When Its Not Just About The Music (Nashville Flood)
Every once in a while I will get worked up about something or another on here, and it takes someone sending me a message saying, “Dude, it’s just music, and decaf is your friend,” to get me calmed down. This is a good point, we are just talking about music here. Or are we?
This tragedy in Nashville and the subsequent fallout from the lack of sufficient media coverage has helped a lot of people, including myself, put some things in perspective. We get on here and talk about and fight for REAL music every day, but music is just one small element of the fight for all the things in life that are real. You could take the same themes we work off of every day and use them towards food, construction, architecture, cars, goods, services, whatever, and certainly there are others doing that.
Our fight is music, specifically country music, but this is just one small fight in a larger fight against all the “fake” things consuming our lives from homogenization, the bleeding of regionalism out of culture in favor of efficiency, and the intrusiveness of larger entities into our lives.
Two nights ago when the stories of just how bad the flooding in Nashville was were getting out, I went to CNN.com, and the top story was how the Times Square Attemped Bomber Didn’t Like Sunlight. I went over there as I was writing this and the top story is about how an abandoned truck in New York was not a threat. The next top story is about what your dreams mean. There was no mention of the Nashville flooding in the top tier of stories at all.
Should we be surprised that at fake tragedy about a fake bomb is completely burying the news about a REAL, catastrophic tragedy? I’m not. It’s no different than when these REAL, true country artists, the most talented people of our generation are given no attention by mainstream media, radio, or television in lieu of fake celebrities and fashion plates.
This supposed terrorist guy up in New York? Fuck him. He couldn’t blow up an air mattress. I’ve dropped bigger bombs in my bathroom the morning after a porterhouse dinner. This metrosexual doucher needs to choke on his own Bluetooth. He’s nothing. He tries to blow up New York with a strand of screaming meemee’s, and all of a sudden we have to devote the whole news cycle to it for a week? Please.
We shouldn’t be analyzing how he parted his hair, we should be laughing at him. As sure as your shitting the terrorists are laughing at us. They don’t even have to bomb us now, just park a car with a gas can in it, tie a Hello Kitty alarm clock to a pack of black cats and walla, the infidels ignore 25+ deaths and billions of dollars of damage happening in the Heartland.
We fight over country music because we love country music. But when the media elite passes us all off as hicks in flyover country, we close ranks. There is no Austin vs. Nashville right now, no Texas vs. Tennessee, no Outlaws vs. Pop. We all all country music, and when tragedy strikes, we close ranks.
My heart goes out to ALL of the people effected by the flooding in Nashville and the surrounding areas. And when I say ALL, I mean Toby Keith whose house flooded, Dierks Bentley whose house flooded. Their will be plenty of time to pick on them again when they’re standing up straight, but now they are my brothers. If Times Square had been bombed, New Yorker’s would be my brothers as well.
We have a saying around here, “It’s All About the Music.” But the music is all about our lives. And if we give up one true element of our lives, the others could fall like dominoes. Some would make the case that is exactly what is happening right now. So we fight. For the music. Others fight for their causes. And we all work together towards the day when things will seem right again. True. REAL. Or at least . . . the day when the real things stop losing ground.
So yes, it’s all about the music. But it’s not just about music.
May 6, 2010 @ 10:34 am
I couldn’t agree more. Even though I’m not a fan of today’s “country” music, it is still tough to see anyone goin thru a tragedy like this. My heart and thoughts go out to everyone that this is affecting.
May 6, 2010 @ 11:17 am
America needs more unity right now. Thank you for your attention to the present state on the nation, it’s people, and call for solidarity.
May 6, 2010 @ 11:33 am
Triggerman, I’m glad to hear you’re having regular bowel movements.
May 6, 2010 @ 11:39 am
nicely put, amigo. perhaps one day the american public will wake the fuck up. until then you and others just keep doing what you’re doing.
i had a very large piece of almost fork tender bone in prime rib last night. damn, it was good. this morning…
May 6, 2010 @ 12:51 pm
I saw that Kenny Chesney lost pretty much everything in his house and the house itself is likely gone, and a bunch of other guys like Paisley and Urban lost their gear where it was being kept.
I do get what you’re saying and I’m not saying I agree with the media’s approach but I can see why they’d milk the attempted attack for everything it’s worth. The media’s gonna squeeze every last drop out of it and keep offering the pulp after they’re done squeezing. Nothing sells in the media quite like terror, and the potential threat may sell more than the actual thing.
I think a lot of people in the country are conditioned to gloss over Midwest flooding, I’ve seen countless jokes about it over the years. I’m not saying everyone’s like that but it’s probably a present enough thought that some people look this over without realizing just how destructive the flood has been.
May 6, 2010 @ 1:26 pm
Burch,
Without question this has been a busy news time. I do think the story is being covered fully, if you know where to find that information, and its probably being better covered online than in print or TV. My question really has to do with priorities.
We are lucky with the Internet these days that if you want to find the information, you probably can. This pertains to news, and music. But you still have to know it is there, and the way you find these things is through the mass media. I don’t know how many comments I’ve read on blogs, articles, etc. over the past few days saying they heard about this tragedy through country music social media, people’s Facebook pages and such, and they heard about it days after it happened. That means the information did not saturate the market, and the information that was out there was incomplete. I’m sure there’s still plenty of people out there that have no idea Nashville flooded, but they know this terrorist dude wears Tim McGraw’s cologne, and every other little stupid detail about him.
And CNN and Fox News could use the stories of Keith Urban and Kenney Chesney to make it into a big sensationalized thing, so why aren’t they?
