a sudden Hootie & the Blowfish—not just Darius Rucker—is signed to Universal Music Group’s country imprint in Nashville, is planning to release a new record on November 1st called Imperfect Circle, and just released a straight up pop rock Hootie & the Blowfish single called “Hold On” that has just become the “most added” song on COUNTRY radio, rocketing all the way to #30 on the charts upon its debut. That’s right, as we were all jamming out to the new Cody Jinks records, Hootie & the Blowfish has officially become a country music group with a major label deal, full support from country radio, and all the other rights and privileges of a mainstream country music act thereof.
How the hell did this happen? How does this make any sense at all? How can a long-established and universally-recognized pop rock band waltz right into country music and get handed a Top 30 single straight out of the chute, when the excellent singles recently released from Ashley McBryde and Maddie & Tae can’t even crack the Top 40? The current George Strait single is sitting at #56. And that’s the real concern here—the hopscotching nature of this whole thing. Hootie & the Blowfish? Why on God’s creation does country music need to throw its resources behind these guys who will probably be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame someday, when there’s so many other hungry mouths to feed, and so few spaces at the trough?
It’s not that this new single “Hold On” is terrible or something. It’s a pretty standard and formulaic pop rock song, full of pith and platitudes. And yeah, compared to some of the other singles out there lurking on country radio, it’s pretty unoffensive. But that’s missing the greater point. Even with the Justin Bieber and Marshmello collaborations peaking on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts at the moment, at least they’re one-off situations. Hootie & The Blowfish is here to stay. They’re going to be like the in-laws that arrived for Christmas dinner and never left. Perhaps we should induct them into the Grand Ole Opry just like we did Darius.
Country radio, country labels, and country charts are for country artists. Do you want to get into the tired old argument again about “What is country?” Good, because neither do I. But we should all at least be able to agree that a band that spent a quarter century not being country shouldn’t be able to just all of a sudden declare they’re country without changing their sound at all just because it’s the easiest avenue to radio support. Perhaps if the Hootie members had done like Darius, and at least attempted to ingratiate themselves to the country community by releasing some country songs, and embellished their stories about how they’ve always listened to country music and grew up with it, yaddada yaddada, we’d at least have a debate on our hands of what to do with them. But they’re not even doing that. This is a straight up and long-established pop rock band releasing songs through country.
All the best to Hootie & the Blowfish, and its inoffensive, formulaic arena pop rock. But call it country, and we have a big, big problem. There’s too many artists out there that devoted the first quarter century of their lives and careers to actually making country music that never got their opportunity to all of a sudden let something like Hootie & the Blowfish just cut in line. It all underscores how Nashville has now become the epicenter for artists that can’t make it in New York, can’t make it in L.A., can’t make it in any other format, so they declare themselves country, and the gullible masses lap it up.
True country fans don’t want to hate on Hootie & the Blowfish. Those mid 90’s hits are fun to hum along to. But call it country, and you’ve just created a conflict where there wasn’t one, and crowded out more important artists in an already crowded space. This decision may work for Hootie in the short term, but it won’t look good for country in the “Cracked Rear View.”
October 23, 2019 @ 10:43 am
Make sure to stream/buy Miranda’s album that week so it is number one and not Hootie and the Blowfish.
October 23, 2019 @ 10:53 am
See, this is why this is a problem. Hootie and the Blowfish will be releasing a big reunion record that will have Gen X’ers all nostalgic, and will be pulling fans from both country and rock now. It very well could go #1, while Miranda Lambert has to play second fiddle. I still think Miranda is likely to do better, but who knows? That’s why we have to put our foot down about these kinds of things. No offense to Hootie and the Blowfish. I enjoy all those old alt-radio hits, and it’s a hell of a lot better than what’s on country radio now. But it doesn’t make it right.
October 23, 2019 @ 11:23 am
I 100 percent agree. I almost didn’t even post that comment but I felt the need to say something and put my foot down.
October 23, 2019 @ 12:47 pm
Hootie and the Blowfish were rock’s third-string players back in the day. That they have a new deal is yet more evidence that country music and musicians have been benched in favor of Nashville Pop.
October 23, 2019 @ 7:43 pm
I was thirteen years old when Cracked Rear View came out and became a phenomenal success. It was everywhere, both rock radio and pop radio, while strolling through Target or riding in a friend’s car. I don’t know what “rock’s third-string players back in the day means” when, assuming wikipedia is correct, that album “is the 19th-best-selling album of all time in the United States, and was certified platinum 21 times.” If that’s third rate, then I’d love to be third rate in anything I do in my life! I guess from some critical stance, comparing Hootie to Zeppelin (for example), then sure, they’re hardly brilliant or legends. But, they were at the pinnacle in the mid-90’s and released some solid singles that, for many of us, still stand the test of time, even beyond nostalgia.
October 24, 2019 @ 7:26 am
“Hootie” (wtf) came out in 1995, well after Nirvana’s Nevermind. So pop rock in the grunge era was already a has-been. In short, Hootie was a square.
Don Gehman produced the record (ably) well after peak Mellencamp, which he had produced. Rucker had a husky voice that appealed without being threatening.
It was about money then, as it is about money now. There is no musical drive there, at all. And no lyrical identity or ambition. Rucker will sing Paul Anka if it comes to that.
If you like the Hootie thing, who am I to stop you. But they are not, and never have been, a musical direction.
