TBF, country music hasn’t been country music for a quite a while now
it’s bro country now
It really is, now that you mention it.
Southern Pop
I see hick hop a lot
Southern pop sounded bad, but somehow this easily sounds worse 😳
Okay, I’m taking that. It’s mine now. It’s beautiful.
God that sounds awful already lol
Hey, if you’re in the USSA, that shit’s been blasting in your ears for years, decades even. The only “star” ever created by a vocal talent show was Carrie Underwood,
It’s the american equivalent to Kpop? The thought is putting funny images in my head.
What do they drink now? Since their precious Bud Light gave way to WOKENESS.
Typically other beers that happen to be owned by AB-InBev. That or Coors.
Stella Artois
Why do I find that so amusing?
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Nonalcoholic Stella’s are the best roadtrip beer!
Heh drinking Wife Beater pretty apt
There’s lots of good old fashioned country out there. You just gotta leave the mainstream behind. You’ll find men in touch with their emotions. You’ll find women who won’t settle down. You’ll find fine American classics. You’ll find new classics waiting to be known. And Mckain Lakey!
The country music community may be problematic, but country music itself is wonderful. And many country musicians are fantastic, unexpected people. If you want country like it used to be, dive into Melissa Carper’s catalogue. She’s the master of the brand new old time song.
I’ll just leave this here…
Sheesh, I’ll leave this here for both of you.
Do yourself a favor and listen to the Americana genre. All the blues and western inspired folk, without the bootlicking!
Heard a lot of this growing up like Seeger, Peter Paul and Mary, Joan Baez, but also Canadians like Lightfoot and Stan Rogers. Lately I’ve enjoyed some of the IWWs compilations of workers’ songs, Utah Philips etc. Phil Ochs is up there too.
My mother’s from an assimilated Mennonite background and it was one of the non-Christian genres that was permissible to her parents, because of the pacifist and civil rights sentiments in a lot of that music at the time. Also it lacked the sex and drugs themes which rock had. “I Aint Marching Anymore” and “Where have all the flowers gone?” I remember hearing quite often.
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Nowadays, ironically some of the best Americana music comes out of Sweden by First Aid Kit.
An absoluteky outstanding song by Cash btw. If you haven’t checked it out, I suggest you do so. Even if you have zero interest in Country do yourself a favour.
I know this is obvious, but Cash’s beliefs are endlessly fascinating. The same man who recorded “Ragged Old Flag” also wrote “Man in Black” and covered “Out Among the Stars.” The latter is a song about a kid who commits suicide by cop because he doesn’t feel like his life matters.
Every song by Johnny is a banger.
We listened to the song in English class when I was about 14 years old and we discussed it quite a bit afterwards. I guess it was kind of a first transitioning into adulthood for me, seeing how much is going wrong and hurting people. Since then about 95 % of my wardrobe is black. It’s a statement and a reminder for myself and I
wantneed to carry it everywhere I go.I dislike a lot of country music, but Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson are practically a genre in and of themselves, seperated from even the outlaw country genre they started.
Cash may sing country, but he’s always been rock n’ roll.
Someone needs to show it to Oliver Anthony.
I can’t put into words how much I despise modern stadium country. It’s like the opposite of art. I grew up in the south around people who could only stomach country music like that. Everything else to them was too weird, or not white enough.
The closest analogy to country music are the movies fascists made, like the ones Hans Steinhoff and Goebbels directed. Completely banal plots and lack of artistic value. The only reason they were made as to communicate fascist rhetoric and fulfill a quota of cultural markers.
That’s all modern country music is. It’s the music of boring middle class white people who feel uneasy if their specific cultural touchstones aren’t constantly reinforced. There have to be trucks, land ownership, high school football, generic American jingoism, glorification of alcoholism.
The most common thread in this shit music is that anything outside of a middle class conservative white lifestyle is to be mistrusted. The girl from a small town who goes off to college in a big city, but realizes her home was truly out in the sticks. The song about how country values make a person more virtuous or fun. “Don’t go over that hill, don’t go looking for anything further.” It could possibly be a sweet sentiment if it weren’t for the target audience: comfortable white shitheads who drive a $80,000 Ford truck in the suburbs.