And yes, the floods in the Midwest a while back are a great example of this. So was Katrina, which also was fumbled by the media, and then oversenastionalized. There was a huge hurricane that hit Galveston a while back that there was virtually no information about because it hit on a weekend and the glittering media were at their vacation homes. Yet other times they won’t shut the hell up about stuff.
31 people died in and around Nashville. How many died in Times Square?
May 6, 2010 @ 2:15 pm
I have been following your posts for quite some time, and I have never left a comment until now. All I can say is I agree with you 110%! I live in Massachusetts and our news stations have provided minimal coverage of the flood. Me and my husband love Tennessee and hope to relocate there in the future. We were disgusted by the fact that this traumatic event never made the top headlines. Our thoughts are with all of those impacted by this tragedy. I wish we were closer so we could lend a hand. Triggerman – thank you for all that you do.
May 6, 2010 @ 2:39 pm
very nice piece. I agree 100%
May 6, 2010 @ 2:45 pm
Thanks Jen and Jashie.
May 6, 2010 @ 5:22 pm
Spot on my man. Your rant rightly confirms the uselessness and obsoleteness of the mainstream media. Newspapers are dying and viewership of the major news chanells are half
of what they once were. The reason is because they serve no purpose. A thinking person with adebt reading skills can learn more about the world online in half an hour than in a month of mindrot television.
The media continues it’s attempt to keep us in awe and fear of terrorisim, which actually is nothing new, just the profane and entertianing way in which it is reported.
It all became with the Gulf War in 1990. This war gave birth to the 24 hour news format.
Madison Avenure cares not whether it sells diapers and detergent reporting on war or Bin Ladins latest threat.
Nashville is a resilient city and will come back strong.
I lived there through two severe icestorms which at the time were unprecedented disastors and caused much death and destruction, and those with a historical knowledge of Tennesee will attest to it’s unfortunate geographical location as far as tornados are concerned.
This disaster does no good to those unfortunate souls who perished, but over time will become yet another footnote in the tragedy and triumph of music city.
I am almost certain as I type this that at this very moment a songwriter somewhere in Nashville is writing a song about it.
I just pray it isn’t Taylor Swift.
May 6, 2010 @ 5:39 pm
What’s funny Pete is the less relevant the newspapers and television programs become, the more they focus on the sensationalized stores to try to keep viewers. What they don’t understand is if they offered, honest journalism, they wouldn’t be in this boat in the first place. It’s a perpetuating cycle. They lose viewers, so the news become more entertainment, which turns off more viewers, which makes them sell out even more.
I spent my time writing for newspapers and magazines, and saw the writing on the wall of where the industry was headed.
May 6, 2010 @ 10:26 pm
Personally, This look’s good on the opry. Like they say “What goes around, Comes around.” And the opry had it comin’, But i do feel sorry for those who’s houses have flooded and the thing’s they may have lost as i’ve lost everything i’ve owned atleast 3 time’s and i’m still a young gun so i feel for em, But as i keep tellin’ my ma, Look’s good on the, Opry. Maybe they will pull their head’s out of their asses and see the light (fat chance) but if so then great if not, Ohwell.
May 7, 2010 @ 6:15 am
As a new yorker, I’m with you on this one too. Good god the media was up our nose to report on nothing. Due to some fine old fashioned police work and luck beyond imagination, there is no news story to report.
My thoughts are with Nashville and the wonderful time we had there this winter. I found a fantastic local web site where people can donate or lend a hand: http://nashvillest.com/2010/05/03/so-nashville-is-flooded-how-can-i-help
May 7, 2010 @ 9:01 am
Music unites people. Tragedies unite people. People unite with other people to fight for what they believe. And the flooding of Nashville, I would think, should unite people to see what is really important.
May 7, 2010 @ 9:47 am
I wouldnt wish this on my worst enemy, however what about all of the people involved in Katrina that never got real attention, and did not have plenty of money to rebuild???? Fuckin WaaaaaaaBoooHooo. Life has its obstacles, and yes its going to hurt a little more when you fall especially if your used to that soft fluffy cushion of a life!!!! Im from the Iowa, Illinois, Missouri border, anyone remember the flood of 93? Sandbaggin and lookin at your neighbors house from your johnboat happens. Best of luck, tomorrow is a new day.
May 7, 2010 @ 11:38 am
I hear Anderson Cooper was running around Nashville yesterday in his $700 LL Bean Safari getup. A little late, but we’ll take it I guess.
They just evacuated Times Square because of a box full of water bottles.
May 7, 2010 @ 12:33 pm
Vince Young of the Titans is giving out autographed shirts to anyone who makes a $100 donation to the flooding. I forgot to grab a link to where I saw it though.
May 7, 2010 @ 1:21 pm
It’s actually an autographed photo as well as some kind of t-shirt, it can be done on his website. http://www.thevincentyoungfoundation.org/
May 7, 2010 @ 7:34 pm
Yes, we did NOT hear about the flood in Nashville area either, but we did hear about what did NOT happen in New York, and we did hear lots of news about the oil diaaster. which is also a disaster for the people who live there. I heard the news from my son who had seen this at You Tube, otherwise I wouldn’t have known about the floods in Nashville area and other.
I want to wish everyone of you who lives in the areas that sufffers from weather conditions or environment problems that you will all get enough help or that you can help each other. My thoughts go out to you all.
May 17, 2010 @ 11:02 pm
I have never known media to have it’s priorities straight. And I’m sure Chesney lost a lot of flip-flops but I’m sure he gotta lotta stuff into his Yahts.