October 24, 2019 @ 9:20 am
I’m about twenty years older. Hold My Hand had this roots rock fan rushing to buy the album. And I do think that’s still one of their songs that holds up. It’s a fun, catchy roots rock power pop song. I also thought Let Her Cry (?) was a good one. Ultimately though, I got bored with the album as a whole pretty quick. It paled in comparison to other rootsy rock albums I loved around that time, like John Hiatt’s Perfectly Good Guitar and Walk On, the first Counting Crows album, and Cracker’s Kerosene Hat. I tried to trade it in numerous times (“Everybody bought it, everybody wants to get rid of it” is what one used CDs store owner told me once). Still, Hootie was a lot better than Rucker’s pop country stuff. As I recall, the band coalesced when they were students at University of South Carolina. It didn’t feel like sell out music, just not all that great. Seemed like Rucker must have had some good taste in music with his referring to Nanci Griffith’s “It’s a Hard Life Wherever You Go” in one song and referring to lyrics from Dylan’s Idiot Wind (from Blood on the Tracks) in another.
October 24, 2019 @ 5:42 pm
Wow, Jack, those albums bring back some good memories.
I believe that era also produced Joe Ely’s “Letter to Laredo”, Wayne Hancock “Thunderstorms and Neon Signs”, Son Volt “Trace”, Alan Jackson “Everything I Love”, Smashing Pumpkins “Mellon Collie”, Junior Brown “Junior High”, The Delevantes “Long About that Time”, Dale Watson “Cheatin’ Heart Attack”, etc. Steve Earle had a couple of albums out in quick succession. I feel like I could go on for a while with all the great stuff coming out.
At the time WNEW was going through an experimental phases and played John Hiatt, Steve Earle, Son Volt.
October 23, 2019 @ 1:44 pm
Speaking as a Gen Xer, Hootie doesn’t make me nostalgic at all, but Strait and Yoakum and Travis do.
In the future, everything will be country music for fifteen minutes.
October 23, 2019 @ 10:38 pm
My high school girlfriend listened to Hootie.
I was more a Deftones and Tool sort of guy. Still am.
Didn’t care then. Don’t care now. I wonder, though, if younger pop/manufactured country fans will care?
As long as there are enough of us to care about good music, there will be country artists who can make it by giving us good music. Beyond that, fucks will not be given.
I care more about the fact that I missed the Lucero show in LA last week.
October 24, 2019 @ 2:25 pm
I blame Shania Twain for this her hopscotching is waht led to all this.
October 29, 2019 @ 7:28 am
I hope Miranda doesn’t get impacted by Hootie having the same release day. She may have songs that stray from “country”, but the majority of her catalog is pure country. I hope she debuts at #1 like she has with most of her past albums.
October 24, 2019 @ 4:19 am
Dude, based on the songs she’s released, I’ll stick with Hootie. That album is shaping up to be garbage. I’ll never know why she gets such a pass. She makes horrible pop rock songs.
October 23, 2019 @ 10:49 am
you can make it in Nashville compared to LA and NYC because country music markets to the dumbest most gullible audience..say something about the troops here,the Bible there, and overweight yokels who are intimidated by actual art will spend money on you (they don’t like to stream because there are too many choices and they don’t know where to start). country is also the easiest genre to perform or write
October 23, 2019 @ 11:18 am
“country is also the easiest genre to perform or write”
Is it hell. Traditional country has far higher standards of vocal and instrumental ability than most rock or pop and I’d argue the level of songwriting is significantly higher too.
October 23, 2019 @ 11:24 am
And I’m not sure I’d rate pop listeners above “country” radio listeners either. All it takes is a hook and some hand claps (or whatever gimmick of the moment) to make a hit.
Talent really has little to do with big industry commercial success. It’s all about marketing and monopolies.
October 24, 2019 @ 12:04 pm
Agree. Country music—quality country music—tells a story; and it takes a skilled writer to compose a memorable one in a unique way. The majority of pop/rock songs today?…not so much, although that wasn’t true many years ago.
October 23, 2019 @ 11:35 am
So let me get this straight: you think the average listener to country music is somehow dumber than the average listener to top 40? Excluding the sizable overlap between those two audiences, I’d say the average exclusive country radio listener is almost certainly less of a knucklehead than the average exclusive top 40 radio listener.
And further… country is easier to write? By default, referencing any of the things you mentioned is both more difficult and “higher brow” than what barely passes as a litany of euphemisms for ****ing and constitutes the majority of top 40 lyrics.
In fact, your comment is so stupid on its face that I’m going to assume you’re a troll.
October 23, 2019 @ 2:16 pm
Well, he was the guy who said Sturgill was evolving country with a synthesizer, so…
October 24, 2019 @ 4:06 am
The average country radio listener is willing to listen to songs that are far more pop than country but not good enough to make it on top 40 radio. The average country radio listener will also listen to artists who’ve lost their spot in rock/pop and create a second career for themselves in country, even actors who’s roles have dried up go country because they know they can find an audience. I’m not going to call these people dumb, more like easily entertained.
October 23, 2019 @ 5:34 pm
Tony, bless your heart. I believe that you are educated above your intelligence.
October 24, 2019 @ 2:29 pm
Country music as I understand had a long tradition of gate keeprs to ensure some standards were held up. And the gatekeepers had their problem but greatest of country acts used those gate keeprs as something to push against and take country into the now. I think the lack of gate keeping is a REAL problem. Or is certainly skewed these days. And those that push against the gate have now had to create a new genre (americana) to get heard at all.
October 27, 2019 @ 6:52 pm
Nashville has always had the best musicians, that’s what ‘Nashville Cats’ is all about, and that song was written in 1966.
Real country music is the one of the few that actually requires vocal chops, and often the ability to sing harmonies. Listen to some of the old guys and gals sing and they still put almost all today’s popular music in the dumpster.
November 5, 2019 @ 8:23 am
Pop markets are so gullible and easy to trick: say something about sex here, make a false stab at ‘acceptance’ here, wear barely any clothes on stage, repetitive lyrics here, etc etc
See how easy stereotypes are!