At least with propaganda it’s the ruling class messaging the citizenry. In this case, at least for the most part seems self-inflicted and without purpose. People just gravitate to whatever fits their identity.
That’s all modern country music is. It’s the music of boring middle class white people who feel uneasy if their specific cultural touchstones aren’t constantly reinforced. There have to be trucks, land ownership, high school football, generic American jingoism, glorification of alcoholism.
Well written.
Oh no, absolutely not is country music self inflicted. Modern country music is part of the same propaganda network as everything else in capitalism. The whole Nashville and Georgia country scenes have been connected at the hip with conservative money since at least the 1970s where Nixon had a country campaign song. Then there was Reagan showing up at the Grand Ole Opry. It’s a useful vehicle to spread and satiate the thirst for white supremacy.
There’s also Clear Channel Radio (currently iHeartRadio) which is run by ideological conservatives.
Also there’s some kind of money floating around to suddenly promote the odd country song or two, like that Rich Men in Richmond song, or that stupid Jason Aldean guy. Every now and then you’ll see a random headline like “country star fights back against woke-ness in new song.” And that’s the propaganda.
Parasites hopping onto a culture to exploit it for their own gains is not really the same as state propaganda. I don’t think there’s some shadowy group inventing this music to control the masses. Though politicians would no doubt pander to (or even weaponize) a group if they can. And people will absolutely try and profit off it.
It’s just a bit of a leap to ascribe low brow music to some grand conspiracy. Or at least if that is, then every culture is a conspiracy.
I guess I don’t see much of a distinction between those exploitative parasites and the state actors. I’m on the side of Althusser here, where the state is both a structural arrangement and a set of ideological norms. In that sense, you could say all culture is a conspiracy, as in a conspiracy to replicate the content and character of one’s class interests.
I don’t mean to say there’s a shadowy group creating it, rather, there’s a shadowy group that gives a platform and representation to things that promote their own interests. Or something they can flip around and sell back to you. Capitalism is crafty like that, like Che Guevara t-shirts.
Fuck clear channel. They ruined radio across the entire country
At least with propaganda it’s the ruling class messaging the citizenry. In this case, at least for the most part seems self-inflicted and without purpose. People just gravitate to whatever fits their identity.
Don’t forget the record labels. Mega corporations are the ruling class of our society.
I believe that mainstream country turned to shit in the 80s, not sure why. My theory is that it’s down to the money men in Nashville turning out an increasingly phony product for commercial reasons, but I don’t actually know enough about that aspect of the business to have an informed opinion.
Fortunately there’s always been legit musicians turning out excellent alt-country or Americana, or whatever we want to call it. Also a lot of the older country musicians never completely sold out either.
Late 80s early 90s. When they started making 80s pop music with slide guitar and a twangy vocal and calling it country.
The final nail in the coffin was when country music radio refused to play Johnny Cash’s Unchained album.
That sounds about right. I also think that at some point around that time the big Nashville labels decided that it made more financial sense to get behind a specific type of cultural and political messaging than it did to simply let the music be whatever it wanted to be.
Long gone were the days of Loretta “The Coal Miner’s Daughter,” and Johnny Paycheck “I Owe my Soul to the Company Store,” and while we still had Guy Clark and Townes Van Zandt and their protogé young Steve Earle, for the most part mainstream country and western was turning into formulaic corporate crap.
The closest analogy to country music are the movies fascists made, like the ones Hans Steinhoff and Goebbels directed. Completely banal plots and lack of artistic value. The only reason they were made as to communicate fascist rhetoric and fulfill a quota of cultural markers.
That sounds exactly like the kind of slop in genres from video games to shows to movies that chuds attempt to sell to other chuds under the pretense of being “based” or “nonpolitical” mockeries of stuff they consumed before.
Twenty hours in and it’s up to me to remind people that Dolly Parton is the full package?
- She’s got tunes, OK ‘I Will Always Love You’ is a bit cloying but the rumour is that she also wrote Jolene the same day
- She supports other women. When porn star Julia Parton was around and telling people that she was Dolly’s cousin, Dolly’s public response was something like, ‘She ain’t my cousin but I can’t condemn what she does… it’s not like I ever tried to hide my breasts. Good luck to her.’