October 23, 2019 @ 11:08 am
Ya know ironically I “stumbled” upon the album yesterday and gave the full thing a run through for snicks and giggles. I thought to myself well that’s nice the guys got back together and made a record that sounds like…………….old Hootie And The Blowfish almost. Nice enough for the old guys. I further thought it’s pleasant Hootie stuff but I really have no time nor desire to devote to it due to the fact that I have literally 20 or more new incredible actual Country releases I’m trying to get a grip on that are good and great. Most of which should have at least a song on the radio before Hootie’s “Hold On”. I never once thought…this is Country or should be on Country radio. I’m not shocked because let’s face it nothing is shocking any more, but I’m pissed and sad. So many deserving songs from real Country albums instead of Hold On.
October 23, 2019 @ 11:20 am
Nice last sentence. But to refer to those two songs that Darius caused the world to know as ‘iconic’ is laughable. I hadnt heard of either one until Rucker did them, and his wagon wheel is great. I realize that isnt the point of this article, but it caught my attention. Maybe, now, those songs are iconic thanks to someone.
October 23, 2019 @ 11:50 am
The two songs are iconic and familiar to those of us that got sick of being spoon-fed music that was called country in name but not country in sound on mainstream “country” radio and found actual country music outside of an outdated mode of new music discovery.
October 23, 2019 @ 1:15 pm
“Wagon Wheel” became so extremely popular and iconic in independent/Americana circles that it eventually became extremely unpopular for being so ubiquitous and worn out and people began mocking it as the “Free Bird” of string band music. The song arguably was the catalyst from the string band craze of the late oughts that made bands like Mumford & Sons and The Lumineers the most popular acts in all of music.
“Straight To Hell” is much less well-known, but has been the show ender for Drivin’ & Cryin’ for years, and is definitely iconic to the folks that know it. Make no mistake that Darius cut it hoping he would find the same success with it as he did “Wagon Wheel.”
October 24, 2019 @ 1:28 am
Wagon wheel is a damn awful cover and I wish he hadn’t touched it. I know so many people who think he was the original artist, I wish he would just stick to being in Hootie and leaving country to country artists.
October 25, 2019 @ 5:18 am
I’ve said this before on SCM… Rucker covering “Wagon Wheel’ has changed the demographic of OCMS concerts for the absolute worse. I’ve been seeing them in concert since 2006 and the last 4 times I’ve seen them, I’ve been in confrontations and seen countless fights. That didn’t happen before Rucker.
I believe people are tracing “Wagon Wheel” back to OCMS and attending their concerts not knowing what to expect and not mixing well with us hillbillys. In one of my cases, it was a girl dragging her boyfriend who didn’t want to be there and took exception to my hell raising ruckus. I hope this evens out over time, because pre-Rucker OCMS concerts were the best!
October 24, 2019 @ 7:59 am
Hardworking Americans absolutely killed “Straight to Hell” that’s the best version out there.
October 23, 2019 @ 11:23 am
Nope.
October 23, 2019 @ 11:24 am
It sucks because there are so many people out there who still want to listen to just plain ol’ regular decent music, such as Hootie and the Blowfish, but no stations play that kind of music. Trigger, you’re right it doesn’t belong on country radio, but it doesn’t fit anywhere else with all the other shitty radio stations out there playing pop and God knows what else.
October 23, 2019 @ 11:33 am
That’s because rock radio did what country radio is doing right now, which is throwing the barn doors wide, letting anyone and everyone in who wants to declare themselves country, to the point where you can’t define yourself as a format and it implodes as a going concern.
I honestly feel bad for Hootie and the Blowfish too. You’re right, they do deserve a way forward on radio. But I think they’d do fine on AAA, even if it won’t reach the same audience. Those dudes are set up for life, and can make money from touring until they die. As an advocate for country music, I want those important slots to go to country artists.
October 23, 2019 @ 11:29 am
They’ve been playing super old Hootie and the Blowfish songs (“Let Her Cry” and “Only Want to Be With You”) on my local South Florida country station for months now (yes, I listen to mainstream country radio sometimes, blame my girlfriend). They even had a premiere of the of their new song the day it came out and played it non stop all day. All part of their massive marketing campaign for their reunion and new album I guess. When I first heard “Let Her Cry” come on a while back I thought I had changed the station without knowing, It was so strange.
Props to them for leveraging Darius’ success in country though, there’s no way they would generate nearly as much hype for a reunion album and tour without it. They’ve found an audience dumb enough to lap this stuff up and not question at all what this band is doing on country radio.
October 23, 2019 @ 6:45 pm
Always thought “Let Her Cry” was a pretty awesome song.
October 23, 2019 @ 9:31 pm
I agree, not a bad song at all.
October 23, 2019 @ 11:37 am
At first thought I wondered why Darius would do this, it would seem that he would make more money being a solo artist, instead of playing with Hootie, so why bring them into the genre where he is a solo artist. Looking at both of them, Darius despite having a number of hits, has never really elevated to a headliner as a solo artist, at least not in bigger venues sch as amphitheaters. Hootie has been on this big tour headlining much bigger venues than he does as a solo artist. Do you think he enjoys being the headliner in bigger venues much more and a way to do that is jsut bring the band in, where it is not just Darius Rucker, but it is Hootie and the Blowfish. It’s not like those old Hootie songs couldn’t be played to country fans, they are actually much more lyrically country than most of mainstream out today.
October 23, 2019 @ 2:42 pm
Detroit’s Trash- er, I mean Nash- FM affiliate actually has some old H&TB ’90s hits (i.e. “Only Wanna Be with You”) in their gold library. Of course, this is also a station that thought Taylor Swift’s Max Martin pop singles from “1989” were country and has the Marshmello/Kane Brown and Diplo/Morgan Wallen collabs in rotation right now.