- She produced Buffy The Vampire Slayer through her production company Sanddollar. She kept a low profile publicly but behind the scenes was very supportive of the show because it provided good role models for young women.
- She funds the Dolly Parton Imagination library which mails free books to kids under five.
9 to 5 is also a socialist anthem!
Dolly Parton is a rich theme park owner who has abused her employees and she pals around with mass murderers like George W. Bush.
At a certain point she had credibility. She came from a poor Appalachian background and made music reflecting that. After a certain point though, after decades in the industry, she completely flipped. Her 9 to 5 song used to be a genuine anthem for struggling working class people, then she flipped it a few years ago as “5 to 9” for a Sqaurespace commercial, glorifying the idea of working a second job after your main one.
She’s the exact problem of modern country music. It’s made and financed by people too rich to be connected to humanity anymore.
I’m going to need a reference on that staff abuse allegation, I’ve tried Googling but haven’t turned up anything.
I don’t have a tv so I didn’t catch the Squarespace commercial, don’t know if it even played in the UK.
Don’t forget to name at least two American brands so you get paid!
Product placement go brrrr
Applebees
KFC
bonus points for rhyming
Product placements go in songs.
Now everyone please sing along.
Applebees
KFC
Haliburton
Lockheed
PF Changs
Starbucks
When will the Prolitariat have enough
Of this system that doesn’t care
No one on earth needs Billionaires.
bah gawd its beautifulTo the tune of We Didn’t Start The Fire
I grab me a Bud,
Get in my Ford truck,
Cuz I’m un-American boahI await my royalties.
I unfortunately see a lot of white guy with a heavy (and fake) country accent does a “redneck” version of a popular rap or hip hop track and seeing other white people say “Now that’s how it should be done!”
Modern “country” is a plague and I hate it. Its the only genre I can’t listen to.
It’s pop music
There’s a YouTube channel called Western AF that has some good tunes that are closer to what country used to be. I can’t vouch for every song but the ones I’ve heard weren’t reactionary garbage.
This banger is how I found out about them.
I’ve listened to this 5 times in a row, absolutely amazing version.
Thank you for sharing, take my uplemms.
I guess that’s just the next evolution. Old country was basically gospel that wasn’t about religion. Country in the 80s and 90s was basically old rock but about cowboys, trucks, beer and being cheated on. I suppose by now you have to transition to the kind of music that was the in thing in the 90s to keep up with being the appropriate number of decades behind.
Eh, there are some gems. Chris Stapleton, Ryan Bingham, Zach Bryan
Is almost the same thing with Brazilian sertanejo. Was once about the bucolic reality in the rural side of the country, now is about bragging about being rich, going to pointless parties and drinking a lot of alcoholic drinks, f-cking everyone…
And listened to by the same people who complain about rap music doing the same thing (in their eyes, anyway).
Plenty of good modern country music out there, you just have to look for it. Tyler Childers and Colter Wall are some famous ones that spring to mind, but there’s many others.
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I mean that’s the case for any genre. Time filters out the bad stuff from the past, the good survives to reach new generations. Now we get to do the filtering for future generations.
Nah, I’m sure there’s plenty of amazing songs we’ll never get to hear. I’m just glad I heard this absolute banger before I died
NSFW I think https://youtu.be/U6zMjIZwbBk?si=54WM9wWCzVSv41S2
Sturgill Simpson and Jason Isbell too
I really love “Sarah Shook and The Disarmers” as well. They actually go by River Shook now I think, but the band still uses their dead name.
A bit more on the folk side than country, but “Nick Shoulders and The Okay Crawdads” is one of my absolute favorite bands these days. They just put out a new album too and I can’t recommend it enough.
Brent Cobb has some good songs. Lost Dog Street Band is pretty good too.
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Meh. Depends on band/genre. There’s Green Day is Metallica’s kill em all radio for some reason. I love both bands, but they’re not really related.
There’s static-x and Korn in megadeth’s radio.