October 23, 2019 @ 12:03 pm
Please listen to Desert Mountain Showdown. Thanks.
October 23, 2019 @ 1:19 pm
Just because you release a country song doesn’t make you a country band. “Hangman’s Jury” doesn’t make Aerosmith country, nor does “Every Rose Has Its Thorn” make Poison country.
That said, if Hootie and the Blowfish wanted to release a song like “Desert Mountain Showdown” to country radio, I’d be all for it. I’d be applauding it. But they didn’t. They released a pop rock song.
October 23, 2019 @ 12:36 pm
Most music people know who Darius Rucker is (when they aren’t literally calling him “Hootie”). Can anybody name a single other member of the Hootie & The Blowfish band? Probably not. Those guys might as well be anonymous. For better or worse, Darius Rucker has developed a solo career and a name for himself in pop-country, so it makes sense that if the band ever to reunite they’d leverage his fame and reputation in country to re-launch.
There’s four new Hootie singles on Spotify, presumably from the forthcoming album, and to my ears they’re all quasi-country and wouldn’t sound too out of place on mainstream pop-country radio. I was never a Hootie or Rucker fan, so I just took another listen on Spotify to get reacquainted. The new tracks sound considerably more “country” than the old stuff. Rucker puts on a country accent and there seems to be a little more twang to the music.
Why are Darius and Hootie & The Blowfish doing this? Business. Why is mainstream country doing this? Business. It’s the path of least resistance to promoting and selling a reunion album from an legacy dad-rock band – scooping up both old Hootie fans and Darius’ newer fans. At least it’s not a hip-hop album, like Lil Nas X.
October 23, 2019 @ 12:57 pm
“At least it’s not a hip-hop album, like Lil Nas X.”
Yet..
November 13, 2019 @ 12:52 am
listen to the rap they do in the middle of love the one your with
October 23, 2019 @ 12:56 pm
It seems like there is no modern “rock” radio anymore. Or hardly any big time “rock” bands. The band’s doing any rock n roll seem to exist in the underground scenes, on independent labels or under more specific sub genres like “punk”, “metal”, “indie”, “progressive”, “southern”, and on and on and on. There’s obviously still a huge market for derivative arena rock, alternative, college radio friendly type stuff and it seems like country radio is where it ends up. There are sooo many “country” artists who really just do arena anthems befitting of a Harley dealership lobby or county fair. Or poppy acoustic driven stuff that would’ve been “college rock” or “alternative” in the nineties, if it weren’t for some folksy subject matter, a little vocal twang and some traditional instruments. This has been goin on for a while. It makes perfect sense that theyre capitalizing on a hole in mainstream pop markets but it does really sucks when you look at the many true country, bluegrass, “Americana” artists out there touring, putting out great albums and getting impressive numbers independently only to be pushed aside for, say, Hootie and the fucking Blowfish?!
October 23, 2019 @ 1:16 pm
I turned off radio years ago, (except on a road trip where I look for an am/fm station playing local fare like WSM when I was in Nashville) and with all the new cds and downloads I picked up from the reviews on Saving Country Music and Ken Burns documentary, I don’t have time to waste on lousy radio. Plug in my ipod ( yup I’m that old school!) and surround myself with just the good stuff!
Never was a Hootie fan, liked a couple of Darius songs, but c’mon, Hootie ain’t country!!
October 24, 2019 @ 4:57 am
That old school? Dude, I still buy and use Sony Discmans. I still use my Sony Walkman as well from time to time. An iPod is not THAT old school.
October 23, 2019 @ 1:27 pm
Darius Rucker had one of the best transitions from pop to country music, right up there with Vince Gill and Kenny Rodgers. Personally, I don’t think this Hootie and the Blowfish “Reboot” will be that successful…. 90s nostalgia is fading quicker than faded jeans. Hootie and the Blowfish really peaked in ’95-’99… I believe they had an album in the 00s that didn’t do very well. I don’t think their fanbase is at all excited for the new tunes, most fans are probably hipsters that just want the greatest hits. I’m viewing this Hootie project as just an extension of Darius’ contract… plus the new song sounds exactly like a Darius solo career song (so does most of all of Hootie’s discography)
October 24, 2019 @ 6:59 am
That last album was actually quite good,unfortunate that it didn’t do better.
October 24, 2019 @ 8:06 am
“Hipsters” want Hootie’s greatest hits? Since when are Hootie fans, people in their 40’s, considered “hipsters”?
I agree this smells to me like Rucker riding out his album contract. Like, he wants out and convinced his label bosses to let him do a Hootie reunion album rather than a solo album. Or, on the other hand, maybe his label bosses aren’t impressed with his recent solo sales so they floated the idea of a Hootie reunion album to leverage some nostalgia to boost album sales.
October 24, 2019 @ 9:42 pm
I’m sure Darius doesn’t want to leave Capitol… It was probably pushed by The Label to do it. Darius’ solo career came in like a lion but his past few singles have taken awhile to reach #1 on radio… With the competitive presence of the streaming youth stars of Rhett, Combs, and Kane Brown… Darius has become the grandpa of Country music ( like Blake Shelton) .. So this Hootie reBOOT is a way to get people talking again. A win win for Capitol UMG
October 23, 2019 @ 1:28 pm
This is nothing new. Nostalgic 40-somethings have been accepting pop or rock acts from their youth as country since before I was born. See Conway, Jerry Lee, Bon Jovi (!), Aaron Lewis, Kid Rock, Tom Jones, Lionel Richie, Michelle Branch, Ray Charles, Elvis Costello, and of course, that other Elvis.
October 23, 2019 @ 5:14 pm
Actually, a couple of these artists actually have had country hits on the charts from the start of their careers and they are Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis.
October 23, 2019 @ 8:13 pm
I don’t think that fact diminishes the truth in my comment
October 24, 2019 @ 8:07 am
Brenda Lee is another example.
Bottom line is that there is a tendency for people who grow out of their desire to listen to rock as they age. They get settled down, they raise kids, they stop partying, and their musical choices reflect their newly domesticated status. They listen to country and MOR/AC music, as it speaks to family life and related topics. But then they hear a familiar voice on their country station, and it appeals to them, because it remind them of their youth. Familiarity can be attractive when it comes to music and movies and other forms of storytelling. So they hear that singer who they used to listen to 20 years ago, and they are ready to listen to whatever that voice is singing.
This is also why nostalgic songs are so successful in country music, even when they recall non-country songs (“Lost in the Fifties”, “All Summer Long”, “Springsteen”). I cannot recall a lot of rock tunes or pop tunes that harken back to old songs or singers. Maybe “Sir Duke” or Eddie Money’s ” I Wanna Go Back” or “Take me Home Tonight”. But the overwhelming majority of songs which successfully tap into nostalgia are country songs. For this reason, the acceptance of Hootie and the Blowfish by country audiences and country radio is not a surprise at all. It’s only the latest example in a long, long line of them.
October 24, 2019 @ 6:08 pm
it doesn’t justify the lack of COUNTRY music overall on ‘COUNTRY’ radio. it is all but non-existent and adding hootie and co. to the mix is just another nail in the coffin as well as being a HUGE insult .
airplay and exposure allotted to the acts exploiting the genre rather than the artists who have committed to it since day one ….who write , record and tour to support that commitment and have a following because of that commitment but are completely marginalized in favour of hootie and company illustrates how that fact has become more and more glaring than it may have been 20-30 years ago when the folks you mentioned slipped through the back door and crashed the party .
country doesn’t need hootie at the cost of airplay for alan jackson or holly williams or reba . its such a ‘fuck COUNTRY listeners’ approach to things that it is actually sickening to see the genre being shit on week by week ….act by act ….station by station . WE ARE LOSING AN ARTFORM ……it isn’t ‘evolving ‘….its devolving ….completely devolving to nothing more than a trendy fast food restaurant chasing a youthful demographic’s disposable income and fleeting fast food tastes . we don’t get brilliant writing from the likes of a kristofferson , a bob mcdill , a don schlitz …..we don’t get a scorching paul franklin or brent mason solo ….we don’t even get a decent COUNTRY singer any more ….we get shit songwriting , few to NO soloists , and we show the door to josh Turner , mo pitney , joe nichols , george and Aj ….reba, dolly and many many many more GREAT talents whose passion for the genre and its tradions is ALWAYS apparent ……
you can like whateverr music you like and try to explain away the situation with any logic or language you like …..but you can’t deny the facts . the industry more and more often chooses $$$$$ over talent and artistry and panders to a youth market that COULD NOT CARE LESS about this fact .
October 24, 2019 @ 6:24 pm
Wow. All I can say to that is that I respectfully disagree with your entire comment.
October 31, 2019 @ 2:31 pm
…Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Exile, Michael Martin Murphey, Dan Seals, Billy Joe Royal, Michael Johnson, Dobie Gray, Tommy Roe, Don McLean are a few more who went from pop to country
October 23, 2019 @ 1:43 pm
Riding that wagon wheel all the way to the bank.
October 23, 2019 @ 5:16 pm
Hopefully this is a one off effort for them, kinda like when Bon Jovi released their “country” record. Steven Tyler did one too.
Feels like these old rockers think because so many of their fans grew up to be country fans, we wanted to hear them do country.
They are so, SO wrong.
October 23, 2019 @ 5:29 pm
I checked the writers on this and Chris Stapleton is credited as a writer. Kelly Clarkson really hit the nail on the head recently that Country radio is not playing Country. I just listened to the Top 50 for the last week on Billboard and more than half the songs on there are not Country. It’s really disappointing, and Country music loses in the end. Like you said there are so many artists making true blue Country who are not getting the support they deserve. Why has Country radio turned it’s back on Country music for this generic crap? It all sounds the same. I love Hootie but they def are not Country, they are rock for sure.
October 23, 2019 @ 5:30 pm
Ray Small Reverbnation.Com
October 23, 2019 @ 5:38 pm
Agreed. Nice shout out to Maddie and Tae.
October 23, 2019 @ 6:16 pm
The problem, as I see it, isn’t Hootie and his Blowfish, or Sam Hunt, or Lil Nas X. It’s those greedy bastards who run the recording companies. As long as they can make a dime off pushing fake ‘ country ‘ acts to those who don’t know the difference, they’ll do anything. So, maybe we should stay away from all major labels and stick with self-published CDs.
October 23, 2019 @ 6:49 pm
Sigh. On behalf of my generation, I am so very sorry.
I gave Darius Rucker the benefit of the doubt when he “went country.” He talked a good game, and his first couple of singles weren’t bad. I kinda lost interest after that, though.
I liked Hootie and the Blowfish well enough back in the day, too, but it’s pretty fucked up that country radio won’t play the latest George Strait but will play this new stuff from Hootie when they’re A. from another genre and B. 25 years past their heyday in said genre.
Beats the crap out of Lil Nas X, I suppose, but why play this and not the latest Charley Crockett?
October 23, 2019 @ 7:17 pm
there doesn’t seem to be much hope left for ‘country’ radio .
would rucker even have a sniff of a country career without his hootie success ?…..doubt it . his songs have been mostly formulaic pop pollution .