If you go to cannibal corpse’s radio, out of 2.5 hrs of music/40-50ish songs, you’ll see 6 songs by cattle decapitation, 4 of which from the same album. For a genre with hundreds of bands, that’s piss poor variety. And ofc bunch of other bands in there there aren’t death metal such as slayer or venom.
Sorry, end of rant.
I wanted to do a “to be fair here, Cash had songs with stupid lyrics, too”, but all I can think of is “Ring of fire” and that one is just a harmless metaphor about love.
I’d argue that Ring of Fire is a metaphor about forbidden love that you know is damning you but the feelings are too powerful to resist.
Rather than a harmless metaphor, I find it an incredibly powerful metaphor about the pain and suffering caused by helplessly loving the “wrong” person.
Plus, there’s an opportunity to make STD jokes.
It’d be a more powerful metaphor if he wasn’t a massive manremoved and his “love” wasn’t any fan with great tits, or his second wife’s sister.
Well, yeah. No one said he wasn’t flawed.
Yeah, that was the point, you nailed it fam.
“One Piece at a Time” is less of a country song and more of a novelty song.
Yes, so is “hey porter” or “boy named sue”, but those are sung jokes of a sort which gives them a purpose ;)
And A Boy Named Sue was written by Shel Silverstein, so you can’t really pick on that one.
You absolutly can pick on it and you should, and you’d wholeheartedly agree if you knew the sequal song Shell wrote.
I’m intrigued. Educate me.
Basically tells the story from the dads perspective.
Tldr the dad fucks the boy.
Damn. :(
He didn’t actually write Ring of Fire
He didn’t write several of his songs. That’s really common. Many writers are not performers.
Ring of Fire was written by June Carter, and first released by her sister Anita Carter.
Ring of fire is my song to sing when I’ve had too much Mexican food and beer.
I don’t think modern country even uses metaphors anymore. Before anyone comes at me, I’m well awair that there’s some fantactic country writers out there.
That’s because modern country is squarely focused on (far) right leaning people and they are utterly deaf, dumb and blind to any sort of metaphor, sarcasm and subtlety.
It’s why these pricks go nuts for songs like Killing in the Name, not realizing it’s a song that explicitly hates on them saying stuff like “some of those who work forces, are the same that BURN CROSSES”.
They only see and hear that title and have no fucking clue what it and the rest of the song is actually about.
Also see: “Born in the USA”.
Way back when Nirvana, Tool, RATM and all the great early 90’s bands were coming up, there was another.
A dingy Swedish band named Clawfinger.
They had a debut, self released album named Deaf Dumb Blind and it’s most well known song was named removed.
The song sprung outrage with the conservative right in the US, because back then they pretended they were against racism and the use of that word.
Clawfinger was similar in lyrical meaning with Rage Against the Machine, most of their songs were protest songs.
(guess I’ll link it as I can’t find how to do spoiler tags …)
Rember when Cobain wrote “rape me” becuase he had to hit people in the head with the message because the song “polly” went right over it?
It’s always wise to satisfy the requests of time squirrels. Keeps them away from one’s nuts.
I loved ‘a boy named Sue’ but it was ‘the Man comes around’ that sold me. Heard it first during the OP of “Day of the Dead” remake, and there is no other song that comes close to fitting with this opening
I think Orville Peck might be my gateway drug into country. I don’t imagine there’s too many gay cowboys out there, but surely there’s other stuff I’ll like.
You clearly weren’t there when the mountain broke its back
I don’t imagine there’s too many gay cowboys out there
I always get the sense that there are quite a few. Maybe even most of them.
Chances are they just don’t talk about it
Don’t ask me how I know but there’s at least 18 of them
Oh god. Please. Please explain how you know this.
Let’s just say Ram Ranch really rocks
Ohh. /That/ Ram Ranch.
How the mighty have fallen
I highly recommend Buck Meek.
He’s the guitarist for Big Thief but his solo albums are some of the best country I’ve heard in a long time. And free from the toxicity of modern country (as far as I can tell)
Hell yeah, Adrianne Lenker’s solo stuff is great too
There is so much good country music right now. You just can’t wait for the radio to bring it to you. You gotta get it for yourself.