‘country’ radio just comes across as more and more pandering , desperate ,disloyal , disinterested, lost , lazy , and uncommitted to anything but $$$$ . give ’em 40 ‘ol town roads’ and they’d be happy .
mainstream ‘country’ radio is a musical whore . any music , any time with anyone for money .
October 23, 2019 @ 7:31 pm
I once had a wise industry veteran tell me that radio cares little about music. He said the “songs are just things they play between the ads.”
October 23, 2019 @ 9:31 pm
there’s a reason its called commercial radio …… OF COURSE its designed to keep you engaged ( almost subconsciously ) between commercials .
BUT it used to do THAT so much better and the gatekeepers certainly cared more about quality , style , talent and artistry than they do now ……and people STILL hung in until the ads . it used to do it regionally , independently ……it didn’t have to pander as blatantly and as consistently . they didn’t play artists just cuz they LOOKED good or trendy or ‘hip’ cuz hell …..we didn’t know what half of the artists and players looked like ….no video , no you-tube , no 20- bands -a -week -on -TV universe …no PVRs ……..just GREAT music written by gifted , hard-working songwriters that you could hear on COUNTRY radio . pretty-much right up until shania seduced ( YES …that’s the right word..SEDUCED ) ‘country’ fans and ‘country ‘ radio into believing she was singing COUNTRY music and spawned the Swifts , the underwoods , the rhexa’s ,the maren morris’s, and ( your flavour of the week here) .” ME TOO ”….I can sell shit music with sex ….watch me .
willie said it ..” people singin bout backroads they’ve never driven on .””
on a recent canadian country awards show they choreographed I WALK THE LINE .
yeah………that’s EXACTLY what johnny had in mind for that song …..CHOREOGRAPHY !
if this is what ‘country’ radio is about , i’m as ‘woke’ as i wanna be…………….
October 24, 2019 @ 9:48 am
Wasn’t the entire genre of country music, as we know it today, propped up by branding, sponsorships, and advertising on the radio (or traveling shows) since day one?
The music has been intertwined with money for most of its history. Let’s not act so surprised. Even relatively small artists today, like Brent Cobb, have to get their music videos sponsored by Ram Trucks or whoever, and are forced to literally drive the truck in the video.
Better than total obscurity. Either the music is good, or it sucks, but who cares how it got to your ears? Everybody is free to follow it, or ignore it.
October 24, 2019 @ 2:08 pm
The question is who is to be master.
October 23, 2019 @ 7:41 pm
Here’s the Reader’s Digest version of Trigger’s article:
The problem:
“Nashville has now become the epicenter for artists that can’t make it in New York, can’t make it in L.A., can’t make it in any other format, so they declare themselves country, and the gullible masses lap it up.”
The solution:
“Country radio, country labels, and country charts are for country artists.”
October 24, 2019 @ 7:08 am
How prophetic was the Alan Jackson song , Gone Country from years ago written by one of the best writers ever. McDill I believe. Just need to add all the new “ styles” to the lyric.
https://youtu.be/si-ja75bFvI
October 23, 2019 @ 8:18 pm
Welcome to your new generation of the Eagles. Hootie & The Blowfish didn’t go country, country went so far to pop that their music is now country. I get the complaints, but if we are grading how country the song is, it is above average for what is on the charts today and I don’t see it getting any airplay on a pop or rock station.
October 23, 2019 @ 9:40 pm
And CHR is all hip-hop and EDM, and hot and mainstream adult contemporary stations are playing very little “current” music that hasn’t already been a hit on CHR. Pop rock won’t make it on pop radio unless it has those EDM or hip-hop overtones (i.e. Imagine Dragons). Also, I don’t think H&TB ever had much of a “hipster” audience – they were always very mainstream pop/rock. Even back in the day, the hipsters disdained them for being too commercial. I don’t see the AAA format re-embracing them either.
If Hootie & The Blowfish were the worst mainstream country radio had to offer, it would be a blessing. Sadly, it’s not, and country radio could do a whole lot worse than Hootie & The Blowfish in terms of pop interlopers. It’s the lesser of two evils compared to, say, Justin Bieber, Marshmello or that goon from the Backstreet Boys. Their music may not be country, but it’s still MORE country than a thousand Sam Hunts, Dan + Shays or Thomas Rhetts.
October 24, 2019 @ 1:02 pm
Sorry are you comparing Hootie to the Eagles, one of the greatest rock bands that has existed? Cause that blowfish aint even close and never will be. I’ve had the pleasure of seeing the Eagles live, last time with Vince Gill playing and they are without a doubt one of the best live acts I’ve seen. The way Joe Walsh plays the guitar is just crazy. Hootie aint in the same league. Please don’t compare these has beens to one of the last great rock bands around.
October 24, 2019 @ 4:29 pm
I am not taking a stance that their music is as good as the Eagles, but the Eagles went from being a purely pop/rock band to a country band because country music shifted. The same thing has happened with the same sound that made Hootie pop/rock in the 90s makes them country today. Both are great example of showing how country music is shifting over time further and further away from “traditional” country.
October 24, 2019 @ 6:15 pm
Sorry I have to disagree, the Eagles were never a pop/rock band that went into country. They started off as country/rock (Don & Glenn toured with Linda Ronstadt before the Eagles were formed), but as the years went by they began to move into a more soft rock/rock direction. They have always had a unique sound that is their own, that makes them the Eagles. I geuss you could say they took all the best elements of all those genres to create their sound. But they aren’t a “Country” band nor do I think they would say they are if you asked them, they are just the Eagles. I can’t think of the words to describe it other than you can’t really lump them into one box cause they aren’t one thing – they are a bit of this, that and the other.
October 23, 2019 @ 8:20 pm
Darius Has loved Country all his life. Plain and simple. He surprised us all. Good for him ????
October 23, 2019 @ 9:01 pm
Being officially an old (over 60) fart, I’m really not up with the vast majority of what’s going on in what is labeled as “country music” these days. Unless I’m a passenger in a car whose driver listens to it, I don’t hear it. As far as I’m concerned, only an infinitesimally tiny percentage of what’s been played as “country” over the past 25 years can even hold a candle to the Country Music I grew up on and still love. It’s why I’m EXTREMELY thankful for the modern (relatively speaking) technology that allows me to put huge amounts of the nearly 20,000 songs in my library on a thumb drive and play it through my car stereo. I can drive for a week, if I wish, and never have to listen to a song twice (although there are many songs I could hear once a day and not grow tired of them) and never have to listen to a song I don’t like. Honky-Tonk, Western Swing, Nashville Sound, Neo-Traditionalist, Rockabilly, even a few Southern Rock, as well copious numbers of Country Gospel. I’ve had people accuse me of being stuck in the past and not letting my musical tastes evolve. My response: My tastes are perfect for me so they don’t need to evolve. I love everything from Jimmie Rodgers to George Strait/Alan Jackson. I can’t precisely define Country Music, but I can listen to a song and tell you within 30 seconds whether it’s Country. I applauded when Charlie Rich sent John Denver’s win up in flames. But John Denver is Ernest Tubb compared to today’s mainstream country. Thanks for letting me vent.
October 24, 2019 @ 1:46 am
Hannah Dashers song, “The Tree” about sums it up!! I love different kinds of music, but this one box fits all thing going on is for the birds!!!
October 24, 2019 @ 4:06 am
Hootie? A crummy commercial? Son of a bitch!
October 24, 2019 @ 7:02 am
I’ll buy this album, because I have all of Hootie’s albums, they have always been a favorite of mine.I hate that this is a thing apparently. I hope it does well, but I don’t want it to be considered anything it is not.
October 24, 2019 @ 7:56 am
Country is the “catch all” these days. I didn’t hate H&TB, they don’t belong on the country radio, though.
October 24, 2019 @ 11:11 am
I mean…am I the only one that felt they were pretty much country out of the gate? With a little research you can see that they were covering Radney Foster songs as early as Cracked Rear View. And even released a couple of them as b sides. The last album they released, “Looking for Lucky” was a country album and is likely what lead to Darius diving in head first. They aren’t the first band from that era that are recognized as country now, even though they’re doing the same thing they did previously. Sister Hazel has gone the same direction without changing much of anything about who they are. Give me these bands any day over the mainstream stuff.
October 24, 2019 @ 2:40 pm
I don’t think the quality of the music, how much we personally like it, or how much more “country” it is than what they’re playing on the radio today is relevant to this discussion. There is nothing wrong with pop, rock, EDM, hip-hop, or anything else. The point is Hootie & The Blowfish chose their lane 25 years ago, and that lane wasn’t country. Now they want to choose a different one because it’s in their best commercial interests, while artists who started and have stuck with country are being subordinated by their presence. If we don’t point this out just because we like their music, we’re being hypocrites. Yes, many other bands have also made the move to country over the years. But two wrongs doesn’t make a right. And many of those bands actually put out songs that were country. In the case of Hottie and the Blowfish, the song in question isn’t country at all. If it was a Radney Foster song they were releasing now and it was rootsy, we’d be receiving them with open arms. Everyone has a right to make country music. But people shouldn’t have a right to make pop and call it country for commercial purposes in a way that pushes actual country performers another rung down the ladder. Hootie and the Blowfish have already made their nut. Let someone else have an opportunity.
October 24, 2019 @ 12:16 pm
Years ago I read an interview with Darius Rucker. He said that he was happy to be in country music, as he had always loved it growing up. He said that he tried to get Hootie and the Blowfish to sing and record country songs, but they wouldn’t because they didn’t like country music. Et tu, Darius?
October 24, 2019 @ 3:49 pm
Tell me that half the songs from their 1st album aren’t country.
The second album has at least 4 songs that are pure country.
Their third album is mostly country they even dabble in bluegrass
Their 4th, all but 3 songs are country and definitely more country than our current stars.
5rh were cover songs and a few were.
6th all but 3 were country. One is a waltz another went into bluegrass territory.
Darius by himself has produced nothing but country music.
I’ll take them anyday over 90 percent of today’s garbage in country music.
October 25, 2019 @ 2:40 pm
Half the songs from their 1st album aren’t country.
The second album does not have at least 4 songs that are “pure” country.
Their third album is not mostly country, though they do dabble in bluegrass.
Their 4th, all but 3 songs are less country than our current stars.
5th were cover songs and a few were.
6th , who cares. Nobody was paying attention.
Darius by himself has not produced “nothing but country music.”
I agree, I’ll take them any day over 90 percent of today’s garbage in country music.
October 24, 2019 @ 7:07 pm
Wait.. DARIUS RUCKER is a member of the Grand Ol Opry? Seriously? Shelton was right.
October 24, 2019 @ 7:28 pm
What a disaster… change this site name to country music is fucked!
October 24, 2019 @ 9:36 pm
To Trig … This ranking of the Top 50 commercially successful Mainstream County Albums of the Decade is quite interesting. It’s based off of Album sales And Streaming. (Not sure how accurate though)
The highlights…
#5 Traveler… Stapleton
#7 Chief… Eric
#8 You Get What You Give… ZBB
#10 Luke Combs LP
#16 & #22 Miranda
#25 California Sunrise.. Pardi
#45 Neon.. Chris Young
#49 The Man I Want to Be… Chris Young
https://www.usatoday.com/picture-gallery/life/music/2019/05/30/best-selling-country-albums-of-the-last-10-years/39527155/
October 24, 2019 @ 9:59 pm
The corporate suits are the problem and always have been. They have forced the genre toward pop for years. I don’t blame any artist or group for trying to promote themselves any way they can. I don’t have to like what they do. I was addicted to country radio, attended concerts and bought albums and CDs. Now I do none of those things. I get my fix today listening to Sirus XM with several stations playing a wide range of country. I watch new stuff from Strait and Keith, etc., online. I have no idea who the new artists are, good or bad. Most of what I heard was formulaic popcountry.
October 24, 2019 @ 11:56 pm
I think it’s simple to explain why country music becoming more and more fluid: It’s the money.
George Strait, Cody Jinks, Chris Stapleton (for example) are all popular country performers with big audiences. But they’re not as big as artists of other, modern genres.
By pretending that edm, hiphop or rock is country, it allows big labels to not only boost their sales numbers but also increase the popularity of “country” with younger audiences by making the genre more musically inclusive.
It kind of remind me how in the 70s, the disco bandwagon almost ruined the music industry with over-saturisation of the genre. Back then “going disco” proved to be a finacially lucrative move; for artists, labels and radio alike. Until the ill-fated disco demolition night ushered in the death of disco as it got rebranded as “dance music”.
Now we have the same situation with this new conceptual, psuedo-genre i like to call southern pop (a witch brew of edm, hiphop & rock). Question how will it end this time?
I think as far as the mainstream is concerned; country will eventually get rebranded/revamped to something more “hip and marketable” and real country artists will become outlaws once more. In the end it is up to genuine fans of country music to keep the flame alive because tej mainstream music biz are sure as hell not interested in it.
October 25, 2019 @ 3:12 am
As a Gen-Xer, I feel this band got so over-played that there was a backlash of hate against them and they became a joke. Now here they are, being peddled as “country.” I guess this is where the has-beens go now, instead of playing VFWs and county fairs.
I personally never cared for them, but when I was in college I was listening to Strait Out of the Box, so of course Hootie did not appeal to me. And still doesn’t. #30 on radio while George Strait isn’t even Top 50? Dear Lord, save us!!!!! UMG Nashville pushing Hootie over Strait is the perfect indicator of what is wrong with country music.
October 25, 2019 @ 8:44 am
Hootie and Blowfish will NEVER be in the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame. I kind of laughed when I read that in the article.
October 25, 2019 @ 8:59 am
I don’t know that I would make the claim that anyone will never be in the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame. With their propensity to let anyone and everyone in aside from prog rock bands, I would say Hootie definitely has a chance. When you have a diamond-certified record, that definitely secures your place in history.
October 25, 2019 @ 2:26 pm
As someone pointed out above, you can’t blame Rucker/Hootie and the Blowfish for casting their lot with country radio, because there’s nowhere else for them to go. Here’s an inconvenient truth: rock and roll is now a niche genre. It’s mostly irrelevant to anyone under 30 in terms of mainstream appeal. Rock has not been a predominant form of popular music for about 20 years now. I mean, you have a few “heavy rock” stations remaining that play Disturbed and Breaking Benjamin and Five Finger Death Punch, but that, too, is a niche genre that doesn’t cross over into the pop charts. So where, realistically, are aging pop-rockers like Hootie (and Bon Jovi and Sheryl Crow, I’m sure soon to be followed by Lenny Kravitz and Dave Matthews) supposed to go? Country radio, that’s where. The one genre of music in which radio is still relevant.
October 26, 2019 @ 1:13 pm
Hey, if Bruce Jenner can convince us that he’s really a woman, why can’t the Blowfish declare that they’re country? We are certainly living in interesting times!
Back in the 1970’s and 80’s, I was a working musician, bar bands mostly. Back then, in order to stay competitive and play the best clubs, a band had to keep up with the latest hits. Even if that meant covering “country” acts like Exile, Marshall Tucker, and Kentucky Headhunters, etc.
My musical career ended long ago, and I’m glad I’m not a youngster trying to play this stuff they call “country” nowadays. I quit listening to mainstream country radio decades ago. In the old days, most top country artists had a unique style all their own. These days they all seem to follow some sort of commercial formula and all sound alike to me. The heart and soul has gone out of it. What a shame that young people accept this cynical product as “country music.”
October 27, 2019 @ 6:55 pm
I always liked Hootie…. hope the new music is good. Call it what you like.
October 31, 2019 @ 8:18 am
It’s because there is no such category as “Pop” or “Rock” these days. There hasn’t been since the late 90’s. Now anybody that sings songs that make sense gets lumped into Country. And at the end of the day, does it really matter? Who gives a shit what category of music you stream a song from? Lot’s of people making a big deal over nothing with this endless argument.
October 31, 2019 @ 8:35 am
“Who gives a shit what category of music you stream a song from?”
I’m not sure that anybody does. The concern is when it encroaches on radio, which is meant to be for country artists, and only has a finite amount of spots, and you already have large swaths of people complaining about under-representation, like women.
January 26, 2020 @ 12:55 pm
Country music has changed and always will, however, good is good and bad is bad. Who would have ever thoought rap could last as long as it has? I am a retired musician and worked more than the average, playing whatever it took to make a living and was happy to get the work. I am happily out of the business and I have a to say that Rucker is one of the few that can make me throw up a little in my mouth. Can’t stand to watch him or hear him. Yes, he made more money than I did but I’m ok. I hope that whatever he does its short lived.
June 12, 2022 @ 12:58 am
This article is garbage. Other mouths to feed? Sorry everyone doesn’t get a participation award. You either have it or you don’t. Clearly, the people have spoken- rambling on about why, why, why isn’t going to change that.